Women's Relative Development in Africa: A Performance Assessment on Selected Indicators
Posted: 21 Mar 2016
Date Written: 2016
Abstract
Challenges related to gender equality and inclusive socio-economic development requires to be addressed through a contextual lens. Present article contributes to develop that contextual perspective in relation to the existing situation of women throughout African countries, based on selected development indicators. The first aim of this article is to test the hypothesis that the African countries can be divided into two groups as "core" (relatively more developed) and "periphery" (relatively less developed) in terms of selected indicators. The second aim of the article is to examine the hypothesis that Sub-Saharan Africa has different development level than North African countries. Methodology involves multivariate techniques of principal components and cluster analysis to establish clusters of country groupings. In contrast to earlier studies, we use development indicators in relation to women for the first time. We found that Sub-Saharan Africa is not in a lower development level in compare to the North African countries as generally assumed. Labour force participation rate, employment in non-agricultural sectors and fertility rate are found to have significant contribution to women's development in the context of Africa. Rwanda, South Sudan, Zimbabwe, Gabon and South Africa are among the Core or relatively developed countries whereas Somalia, Djibouti, Comoros, Cameroon and Gambia are in among the Periphery or relatively less developed group of countries. Policy makers can utilize the findings to identify priority sectors for funding and interventions in African countries.
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