Unleashing Women and Girls’ Human Capital: A Game Changer for Africa

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Unleashing Women and Girls’ Human Capital: A Game Changer for Africa

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Bibliographic details

• Authors: Hana Brixi, Laura B Rawlings, Elizabeth Koechlein
• Published: February 4, 2022

Progress to date

• Since decolonization, Sub-Saharan Africa has made great progress on human capital—knowledge, skills, and health that people accumulate throughout their lives—largely from improved access to services and narrowing gender gaps in education, health, nutrition, and social protection.
• The Human Capital Index (HCI) increased in nearly all sub-Saharan countries from 2010 to 2020.
• Life expectancy at birth increased from forty years in 1960 to sixty-two years in 2019.
• Primary and secondary school enrollment has doubled since 1970, partially offset by low learning outcomes.
• Across the region, higher HCI has coincided with lower fertility:
  • Kenya’s contraceptive prevalence rate rose from 4 percent in 1978 to 56 percent in 2019.
  • In Ethiopia, the fertility rate for adolescent girls fell from 116 births per 1,000 in 1960 to sixty-three in 2019.
• Each additional year of schooling raises a man’s earnings by 11 percent and a woman’s earnings by 14 percent in Africa.

Remaining challenges and human capital shortfalls

• Sub-Saharan Africa has attained only 40 percent of its productive potential as measured by the HCI.
• The number of children who die before age five remains high, at close to three million every year. Most deaths are from avoidable causes (respiratory infections, diarrhea, malaria).
• Childhood stunting affects one in three children in Sub-Saharan Africa.
• Learning-adjusted years of schooling show many countries performing below what their income level would predict.
• Sub-Saharan Africa is the only region where the percentage of out-of-school adolescents rose recently, from 35.9 percent in 2018 to 36.6 percent in 2020.
• Across most of the region, females fall behind males in human capital and related measures:
  • Girls are less likely than boys to complete secondary education, often due to child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, and domestic work.
  • Actual fertility remains above desired fertility as adolescent girls and women lack fully realized reproductive rights and access to quality, affordable reproductive health care.
  • Women’s productivity in the labor force lags due to constraints on ownership rights and access to markets, financing, and productive inputs.

COVID-19 setbacks

• Estimates for low- and moderate-income countries point to:
  • up to a 45 percent increase in deaths under age five.
  • a 39 percent increase in monthly maternal mortality.
• Extreme poverty scenarios for Sub-Saharan Africa could lead to:
  • another ten million children under age five suffering from acute malnutrition.
  • a 30 percent increase of undernourished households.
• Gender-based violence and child marriage have increased from already high levels in many countries.
• Education impacts:
  • Learning poverty (the percentage of ten-year-olds who can read and understand a simple text) is at 53 percent in low- and middle-income countries.
  • COVID-19 is likely to severely limit progress on reducing learning poverty and is expected to increase dropout rates, especially for adolescent girls at elevated risk of child marriage, adolescent pregnancy, and domestic work.
• Labor market and livelihoods impacts:
  • The pandemic has been especially harmful to informal-sector workers, chiefly women.
  • Before the pandemic, women dedicated on average 3.2 more time than men to unpaid care work.
  • A June 2020 survey by the World Bank, Facebook, and the OECD found pandemic-related business closures in Nigeria at 44 percent for female-owned businesses surveyed, compared to 33 percent for male-owned businesses.

Other vulnerabilities affecting women and girls

• Climate change, forced migration, slowing investment growth, and rising poverty and inequality disproportionately affect women and girls due to discrimination and gender and social norms.
• Examples:
  • Reduced access to water from climate change may shorten girls’ schooling time because they are responsible for collecting water.
  • Emerging evidence suggests women are more likely than men to suffer from climate-related food insecurity and to experience mental illness or partner violence following extreme weather events.

Policy framework — the “4 E” of the Africa Human Capital Plan

• Education and Skills for Future Jobs:
  • Affordable, quality schools and skills for the global labor market.
  • Invest in teachers and safe schools.
  • Cash transfers to help attendance and retention.
  • Mentoring to encourage girls in STEM and trade specialization, including digital and green economy.
  • Life and soft skills training to build self-confidence and expand career aspirations.
• Enhanced Sexual and Reproductive Health Rights:
  • Utilization of quality, affordable sexual and reproductive, adolescent, and maternal health services.
  • Community outreach and communication campaigns that engage traditional leaders and influencers to change mindsets and behaviors, alongside service delivery.
• Economic Inclusion and Jobs:
  • Finance, technical assistance, productive jobs, and income support.
  • Improve access to capital, entrepreneurship support, and enhanced childcare to boost women’s earnings and overall economic growth.
  • Tackle barriers to property rights and formal-sector employment to reduce concentration in poorly paid informal jobs.
  • Mentors and role models to encourage movement into higher paying, traditionally male occupations.
  • Digital cash transfers to strengthen inclusion and access to financial services.
• Empowerment and Voice:
  • Change social and gender norms to free women and girls from child marriage, undesired pregnancies, and gender-based violence.
  • Implement more inclusive policies and legislative reforms.

Expected impact of adopting the framework

• Adopting the four-part “4 E” framework can be a game changer for sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in development that is sustainable, resilient, and inclusive.
• Investments that benefit women today also benefit future generations due to the dynamic and cumulative process of capital formation.

Unleashing Women and Girls’ Human Capital: A Game Changer for Africa — F&D Magazine. Hana Brixi; Laura B Rawlings; Elizabeth Koechlein. December 2021.