Foreign Aid and Gender Equality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Insights from Sectoral Allocations (2010–2019)

• In Event: Advancing Gender Equality through Education and Peace-Oriented Development

Proposal

Gender equality is a cornerstone of sustainable development, with far-reaching implications for social well-being, political participation, and economic growth. Countries that succeed in reducing gender disparities benefit from healthier populations, improved educational attainment, and stronger labor force participation (Morrison et al., 2007; Kabeer & Natali, 2013). Yet, despite global commitments, Sub-Saharan Africa continues to face persistent challenges. The region consistently records the highest Gender Inequality Index (GII) worldwide, reflecting deep-seated disparities in maternal health, adolescent fertility, political representation, and access to education and employment (UNDP, 2020).

Since the UN Decade for Women (1976–1985) and subsequent global initiatives, including CEDAW, the MDGs, and the SDGs, international donors have promoted foreign aid as a means of advancing gender equality. Aid has been increasingly channeled into education, health, reproductive health, and governance with the expectation of reducing gender gaps. However, the evidence on aid effectiveness remains mixed. While some studies document positive contributions to maternal health and school enrollment (Chirowa et al., 2013; Ndikumana & Pickbourn, 2017), others find little or no impact once institutional quality and economic conditions are considered (Moyo, 2009; Ali & Isse, 2005). The debate highlights the complexity of aid effectiveness and raises questions about whether sectoral allocations matter in shaping gender outcomes.

This study investigates the extent to which international aid by sectoral allocation explains gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. It also examines whether total aid influences GII across the region. By focusing on disaggregated allocations of Official Development Assistance (ODA), the study contributes new empirical evidence to a relatively limited body of research, illuminating how different forms of aid intersect with gender equity in one of the world’s most aid-dependent regions.

The conceptual framework draws on aid effectiveness theory and feminist development economics. Aid effectiveness literature suggests that outcomes depend heavily on governance quality, absorptive capacity, and policy environments (Bourguignon & Sundberg, 2007; Moyo, 2009). Meanwhile, feminist development economics emphasizes the structural barriers women face and the intergenerational nature of change, highlighting how education, health, and labor opportunities shape women’s agency and social roles over time (Klasen, 2002; Pickbourn & Ndikumana, 2016). Applied together, these frameworks suggest that aid’s impact on gender inequality may be indirect and long-term. For example, investments in girls’ education may not immediately shift inequality indices but may have transformative impacts on labor force participation, fertility, and political representation in subsequent generations.
The analysis uses panel data from 38 Sub-Saharan African countries between 2010 and 2019. Data were drawn from the OECD Creditor Reporting System, the UNDP Human Development Reports, and the World Bank’s Worldwide Governance Indicators. The dependent variable is the GII, which captures disparities in health, empowerment, and labor market participation. Independent variables include sectoral ODA allocations to education, health, water and sanitation, population and reproductive health, government and civil society, other social infrastructure, and total aid. Control variables include GDP per capita (PPP), government effectiveness, and control of corruption.

Given the potential endogeneity of aid and the dynamic nature of gender inequality, the study employs two-step system Generalized Method of Moments (GMM), a method suitable for panel data with short time series and many cross-sections (Blundell & Bond, 1998). This approach allows for robust estimation while accounting for lagged dependent variables, autocorrelation, and heteroskedasticity. Because sectoral aid variables were strongly correlated with each other, they were tested separately to identify their unique associations with gender inequality.

Descriptive analysis underscores the scale of the challenge. In 2019, Sub-Saharan Africa recorded a regional GII of 0.57, compared to a global average of 0.44—the highest of any world region—indicating that gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa surpasses levels in the Arab States, South Asia, and Latin America, and is nearly double that of Europe and Central Asia.

ODA allocations varied across sectors during the study period. Reproductive health received the largest average allocation ($103.9 million annually), followed by health ($51.4 million) and education ($47.7 million). By contrast, water and sanitation and other social infrastructure received relatively small allocations. Despite these investments, regression results show that no sector of aid had a statistically significant impact on GII once economic and governance controls were included.

The regression findings highlight two patterns. First, while reproductive health and social infrastructure aid were negatively associated with inequality, suggesting potential contributions to gender equity, the results were not statistically significant. Second, aid directed to health, education, water and sanitation, and governance showed small positive associations with inequality, suggesting that greater aid flows coincided with higher levels of GII, though again without significance.

These findings underscore the limited measurable short-term impact of foreign aid on gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa. However, they also reveal the complexity of the issue. Gender equality outcomes may take longer to materialize, particularly for interventions in education and health that influence intergenerational dynamics. Governance quality and institutional strength remain critical; aid may fail to achieve its intended impact when corruption and weak accountability undermine implementation. Finally, methodological sensitivity matters: other studies using OLS or fixed effects models have produced different results than those obtained here with system GMM, suggesting that findings depend on estimation strategy.

For policy and practice, the results suggest that foreign aid alone is insufficient to address entrenched gender inequalities in the region. Donors and governments may need to integrate aid flows with domestic gender equality policies, strengthen accountability and monitoring mechanisms, and prioritize long-term investments in education, reproductive health, and social infrastructure. Rather than expecting immediate impacts on inequality indices, aid should be understood as part of broader strategies to reshape structural barriers to equality over time.

This study contributes to the limited literature on the relationship between foreign aid and gender inequality in Sub-Saharan Africa by applying a dynamic econometric approach to sectoral ODA allocations. Although no statistically significant effects were identified, the findings highlight the importance of contextual, institutional, and long-term factors in shaping outcomes. For comparative and international education, the results raise critical questions about how external resources interact with domestic structures in promoting equity.

Author

• Sümeyye ARPACI, George Washington University