Expanding Female Capacity for Poverty Reduction: Strategies for Sustainable Development in Africa

Abstract

Africa has been struggling for many decades to reduce poverty. But there is every indication that the rate of poverty has not slowed down. The average poverty rate for Sub-Saharan Africa alone stands at about 41%. Hence, this study investigated the extent to which female capacity in the African continent has been expanded for poverty reduction for the sample period of 1990-2018 based on the Sen's Capability theory of poverty. In other to achieve the objectives of the study, poverty headcount ratio at $1.90 a day for Africa, a proxy measure for poverty on the continent is specified as a function of female labor force participation rate as percentage of total female labor force (as a proxy for income generated by females in Africa), school enrollment (secondary) for females in Africa and life expectancy at birth for females in Africa. The method of autoregressive and distributed lag model analysis was used to analyze the time series data. Findings revealed that school enrollment for females in Africa (SCH) showed negative and significant impact on poverty headcount ratio in Africa in the long run. As recommendation however, effective women education policy interventions should be implemented by the leaders in education sector in Africa to mitigate against the increasing rate of poverty suffered in Africa.