Gender equality is central to economic development. This paper examines gender gaps in Burkina Faso and find that women’s labor force participation is 10 percentage points lower than men’s in 2019, while their wage earnings are 82 percent lower, business revenues are 61 percent lower, and value of agricultural production is 61 percent lower. Nationally, gender gaps in labor force participation, business revenues and crop sales are unchanged when compared to 2014 but increased significantly for wage earnings and (to a lesser extent) for harvest value. The gender gap in labor force participation increased in urban areas, while the northern part of Burkina Faso witnessed large increases in the business revenue gender gap. The wage gap increased most in more rural regions. Results from decomposition analysis show that women’s lack of capital and male workers, lack of control over income and lower economic benefits from marriage—along with lower levels of skills and farming inputs—have the largest associations with the gaps. The paper reviews evidence-based policy options for tackling the identified gaps for each sector, which include providing vocational skills to women, improving their access to capital, increasing the effectiveness of agricultural extension services and expanding the provision of childcare services and gender norms interventions.
Authors
- Associated content
- Link to data and reproducibility package
- Citation
- “ Donald, Aletheia ; Islam, TM Tonmoy ; Robakowski, Anja . 2024 . Explaining Gender Differences in Economic Outcomes in Burkina Faso . Policy Research Working Paper; 10809 . © Washington, DC: World Bank . http://hdl.handle.net/10986/41742 License: CC BY 3.0 IGO . ”
- Collection(s)
- Policy Research Working Papers
- DOI
- http://dx.doi.org/10.1596/1813-9450-10809
- Identifier externaldocumentum
- 34343143
- Identifier internaldocumentum
- 34343143
- Published in
- United States of America
- Region country
- Burkina Faso
- RelationisPartofseries
- Policy Research Working Paper; 10809
- Report
- WPS10809
- Rights
- CC BY 3.0 IGO
- Rights Holder
- World Bank
- Rights URI
- https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/igo/
- UNIT
- EFI-AFR2-MTI-MacroFiscal-1 (EAWM1)
- URI
- https://hdl.handle.net/10986/41742
- date disclosure
- 2024-06-20
- region administrative
- Africa Western and Central (AFW)
- theme
- Inclusive Growth,Job Creation,Gender,Human Development and Gender,Economic Policy,Economic Growth and Planning,Private Sector Development,Job Quality,Jobs,Macroeconomic & Structural Policy Modelling,Structural Transformation and Economic Diversification
Files
Table of Contents
- Explaining Gender Differences in Economic Outcomes in Burkina Faso 3
- 2. Setting and Empirical Strategy 6
- 2.1 Context and Data 6
- 2.2 Econometric Specification 9
- 3. Results 11
- 3.1 Labor Force Participation 11
- 3.2 Wage Earnings 13
- 3.3 Business Revenues 15
- 3.4 Agricultural Production 16
- 4. Discussion and Recommendations 17
- 4.1 Increase Women’s Skills and Engagement in Higher-Value Sectors 19
- 4.2 Increase Women’s Access to Productive Inputs 21
- 4.3 Increase Women’s Physical Security and Household Agency 23
- 5. Conclusion 24
- 6. Bibliography 27
- WHO 2019. Trends in Maternal Mortality: 2000 to 2017. Geneva, World Health Organization, 2019 32
- 7. Tables 33
- 8. Appendix Tables 45
