Source: Sudan Vision Daily
Gender inequality is one of the most important structural and root causes of Africa missing its Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction and other development targets. Structural barriers and social norms continue to limit women’s potential to contribute to Africa’s economic growth and sustainable development. Women’s economic and social empowerment should be placed at the centre of strategies toward building cohesive and dynamic economies.

There have been impressive advances in reducing gender inequalities, which testify to how sustained political investments in this area can produce wide-ranging benefits for all. In terms of political participation, for example, with an average of 21% of women in national parliaments, sub-Saharan Africa is the only sub-region that has doubled the proportion of seats held by elected women in just one decade (Inter- Parliamentary Union, 2014). Rwanda remains the country with the highest percentage of female parliamentarians in the world (IPU 2014). In terms of educational attainment, the number of girls out of school has dropped significantly. While over half of the children out of school in sub-Saharan Africa are still girls, their number had fallen to 9 million in 2013 from 24 million in 2000 (UIS, 2014). Nearly half of the African countries achieved gender parity in primary school enrolment in 2012.

Gains in certain indicators have not yet translated into a sharp reversal of long-lasting inequalities between women and men in access to and control over economic resources.

Women still constitute the majority of people with vulnerable jobs, characterised by inadequate earnings and exploitative working conditions (ILO, 2012).

Women often work unpaid for families or are self-employed without employees. In sub-Saharan Africa, 84% of jobs held by women in 2012 were considered vulnerable compared to 70.6% for men (ILO, 2012).

The UNDP Gender Inequality Index results for 2012 highlight the efforts required in Africa to address the challenges to ensuring women’s equal rights and promoting their social and economic empowerment. The index reflects gender-based disadvantages in empowerment (political participation and access to higher education), the labour market (participation rates) and reproductive health (maternal mortality and fertility rates).

Better access to education for women, particularly to post-secondary and higher education, can contribute to enhanced livelihood options and improved human development. Figure 4.4 shows that countries with low gender inequality have higher rates of enrolment by women in higher education than countries with high gender inequality. It compares the latest Gender Inequality Index with the participation by women in tertiary education for a subset of countries for which data is available.

Enhancing environmental sustainability is important for human development

Environmental sustainability goes hand in hand with sustainable human development. Currently, human development is accompanied by the depletion of environmental resources and is increasingly vulnerable to the impact of climate change. Africa needs access to modern energy sources and, as described below, multifunctional platforms offer an efficient solution.

There is significant room for improving sustainable human development in Africa. The UNDP defines sustainable human development as expanding the substantive freedoms of people today while making reasonable efforts to avoid seriously compromising those of future generations.

The average levels of human development in African countries to their average levels of adjusted net savings between 2007 and 2011. Adjusted net savings demonstrate the residual national savings in an economy after investing in human capital and netting out the depletion of natural resources and damage caused by pollution. Most African countries have positive adjusted net savings; however, some countries with relatively high levels of human development have low levels of adjusted net savings. Low levels of adjusted net savings indicate that these economies may be under investing in human capital development and overexploiting environmental.

Africa is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. The increasing frequency of environment-related natural disasters, such as changing rainfall patterns, floods and droughts, affect society and the economy. The Horn of Africa, the Sahel and Southern Africa are particularly prone to variability in rainfall.

Between October 2010 and September 2011 severe droughts in East Africa caused 50 000 fatalities and touched 13.3 million people (CDKN, 2012). Climate-related events highly impact poor and vulnerable communities that have few coping mechanisms or alternative livelihoods. It is estimated that African countries need to invest USD 7 billion to 15 billion annually by 2020 in order to manage the risks and negative impacts of climate change. These costs are expected to rise, even if the world can hold warming below two degrees. By 2050, adaptation costs could rise to USD 35 billion per year and up to USD 200 billion by 2070 (UNEP, 2013). Mobilising financial, human and technical capacity to build resilience to shocks and adapt to climate change is thus a key policy imperative for ensuring long-term human development in Africa.

Providing access to modern energy sources for domestic and productive use remains a key development priority for Africa. 77% of the continent’s population lack access to electricity, and 80% rely on charcoal and firewood for cooking (CDKN, 2014). Equitable access to energy affects agricultural production and other economic activities, as well as basic services including health care and education. These challenges call for urgent investment in developing reliable, efficient and sustainable energy services, particularly in rural areas.

Investing in multifunctional platforms is one inexpensive way to improve access to rural energy for domestic and productive use. This has been demonstrated in Burkina Faso, Senegal and elsewhere in Africa. A multifunctional platform is a small engine to which a variety of end-use pieces of equipment can be attached, including as mills, alternators and oil presses. In Burkina Faso, introducing these platforms reduced by two to six hours a day the time women devote to domestic chores, such as agro-processing and food preparation. The platforms also increase agricultural production, particularly of Shea butter, rice and maize. In addition, they help promote income-generating activities, mobilise local banking systems and introduce micro-financing, and create employment opportunities .

Equity, social inclusion and sustainable growth are goals beyond 2015 Africa has articulated a common position on the post-2015 development agenda based on regional, sub-regional and national reviews and consultations. A new global development framework should encompass the following:

• Inclusive economic growth, structural transformation and the effective exploitation of natural resources.
• Equity and social inclusion, along with ways to measure progress in terms of the availability and quality of service delivery.
• The African Union’s Agenda 2063, outcomes of Rio+20, Africa-wide initiatives and UN forums.
• Development enablers as well as proposed development outcomes including structural economic transformation and inclusive growth; innovation and technology transfer; human development; and financing and partnerships. African youth and women’s organisations are influencing the debate on the post- 2015 agenda. Both are calling for national and international actors to give priority to promoting human rights and better access to social protection and justice.