An empirical analysis of the influence of country quality of institutions on gender empowerment in Sub-Saharan Africa

The Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) recognise gender empowerment as an effective strategy to enhance human development, combat poverty and stimulate sustainable development. Governments in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) pledged commitment by undertaking a number of declarations and policy initiatives to address gender issues in development. Putting socially equitable policies into practice may be influenced by the quality of institutions in these countries. We examined the influence of country quality of institutions and gender empowerment in SSA. We used country-level data on and indicators of quality of institutions for the period 2000-2009. We estimated a random effects model of gender empowerment, specified as a function of measures of quality of institutions, sub-regional location, and post-2005 MDG declarations by SSA countries. We found important sub-regional differences in gender empowerment. Measures of gender empowerment increased generally across the regions post-2005 MDG declaration. However, East Africa recorded highest increase (8.1%), whilst Central Africa recorded a decline of -1.6%. We also found differential effects between formal and informal institutions on gender empowerment. The findings provided a context-specific understanding of the factors mitigating or otherwise, the commitment of governments in SSA to improve gender empowerment.