The progressive inclination to enforce “equality of outcomes” has already reached excessive levels in the West, with French President François Hollande notoriously advocating to ban homework because he’s concerned students from unstable homes are less likely to get homework help than their peers. Judging from the latest United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) report, the “equal outcomes” rhetoric is being exported to Africa.
The UNDP might have called its report “The African Human Development Report,” but the objective of this report was not to explore how to improve human development outcomes in Africa. In the report, the UNDP argues, “Development, if not engendered, is endangered. All policies and programs must be intended to achieve equal outcomes for both men and women.”
It’s clear the UNDP went into this research already believing that any differences in male and female outcomes are due to gender-based discrimination. Their methodology admits as much, stating, “This report adopts a ‘political economy’ perspective to understand the way that ideas, resources and power are conceptualized, negotiated and implemented by different social groups in relation to gender inequality.”
According to the UNDP, a major barrier to achieving “equal outcomes” is the gender pay gap in Africa. The report claims that a gender wage gap “is pervasive across all labour markets in sub-Saharan Africa, where, on average, the unadjusted gender pay gap is estimated at 30 per cent.”
We’ve heard claims of “70 cents on the dollar” in the West, and Hillary Clinton made “equal pay for equal work” a major campaign talking point.
But Claudia Goldin, a Harvard economics professor, has shown that differences in earnings between men and women are caused by the choices women make, not discrimination.
In many African countries, however, the labor market is considerably different, making the notion of the gender pay gap even more incoherent: Most people in Africa are employed in the informal sector.
Despite the uncertainty about wages, for both men and women, the informal sector is a major source of job creation in Africa. It employs 74 percent of women and 61 percent of men. The sector’s average size as a percentage of the gross domestic product in sub-Saharan Africa is 41 percent. In Africa’s southern region alone, informal cross-border trade is worth $17.6 billion a year, accounting for about 30 to 40 percent of the region’s trade. Moreover, 70 percent of these cross-border traders are women.
The UNDP shockingly dismisses the major way women contribute to African economies through the informal sector. While the report acknowledges that African women are largely employed in the informal sector, it associates this with sexism and discrimination.
The UNDP argues that women are “pushed” into the informal economy, as if they have no agency or entrepreneurial spirit. The report concludes, without much justification, that the differences between male and female employment in the sector are caused by discrimination. Yet there could be many reasons why 74 percent of women and 61 percent of men are employed in this sector. Perhaps, like in the West, women in Africa also make career choices based on temporal flexibility.
More importantly, however, if 66 percent of all employment in Africa is in the informal sector, wouldn’t a more useful project be to try and understand why the majority of African adults are employed in this sector? The African Development Bank explored the sector and found that:
“The prevalence of informal activities is closely related to an environment characterized by weaknesses in three institutional areas, namely taxation, regulation and private property rights. Higher taxes and complicated fiscal process may prevent informal sector operators from formalizing their activities. Long requirements for registration as well as licensing and inspection requirements are also barriers faced by the informal sector.”
This report shows an unfortunate missed opportunity and highlights a fundamental lack of understanding of economic realities in many sub-Saharan African countries.
To be clear, I am not denying that there is still work to be done towards enhancing women’s economic potential. Yet, while we can talk about the specific issues that African women face with regards to barriers to entry, African men are in a precarious situation too. The International Labor Organization estimates that eight out of 10 people in sub-Saharan Africa are in vulnerable employment.
The issue here is clearly not outcome inequality — it’s poverty. And poverty in Africa sees no gender.
Stacy Ndlovu is the managing editor of Young Voices. Originally from Zimbabwe, Stacy graduated from Cornell University in 2016. Thinking of submitting an op-ed to the Washington Examiner? Be sure to read our guidelines on submissions.
