How gender and political ideology impact women-focused aid to sub-Saharan Africa

ABSTRACT

Foreign aid plays a critical role in actualising pro-women outcomes in the Global South. However, there is a paucity of research on how gender and political ideology inform gender-oriented foreign aid to sub-Saharan countries. This study examines how gender and political ideology inform the trends of women-focused foreign aid donations from Australia, Canada, Finland, and Germany to sub-Saharan African nations from 2002 to 2016. During this period, government leaders and ministers in the donor countries were from different genders and political ideologies. The study reveals that female heads of government gave more women-focused aid to sub-Saharan Africa than male heads of government. The study also found that right-wing heads of government allocated more women-focused assistance to sub-Saharan Africa than left-wing politicians. This study points to the importance of the active role of female heads of government in effectively mainstreaming and furthering the idea of gender equality on a global scale.

KEYWORDS:

• Foreign donations
• political ideology
• political behaviour
• aid to Africa
• sub-Saharan Africa

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 It is important to note that there are variations in the socio-economic conditions of African women; for instance, the World Economic Forum’s 2021 global gender gap report ranks Namibia at sixth and the Democratic Republic of Congo at 151st.

2 Examples of targeted programmes for gender equality and women’s empowerment include a project on girls’ access to education and vocational training, projects designed to prevent gender-based violence in conflict, a social protection project for empowering women and girls, a project to educate and mobilise men and boys to advocate against gender-based violence, a capacity-building project to support a national ministry of finance to incorporate gender equality in its national development strategy, and a project to strengthen women’s political participation at the local, regional, and/or national level.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Eugene Emeka Dim

Eugene Emeka Dim is a doctoral candidate in the Department of Sociology at the University of Toronto, Canada. Her research generally focuses on gender dynamics, intimate partner violence, politics, and political participation in Africa.