Political Economy of Gender and Sustainable Development: African Evidence

This thesis examines the impact of female political representation on human development, financial inclusion, and health outcomes in Africa. The thesis specifically examine the moderating role of institutional quality on the relationship between female political representation on human development in Africa from 2000 to 2023, the moderating role of institutional quality on the relationship between female political representation and financial inclusion in Sub-Saharan Africa from 2000 to 2023 and the moderating effect of institutional quality on the relationship between female political representation and public health outcomes across 52 African countries from 1990 to 2023. The study employed Fixed Effects, the System Generalised Method of Moments (GMM), Prais-Winsten panel-corrected standard errors (PCSEs) estimation and the dynamic panel threshold regression. The results highlight that institutional quality enhances the capacity of women in politics to influence outcomes in education, health, and income. The findings also document evidence of female representation positively influencing financial inclusion, but only when institutional quality surpasses specific thresholds. Moreover, institutional quality significantly moderates the relationship, amplifying the impact of political inclusion where governance systems are stronger. The study also found that institutional quality has a positive moderating effect on the relationship between female political representation and life expectancy, as well as immunisation coverage, and significantly reduces maternal and child mortality when interacted with representation variables. These findings affirm that the effectiveness of women in political leadership depends on the strength of institutional systems that support health planning, budgeting, and service delivery. Policies should expand female political representation and strengthen institutional quality. This will improve education, health, and income outcomes across Africa. Governments should also strengthen financial-sector governance and consumer protection. This will widen financial inclusion, raise life expectancy and immunisation, and reduce maternal and child mortality.

Grantor dc:publisher

Stellenbosch : Stellenbosch University

Year dc:date.issued

2026

Author dc:creator

• Enchill, Gifty Ewurama

Advisors dc:contributor.advisor

• Agbloyor, Elikplimi Komla
• Graham, Michael

Language dc:language.iso

en

Repository record dc:identifier.uri

https://scholar.sun.ac.za/handle/10019.1/136606

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:scholar.sun.ac.za:10019.1/136606