The importance of gender equality is reflected not only in the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) but also in the World Bank’s Gender Action Plan launched in 2007, as well as in other treaties and actions undertaken at regional and international levels.
Unlike other gender poverty studies, which are mostly based on monetary measurement, the present study employs a counting approach to examine gender issues in Burkina Faso and Togo using household surveys, EICVM (2009/2010) and CWIQ (2011), respectively. Focusing on six dimensions (housing, basic utilities, assets, education, employment and access to credit) largely recognized as MDG targets, the main findings of the study indicate that, overall, individuals are most deprived in education in Burkina Faso, while the reverse situation is true in Togo.
Key findings:
- Gender inequality is observed in all. The situation is also marked by regional disparities. Moreover, the assessment of dimensional contributions shows different patterns for each country. While employment proves to be the main contributor to gender inequality in Burkina Faso, three dimensions (assets, access to credit and employment) account together for most of the total contribution to gender inequality in Togo. There is also a positive correlation between multidimensional deprivation and women’s ages in Burkina Faso, whereas by contrast both measures seem to be uncorrelated in Togo.
- Gender inequality should be tackled not only for reasons of equity, but also with a view toward promoting economic efficiency for the better achievement of development outcomes. Like several studies based on the monetary measurement of poverty, this study, which is more focused on multi-dimensional deprivation, shows that gender inequalities in poverty exist in Burkina Faso and Togo.
- Furthermore, the analysis confirms that the extent of inequality could differ from one country to another. Regional disparities are also noted in both countries. Moreover, it is clear from these analyses that the sources of inequality are different. In fact, inequalities in education and employment largely explain gender inequality in Burkina Faso, while those in assets, access to credit and employment are the main sources in Togo.
- However, there is one caveat when comparing countries. The samples of individuals retained for the two countries do not necessarily allow for comparison. In fact, the sample of Burkina Faso includes all individuals aged 15 to 64 years, while that of Togo, due to missing information, consists only of household heads and their spouses from the same age group. In addition, some of the definitions of certain dimensions such as employment and access to credit are somewhat different while the use of MCA to estimate housing, assets and basic utilities indices introduces another non-comparability issue.
- Although multidimensional poverty measurement is criticized by some for its weak theoretical framework and inherent aggregation problems, this approach seems to be increasingly useful and even essential in poverty assessment, including gender analysis. Poverty measures based on income or consumption remain critically important, but they are insufficient to capture the multidimensional aspects of poverty, especially in poor countries. Therefore, it would be wise to strengthen the theoretical and empirical bases of the use of such a multidimensional approach. The measure suggested by Alkire and Foster (2007, 2011) is an interesting one because of its simplicity and compliance with several desirable properties. For the choice of dimensions and their weights, it may be appropriate to adopt a consensual approach involving worldwide stakeholders. Already, the MDGs provide a good starting point for such consensus.