Not Just Numbers but Impact: Transforming Women’s Labour Force Participation in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA)

By Dr. Adeline M. Nembot & Dr. Vera Kum

Executive Summary

Sub‑Saharan Africa records relatively high female labour force participation, yet this “high participation” often masks a reality of informality, low productivity, and limited social protection. In many countries, women work primarily in subsistence agriculture, petty trade, and household enterprises—activities counted as “employment” but frequently associated with unstable earnings, limited autonomy, and exposure to shocks. This brief argues that participation rates alone are an insufficient measure of progress and can create policy complacency when interpreted without job‑quality indicators. It proposes shifting from a headcount logic (“how many women work?”) to an impact logic (“what kind of work, under what conditions, with what returns and protections?”). Policy action should combine expanded care infrastructure, social protection systems designed for informal workers, and improved access to productive assets and services, alongside better labour statistics that capture time use, unpaid work, and quality of employment.

1. Introduction

Africa’s labour force in 2023 had reached 576 million surpassing India’s 534 million, a milestone Africa reached in 2020. Despite this unprecedented pace, its labour market presents a paradox. Even though labour force participation rates stood at 64.5% in Africa and 67.7% in Sub Saharan Africa (SSA), relatively above the global average (60.5%), the unemployment rate stood at 6.7%, with many surviving in the informal sector. This is partly because informal employment is often characterized by job instability, a lack of social protection, lower earnings, and higher gender gaps.

This paradox becomes clearer when examined at the country level. In Cameroon for instance, women’s labour force participation exceeds 70%, yet more than 9 out of 10 employed women work in the informal sector, predominantly in subsistence agriculture, petty trade, and household-based enterprises. Moreover, national labour force surveys show that fewer than 10% of working women have access to any form of social insurance or employment-related health coverage, despite their high economic activity. Similar patterns are observed in other SSA countries such as Nigeria (77%) and the Democratic Republic of Congo (62%), where women’s work is widespread but insecure, poorly remunerated, and largely excluded from formal protection systems.

As an important metric of labour in a country, labour force participation is the share of the working-age population twho are economically active, encompassing both formal and informal employment. But, according to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), much of Africa’s workforce despite being classified as “employed”, is engaged in informal and low-productivity activities. In fact, an estimated 85% of employment in Africa was considered as informal in 2024. This sectoral profile inflates participation counts because subsistence work and informal labour are recorded as economic activity. As a result, high female labour force participation that is concentrated in informal, unpaid or low-return work does not significantly reduce poverty in many context according to the UNDP; and leaves women exposed to shocks as described by the ILO.

African countries are known to have the lowest coverage of social protection and adequate health care. In fact, only 10% of SSA’s economically active population is covered by statutory social protection programmes. This is because the availability of social protection services is mostly limited to workers and their families in the formal sector, leaving the majority (85.5%) of informal workers vulnerable to economic and political shocks and other crises.

These numbers hide several structural, definitional, and qualitative issues of women labour force participation in SSA. Hence, this brief goes beyond the mere participation rates to examine the quality of women’s engagement in the labour market in SSA and propose actionable policies that promote decent, productive, and secure work opportunities for women.

2. Why the high numbers? Reasons behind the apparently high women labour participation in SSA

In sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), low formal job creation, poverty, and limited access to resources push women into subsistence income-generating activities, including vulnerable jobs and low-return self-employment to meet household basic needs. Despite high female labour force participation, most women remain concentrated in low-paid, informal, and insecure work, particularly in subsistence agriculture. Globally, women account for a larger share of agricultural employment in less economically developed regions, as inadequate education, limited infrastructure and market access, high unpaid work burdens, and few off-farm employment opportunities restrict their mobility. In many SSA countries, women constitute over 50% of the agricultural labour force.

A large share of women’s work falls under informal or casual labour, which is included in labour force statistics. This inflates participation figures, explaining how high female participation coexists with high “working poor” rates. The issue is not measurement itself, but how the numbers are interpreted for policymaking. Work essential for household survival is recorded as “employment” by international institutions but often does not equate to economic empowerment.

International indicators (ILO, World Bank) typically model female labour force participation using surveys that count any economic activity, even low-value or unregistered work, as employment. Consequently, cross-regional comparisons can be misleading, as similar participation rates may reflect very different job quality and income levels. In SSA, where subsistence and informal work dominate, surveys capture necessity-driven participation, raising headcount but not wellbeing.

For example, in Cameroon, high female labour force participation is sometimes cited as evidence of gender inclusion in the labour market. Yet, in 2021, the National Institute of Statistics (NIS) reported that over 90% of working women remained in informal employment, mainly in subsistence agriculture, petty trade, and low-return self-employment. Without considering job quality, participation figures risk misleading policymakers into thinking women’s labour challenges are resolved, reducing priority for formal job creation, social protection, and care infrastructure.

From a policy perspective, this highlights the danger of relying solely on participation rates. Complementary indicators on earnings, job security, social protection coverage, and time use are essential to accurately assess progress and guide reforms that meaningfully enhance women’s economic empowerment in SSA.

3. The Female Labour Force Participation – Empowerment Disconnect: Underlying Drivers

Informality in Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) largely manifests as self-employment in subsistence agriculture and non-agricultural activities, contributing an estimated 55% of GDP and employing 80% of the workforce, 74% of whom are women. Many women enter this sector out of necessity due to limited formal labour opportunities and a lack of alternative wage employment. While informal work can provide flexibility in location and working hours—helpful for managing heavy care responsibilities or restricted mobility—it comes with trade-offs, including lower job security, minimal benefits, and higher risks. Women in SSA are highly visible as street vendors, market traders, subsistence farmers, and unpaid family workers. However, these roles often involve strenuous manual labour, exposure to climate shocks, and unpredictable, insufficient earnings, which limit their ability to save or build resilience. In many households, men retain control over assets and spending decisions, constraining women’s decision-making power over incomes (Human Development Report).

In Cameroon, most women operate outside formal registration systems, lack access to credit and business development services, and remain largely excluded from contributory social insurance schemes, with only 10% covered. This illustrates that high participation rates, when characterized by low productivity, instability, absence of contracts, and lack of social protection, do not equate to economic empowerment or security. Without safety nets, women’s employment cannot shield them from shocks such as pregnancy, market crises, or illness.

Agriculture remains the largest employer of women in SSA, engaging over 60% of them, alongside home-based production and unpaid family work. The 2023 Gender Snapshot reveals that women spend three to five times more hours than men on unpaid domestic and care work, limiting their ability to pursue higher-earning opportunities and reinforcing economic dependency.

Even though informal work offers flexibility, it imposes substantial risks. In rural Cameroon, women engaged in subsistence agriculture face low productivity due to limited access to extension services, climate-resilient inputs, and secure land tenure. These constraints restrict their ability to invest, scale production, or move into higher-value segments of agricultural value chains, perpetuating vulnerability and economic marginalization.

4. Conclusion and policy recommendations

Although women dominate the workforce across the region, this participation has not yet translated into empowerment. Therefore, transforming women’s participation from “numbers” to “impact” in SSA means refining labour indicators, improving time-use data and strengthening labour force measurement by distinguishing formal employment from informal, subsistence and unpaid family work.

Complementing participation rates with job-quality indicators—such as earnings, hours worked, contract status, and social protection coverage—will enable more accurate evaluation of women’s economic outcomes in SSA. Also, strengthening statistical surveys to capture unpaid domestic work properly, measuring time use, including informal, subsistence family labour to capture the invisible labour. Regular time-use modules and improved survey instruments are essential to capture unpaid care work and other “invisible” labour that constrains women’s opportunities.

In conclusion, high female participation should not be treated as an endpoint; it must be assessed through job quality, social protection, and women’s control over income and time. Moving from “numbers” to “impact” requires both better measurement and better policy.

Hence, decision makers should:

• Expand Childcare and Care Services: Invest in community-based childcare and care services by (i) creating a dedicated budget line for childcare at local-government level, (ii) partnering with councils and community organisations to operate affordable childcare centers, and (iii) introducing targeted subsidies (care vouchers or fee waivers) for low-income households. Where feasible, integrate eldercare and disability support into community care hubs. Pair care investments with cash transfers or basic insurance instruments to reduce distress labour and enable women to take up better-quality jobs.
• Extend Social Protection to Informal Workers: Introduce a minimum social protection package for informal workers, including basic health coverage, maternity-related protection, and temporary income support during shocks. Make enrolment easier through mobile registration and simplified procedures and allow flexible contributions (weekly/monthly micro-contributions) using mobile money. Prioritize women-dense sectors such as petty trade, home-based enterprises, and smallholder agriculture by working through market associations, cooperatives, and local councils as registration points. Evidence from ILO shows that providing a basic floor of social protection is affordable and feasible in many African contexts.
• Improve Access to Productive Assets and Services: Strengthen women’s land and tenure security through joint titling, low-cost registration drives, and enforcement of inheritance and property rights. Expand women-focused financial products (credit, savings, insurance) with simplified collateral requirements and tailored business development services. Increase women’s access to extension services and climate-resilient inputs by setting measurable service-delivery targets (e.g., a minimum share of female beneficiaries) and improving market linkages through storage, transport, and digital platforms. Support women’s entry into higher-value segments of value chains, including processing, packaging, and distribution, to move beyond subsistence-level returns.