Poverty in Africa has an important, if difficult to quantify, gender dimension. Balancing competing time uses in a framework of almost total inelasticity of time allocation presents a particular challenge to reducing poverty in Africa. Poverty in Africa is compounded by the complexity of household structures and relations in Africa. Evidence suggests great diversity in the structure and composition of households, where men and women have largely separate sources and uses of income and resources. This often leads to marked inequality in intra-household resource allocation.
Gender barriers limit women's participation and reinforce power gaps.
Each of these strategic objectives has an important contribution to make to achieving the goal of sustainable poverty reduction. The contribution of these strategic objectives to development and poverty reduction in Africa can be greatly amplified through concurrent actions in each of these areas, so that multiple and mutually reinforcing benefits can be achieved. To mainstream gender systematically, the Bank will invest pro-actively in the development of capacity, tools, and techniques aimed at enabling staff to respond to both Regional and Bankwide gender commitments made to their partner governments and other stakeholders. To ensure that gender issues are adequately and appropriately integrated into Bank interventions, the Africa Region intends to strengthen institutional recognition of operational responsibilities, and greater accountability, at three interconnected levels. Country Focus Country focus and ownership of the gender strategy by clients are central to success.