Economic justice
in Africa.
RFLD's continental hub on women's economic justice and gender-responsive budgeting (GRB), anchored in the OECD-DAC Gender Equality Policy Marker, AfDB's Africa Gender Index, and a curated library of national budget statements, regional GRB toolkits, and continental gender finance research.
Economic justice is the bedrock of women's rights. Constitutional equality, anti-discrimination law, and political representation all matter, but without fiscal commitments backed by real budget lines, gender-equality policy stays on paper. This hub is RFLD's continental resource centre on women's economic justice and on the practice of gender-responsive budgeting (GRB), the discipline of analysing, marking, and tracking how public budgets and donor flows reach women and girls.
We do not publish unsourced country scores. The country profiles below draw on three established external indices, AfDB's Africa Gender Index 2023, the WEF Global Gender Gap Index 2025 sub-Saharan Africa rankings, and IPU Parline data on women's parliamentary representation. The GRB classifier uses the OECD-DAC Gender Equality Policy Marker, the international standard donors and ministries use to mark gender-responsive allocations.
This page sits within RFLD's Economic Justice & Climate field of intervention. It complements RFLD's WAFF Fund regranting work, the BRAVE flagship's economic-empowerment stream, and the continental fiscal-justice advocacy we coordinate with the African Union and ECOWAS.
How this hub measures.
Three external sources anchor this hub. Each is publicly documented, methodologically peer-reviewed, and linked directly from the country indicator table below. RFLD does not publish proprietary country scores on this page, instead, we curate, contextualise, and link to the authoritative sources, while publishing our own analysis through the resource library and the GRB classifier.
The framework underpinning the GRB classifier below
The OECD Development Assistance Committee's Gender Equality Policy Marker (GEPM) is the international standard for marking development cooperation activities according to whether gender equality is an objective. Donors, ministries of finance, and multilateral organisations use it to track gender-responsive allocations across budget lines. UN Women's Toolkit for Gender Mainstreaming for Gender-Responsive Budgeting (in our resource library below) and the IMF's 2025 chapter on Gender Budgeting Practices in Sub-Saharan Africa both build on this marker system.
The classifier uses three OECD-DAC values:
- GEM 0 · Not targeted, the activity has been screened against the marker but does not target gender equality as an objective.
- GEM 1 · Significant, gender equality is an important and deliberate objective, but not the principal reason for undertaking the activity.
- GEM 2 · Principal, gender equality is the principal objective of the activity and fundamental to its design.
For an allocation to qualify as GEM 1 or GEM 2, three minimum criteria must all be met: (i) the activity is intended to address gender inequalities; (ii) it is designed based on prior gender analysis; and (iii) it includes monitoring indicators disaggregated by sex. The classifier below walks through these criteria for any programme, budget line, or grant.
Classify a budget line or programme.
Use this tool to mark a programme, budget line, or grant against the OECD-DAC Gender Equality Policy Marker. Answer the four diagnostic questions on the left and the classifier returns the appropriate GEM code (0, 1, or 2), an explanation of what the code means, and recommendations for strengthening the gender responsiveness of the allocation. This is the same logic ministries of finance, donors, and multilaterals use to track gender-marked spending.
Programme classifier
Continental indicators.
Women's economic justice indicators across all 55 African Union member states, drawn from three publicly documented external sources. AGI = AfDB Africa Gender Index 2023 score (0–100). GGGI = WEF Global Gender Gap Index 2025 score (0.000–1.000, parity = 1.000). Parl = women's share of seats in the lower or unicameral chamber, IPU Parline. Filter by region, or open the country page for the full RFLD context note. Where data is not available from a source for a given country, the cell is marked n/a.
| Country | Region | AfDB AGI 2023 | WEF GGGI 2025 | Women in parliament |
|---|
GRB & gender finance resources.
A working library of national budget statements, regional GRB toolkits, continental gender-finance research, and thematic gender-economic-justice publications. Each entry links directly to the original publisher. Filter by region or theme; every resource includes its publishing institution and year so you can cite cleanly.
Connected resources.
Economic justice does not stand alone. Women's fiscal rights are inseparable from sexual and reproductive rights, from political representation, from protection against violence, and from climate justice. Explore the connected RFLD work that frames the continental economic-justice agenda.
Economic Justice & Climate
The full programme, RFLD's continental work on women's economic rights, climate justice, fiscal accountability, and the gendered impacts of extractive economies.
WAFF, West African Feminist Fund
RFLD's flagship regranting facility, €250,000 disbursed to 10 grassroots women-led organisations in 2025. Channels donor capital directly to frontline women's economic-justice work.
Maputo Protocol Hub
The legal architecture under which women's economic rights, including property, succession, and equal pay, are guaranteed across Africa. Ratification tracker and full text in working languages.
West Africa Legislative Platform
Tracks gender-relevant legislation across 15 ECOWAS countries, including budget laws, family codes, equal-pay legislation, and gender-budgeting circulars from ministries of finance.
Get in touch.
For partnerships on gender-responsive budgeting work, requests for analysis of national budget statements, training on the OECD-DAC Gender Equality Policy Marker, applications to the WAFF Fund, journalist enquiries, or to flag missing or out-of-date country data, please reach the appropriate channel below.
For funders and partnersPour les bailleurs et les partenaires
Fund the women who defend rights in Africa, nowFinancez maintenant les femmes qui défendent les droits en Afrique
Aid to women’s organisations is falling. RFLD moves funding fast to women-led organisations and defenders, in French and English, through a network of 1,143 member organisations in more than 35 African countries.L’aide aux organisations de femmes recule. Le RFLD achemine vite les financements vers les organisations de femmes et les défenseures, en français et en anglais, grâce à un réseau de 1 143 organisations membres dans plus de 35 pays africains.
RFLD currently serves as Co-Chair of the SEA-T Programme Advisory Council, mandated to ensure the programme’s direction, priorities, and resources are meaningfully aligned with the visions of African women-led civil society. The SEA-T Programme is funded by the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH.Le RFLD assure actuellement la coprésidence du Conseil consultatif du programme SEA-T, chargé de veiller à ce que l’orientation, les priorités et les ressources du programme soient réellement alignées sur les visions de la société civile africaine portée par les femmes. Le programme SEA-T est financé par le ministère fédéral allemand de la Coopération économique et du Développement (BMZ) et mis en œuvre par la Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH. See the partnershipVoir le partenariat
- 1,143member organisationsorganisations membres
- 35+African countriespays africains
- N°553ACHPR observer statusstatut d’observateur CADHP
- CandidSeal of Transparency 2025Sceau de transparence 2025
DonateFaire un don Partner with RFLDDevenir partenaire See our financialsVoir nos états financiers