Gender, Poverty, and Nonfarm Employment in Ghana and Uganda

June 2000 - For women in Ghana and Uganda, nonfarm activities play an important role in yielding the lowest - and the most rapidly declining - rural poverty rates. In both countries rural poverty declined fastest for female heads of household engaged in nonfarm work (which tended to be a secondary activity). But patterns vary between the two countries. Newman and Canagarajah provide evidence that women's nonfarm activities help reduce poverty in two economically and culturally different countries, Ghana and Uganda. In both countries rural poverty rates were lowest - and fell most rapidly - for female heads of household engaged in nonfarm activities. Participation in nonfarm activities increased more rapidly for women, especially married women and female heads of household, than for men. Women were more likely than men to combine agriculture and nonfarm activities. In Ghana it was nonfarm activities (for which income data are available) that provided the highest average incomes and the highest shares of income. Bivariate probit analysis of participation shows that in Uganda female heads of household and in Ghana women in general are significantly more likely than men to participate in nonfarm activities and less likely to participate in agriculture. This paper - a joint product of Rural Development, Development Research Group, and the Social Protection Team, Human Development Network- is part of a larger effort in the Bank to discuss gender, employment, and poverty linkages. The authors may be contacted at cnewman1@worldbank.orgor scanagarajah@worldbank.org