Publication:
Gender, Judging and the Courts in Africa: Selected Studies

Loading...
Thumbnail Image
Files in English
English PDF (4.16 MB)
114 downloads
English Text (1.08 MB)
90 downloads
Published
2025-01-13
ISSN
Date
2025-01-13
Author(s)
Abstract
Women judges are playing increasingly prominent roles in many African judiciaries, yet there remains very little comparative research on the subject. Drawing on extensive cross-national data and theoretical and empirical analysis, this book provides a timely and broad-ranging assessment of gender and judging in African judiciaries. Employing different theoretical approaches, the book investigates how women have fared within domestic African judiciaries as both actors and litigants. It explores how women negotiate multiple hierarchies to access the judiciary, and how gender-related issues are handled in courts. The chapters in the book provide policy, theoretical and practical prescriptions to the challenges identified, and offer recommendations for the future directions of gender and judging in the post-COVID-19 era, including the role of technology, artificial intelligence, social media, and institutional transformations that can help promote women’s rights. Bringing together specific cases from Kenya, Uganda, Ghana, Nigeria, Zambia, Tanzania, and South Africa and regional bodies such as ECOWAS and the African Commission on Human and Peoples’ Rights, and covering a broad range of thematic reflections, this book will be of interest to scholars, students, and practitioners of African law, judicial politics, judicial training, and gender studies. It will also be useful to bilateral and multilateral donor institutions financing gender-sensitive judicial reform programs, particularly in Africa.
Link to Data Set
Citation
Dawuni, J. Jarpa, editors. 2025. Gender, Judging and the Courts in Africa: Selected Studies. © World Bank. http://hdl.handle.net/10986/42669 License: CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
Associated URLs
Associated content
Report Series
Other publications in this report series
Journal
Journal Volume
Journal Issue

Related items

Showing items related by metadata.

  • Publication
    Regional Gender Action Plan for the Middle East and North Africa Region, FY13-FY16
    (Washington, DC, 2013) World Bank
    The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is experiencing a time of momentous change. Some countries are in the midst of a profound political, economic, and demographic transition, others are striving to emerge from protracted conflict, yet others are experiencing internal tensions and rising demands for more citizen voice. This period of change and uncertainty presents challenges and opportunities, including with regard to gender issues. Yet some governments may not prioritize gender issues, while in others there could be a regression. MENA Regional Gender Action Plan (RGAP) is part of the World Bank's institutional commitment to operationalize the policy priorities identified in the WDR 2012 and the regional companion to the World Development Report (WDR) 2012. The MENA Regional Gender Action Plan (RGAP) will require that the Bank be nimble and practical in its approach to advancing gender equality in the region. The MENA RGAP provides a two-pronged approach to supporting MENA countries in advancing gender equality: Prong 1: through country programs; and Prong 2: championing dialogue.
  • Publication
    The Hybrid Courts of Melanesia : A Comparative Analysis of Village Courts of Papua New Guinea, Island Courts of Vanuatu, and Local Courts of Solomon Islands
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2010-01) Evans, Daniel; Goddard, Michael; Paterson, Don
    This paper examines three systems of courts of justice, each in a different country in the region of South Pacific islands known as Melanesia, where state legal systems have been adopted from former European colonial governments. The systems discussed are, by comparison, 'hybrid', each of them having been established with the intention of addressing disputes among small-scale social groups by less formal means or by taking greater heed of customary forms of dispute resolution. The paper applies a comparative analysis of these systems, covering their distinct history and the variances in structure, funding, personnel and jurisdictional coverage that impact on their effectiveness as state-sanctioned courts. Conclusions are offered with observations about the strengths and weaknesses of these hybrid systems and their potential for development as instruments of community-owned justice in Melanesia.
  • Publication
    Land Tenure and Gender : Approaches and Challenges for Strengthening Rural Women's Land Rights
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2014) Namubiru-Mwaura, Evelyn
    Land tenure security is crucial for women's empowerment and a prerequisite for building secure and resilient communities. Tenure is affected by many and often contradictory sets of rules, laws, customs, traditions, and perceptions. For most rural women, land tenure is complicated, with access and ownership often layered with barriers present in their daily realities: discriminatory social dynamics and strata, unresponsive legal systems, lack of economic opportunities, and lack of voice in decision making. Yet most policy reform, land management, and development programs disregard these realities in their interventions, which ultimately increases land tenure insecurity for rural women. This paper seeks to further develop the evidence base for access to and control over land.
  • Publication
    Gender and Economic Growth in Kenya : Unleashing the Power of Women
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2007) Ellis, Amanda; Cutura, Jozefina; Dione, Nouma; Gillson, Ian; Manuel, Clare; Thongori, Judy
    This report examines the legal, administrative, and regulatory barriers that are preventing women in Kenya from contributing fully to the Kenyan economy. Building on the 2004 Foreign Investment and Advisory Service (FIAS) report, "Improving the Commercial Legal Framework and Removing Administrative and Regulatory Barriers to Investment," this study looks at the bureaucratic barriers facing women in Kenya through a gender lens. The report makes specific recommendations to address gender-related barriers in the context of ongoing government and donor initiatives to encourage private sector development as the key driver of poverty reduction and economic growth, in line with Kenya's Economic Recovery Strategy for Wealth and Employment Creation 2003-2007 (ERS). Addressing these constraints will not only allow women to make a full contribution to the economy but also improve their livelihoods and those of their families and help create a more enabling environment for all businesses in Kenya.
  • Publication
    Engendering Justice : A Gender Assessment's Impact on Project Design
    (World Bank, Washington, DC, 2005-07) Bhansali, Lisa L.
    Gender equality is an important indicator of a country's progress toward sustainable development and is one of the Millennium Development Goals. Yet World Bank teams often find gender equality a difficult concept to include in projects. One solution is to conduct a targeted gender assessment, which can help ensure that a project design addresses gender concerns and promotes equitable access to public services. Such an assessment was conducted in 2001-02 as part of the preparation of Peru's Justice Services Improvement Project.

Users also downloaded

Showing related downloaded files

  • Publication
    Digital Africa
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2023-03-13) Begazo, Tania; Dutz, Mark Andrew; Blimpo, Moussa
    All African countries need better and more jobs for their growing populations. "Digital Africa: Technological Transformation for Jobs" shows that broader use of productivity-enhancing, digital technologies by enterprises and households is imperative to generate such jobs, including for lower-skilled people. At the same time, it can support not only countries’ short-term objective of postpandemic economic recovery but also their vision of economic transformation with more inclusive growth. These outcomes are not automatic, however. Mobile internet availability has increased throughout the continent in recent years, but Africa’s uptake gap is the highest in the world. Areas with at least 3G mobile internet service now cover 84 percent of Africa’s population, but only 22 percent uses such services. And the average African business lags in the use of smartphones and computers as well as more sophisticated digital technologies that catalyze further productivity gains. Two issues explain the usage gap: affordability of these new technologies and willingness to use them. For the 40 percent of Africans below the extreme poverty line, mobile data plans alone would cost one-third of their incomes—in addition to the price of access devices, apps, and electricity. Data plans for small- and medium-size businesses are also more expensive than in other regions. Moreover, shortcomings in the quality of internet services—and in the supply of attractive, skills-appropriate apps that promote entrepreneurship and raise earnings—dampen people’s willingness to use them. For those countries already using these technologies, the development payoffs are significant. New empirical studies for this report add to the rapidly growing evidence that mobile internet availability directly raises enterprise productivity, increases jobs, and reduces poverty throughout Africa. To realize these and other benefits more widely, Africa’s countries must implement complementary and mutually reinforcing policies to strengthen both consumers’ ability to pay and willingness to use digital technologies. These interventions must prioritize productive use to generate large numbers of inclusive jobs in a region poised to benefit from a massive, youthful workforce—one projected to become the world’s largest by the end of this century.
  • Publication
    State of Social Protection Report 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-04-07) World Bank
    Social protection goes well beyond cash transfers; it includes policies and programs that bridge skill, financial, and information gaps, aiding people in securing better jobs. The three pillars of social protection—social assistance, social insurance, and labor market programs—support households and workers in handling crises, escaping poverty, facing transitions, and seizing employment opportunities. But despite a substantial expansion over the past decade, 2 billion people remain uncovered or inadequately covered across low- and middle-income countries. Drawing from administrative and household survey data from the World Bank’s Atlas of Social Protection Indicators of Resilience and Equity (ASPIRE), the "State of Social Protection Report 2025: The 2-Billion-Person Challenge" documents advances and challenges to strengthening social protection and labor systems across low- and middle-income countries, analyzing the evolution of expenditure, coverage, and adequacy of support. This report details four policy action areas governments can embrace to maximize the benefits of adequate social protection for all: extending social protection to those in need; strengthening the adequacy of social protection support; building shock-proof social protection systems; and optimizing social protection financing. The report discusses how the path of reforms will depend on country context, capacity, and fiscal space. The rising frequency of shocks and crises calls for major investments in the adaptability and preparedness of social protection and labor systems. Amid a world in transition, social protection is more important and necessary than ever.
  • Publication
    Kenya Economic Update, May 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-07-02) World Bank
    The global economic context improved modestly in 2024, supported by easing inflation and a rebound in global trade. Kenya’s economy has slowed despite several improving macroeconomic indicators. The external sector showed improvement, driven by recovering exports and rising financial inflows. A tighter monetary policy and moderation in global inflation have contributed to a decline in inflation. Kenya’s fiscal policy challenges are multifaceted and have significant implications for the country’s economic stability and growth. Increased domestic borrowing is crowding out private sector lending. Kenya’s real gross domestic product (GDP) is expected to pick up gradually in the medium term with the external sector also projected to remain stable in the medium term. The economic outlook faces several downside risks, including fiscal challenges, weather, and external shocks. In the context of narrowing fiscal space, growing demand for investment in essential services, and the limited inclusivity of economic growth, there is an urgent need for a more efficient and equitable fiscal policy. Expanding the coverage and adequacy of cash transfers is essential to strengthening the poverty and inequality-reducing impact of Kenya’s fiscal policy.
  • Publication
    Global Economic Prospects, June 2025
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-06-10) World Bank
    The global economy is facing another substantial headwind, emanating largely from an increase in trade tensions and heightened global policy uncertainty. For emerging market and developing economies (EMDEs), the ability to boost job creation and reduce extreme poverty has declined. Key downside risks include a further escalation of trade barriers and continued policy uncertainty. These challenges are exacerbated by subdued foreign direct investment into EMDEs. Global cooperation is needed to restore a more stable international trade environment and scale up support for vulnerable countries grappling with conflict, debt burdens, and climate change. Domestic policy action is also critical to contain inflation risks and strengthen fiscal resilience. To accelerate job creation and long-term growth, structural reforms must focus on raising institutional quality, attracting private investment, and strengthening human capital and labor markets. Countries in fragile and conflict situations face daunting development challenges that will require tailored domestic policy reforms and well-coordinated multilateral support.
  • Publication
    Deterring Industrial Vessels from African Coastal Fisheries
    (Washington, DC: World Bank, 2025-09-29) Agarwal, Aishwarya; Englander, Gabriel
    Most African coastal nations prohibit industrial vessels from fishing near their shores; these Inshore Exclusion Zones (IEZs) reserve the most productive locations for small-scale, artisanal fishers. However, previous descriptive research suggests that non-compliance by industrial vessels prevents IEZs from benefiting African economies, food security, and fish stocks. Radar data released in 2024 detect industrial vessels without selection, enabling the first causal evaluation of African IEZs. First, regression discontinuity estimates reveal that 6 of 20 African countries successfully deter industrial fishing vessels (Nigeria, Sierra Leone, Liberia, Mauritania, Ghana, and Guinea). Second, bunching estimators obtain counterfactual vessel distributions that are uncontaminated by spillovers outside IEZ boundaries. Third, extensive‑margin effects are captured by calibrating a discrete choice vessel location model to the bunching estimates. Back‑of‑the‑envelope bioeconomic calculations indicate that IEZs increase annual artisanal fisher catch by 324 thousand tons—enough to meet key micronutrient requirements for 6.3 million people—without reducing industrial catch.