East Africa is changing: new institutional arrangements are emerging through
NEPAD, the East African Community and with the introduction of country-level
Poverty Reduction Strategies. Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda are reforming their
economies and seeking to increase the pace of economic growth through marketdriven
expansion. A major focus is on creating an enabling environment for private
sector investment. Yet, the impact of these changes has yet to be felt by the
predominantly rural population living in poverty in East Africa. There are now more
than 39 million people living below their national poverty lines in Kenya, Tanzania
and Uganda of which more than 30 million live in rural areas.
This paper focuses on poverty and employment from a clear and deliberate gender
perspective. A comparison of trends and approaches is presented and what emerges is
revealing. Institutional arrangements are changing, but the impact of this is not yet
benefiting the majority, most of whom are women and children. There is a growing
and concerning decent work deficit although labour laws are being reformed and
harmonized across borders. Women’s political representation has increased over the
last decade, and recognition of the significant role of the informal economy in the
lives of most people is no longer an open secret. With clear reforms and increasing
public expenditures on education and health in all three countries, there is strong
expectation that improvements will soon show up in the data. The need to further
embed the positive progress on publicly available gender disaggregated data and
analysis will be important during coming years.
However data trends do not show improvements yet and there are growing concerns
about the rising levels of inequality and the deepening vulnerability caused by
HIV/AIDs in all three countries. HIV/AIDS is compounding gender inequalities in the
division of labour as it adds caring for the sick and orphaned to many women’s
already heavy burden.