The African Development Bank Group, in partnership with the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF), hosted a hybrid seminar where policymakers called for African tax systems to be redesigned to better account for how taxation affects women and men differently.
Held in Abidjan and online on 7 September, the seminar was under the theme "Gender and Taxation: Advancing Gender-Responsive Tax Systems in Africa." It brought together tax administrators, researchers, development partners and gender specialists to examine how tax policy and administration can promote gender equality while strengthening domestic resource mobilisation and inclusive economic growth.
According to the African Development Bank's African Economic Outlook 2026, informal employment accounts for about 86 percent of total employment in Africa, with women significantly more likely than men to work informally: 89.2 percent of employed women are in informal employment, compared with 82 percent of men. Separately, ATAF's African Tax Outlook found that women held only 27 percent of executive positions in African tax administrations in 2022.
Panellists examined how tax design and administration -- including presumptive taxes, market levies, and compliance and formalisation processes -- can have distinct effects on women, who constitute the majority of Africa's informal workforce.
Participants discussed how gender-responsive tax policy can support women's economic participation and entrepreneurship, strengthen domestic resource mobilisation, and contribute to fairer and more efficient fiscal systems across the continent. The discussion drew on evidence, country experiences, and practical recommendations shared by representatives of Ministries of Finance, Ministries of Gender, tax administrations, civil society, and research institutions.
"We can design tax systems that reflect the realities of women and men, improve the data behind our decisions, make compliance and formalization more accessible and ensure domestic resources and fiscal policy contributes rather than constrains gender equality and women's economic participation," said Dr Jemimah Njuki, Director of the Gender, Women and Civil Society Department at the African Development Bank Group.
Caroline Mutayabarwa, Manager of ATAF's Tax Academy, said the goal extended beyond technical reform. "We set out not merely to adjust administrative rules, but to build tax systems that serve every citizen fairly -- which means confronting the structures that currently place an undue share of the burden on women," she said.
Celebrating five years of AWITN
The seminar also commemorated five years of the ATAF Women in Tax Network, established in March 2021 to promote women's leadership and participation in tax administration across Africa. Since its founding, AWITN has supported the professional development of women in revenue authorities and advanced dialogue on gender-responsive tax policy.
Monday's gathering was the third in a series held under the Bank's Gender and Macroeconomics Programme, which aims to integrate gender considerations into macroeconomic policy and decision-making across Africa through four pillars: knowledge products, a webinar series, a platform for Ministries of Gender and Finance, and capacity building.
It builds on the programme's launch webinar in November 2025, "From Policy to Practice: Advancing Gender-Responsive Macroeconomics in Africa," and on a gender-responsive budgeting webinar held in April 2026.
The African Development Bank and ATAF reaffirmed their commitment to ongoing collaboration on gender-responsive fiscal policy and tax administration, including through knowledge sharing, policy dialogue, and the exchange of evidence and country experience, to support more inclusive and effective fiscal systems across Africa.
