Beijing +30: Reflections on Women’s Economic Empowerment

In 1995, the world gathered in Beijing and set a visionary blueprint for gender equality. Yet, three decades later, women’s economic empowerment—an essential pillar of that vision—remains one of the most urgent, unfinished fights. While we’ve made progress, persistent barriers continue to hold women back.  

The 30th anniversary of the Beijing Conference is not only a moment for reflection but also a call to action. The lessons we’ve learned from ICRW’s work in Kenya and across sub-Saharan Africa highlight what it will take to finally deliver on the promise of equality.

From Breakthroughs to Bottlenecks 

Kenya’s Beijing+30 country report and the complementary civil society shadow report reveal both breakthroughs and bottlenecks in promoting women’s rights.  

The Access to Government Procurement Opportunities (AGPO) program, for example, has allocated 30% of public procurement opportunities to women, youth, and persons with disabilities. By 2023, women-owned enterprises had secured contracts worth about $541 million through AGPO, a remarkable signal of demand and capability. 

The Women Enterprise Fund, too, has demonstrated what is possible when women are engaged as economic actors. Since its inception in 2007, it has disbursed over $162 million, benefiting more than 1.6 million women directly and over 6.5 million indirectly through group lending. In addition, over 2 million women entrepreneurs have received business training and mentorship support. These numbers reflect substantial demand for enterprise financing and underscore the catalytic impact of supporting women’s entrepreneurship. 

The country has also made strides in public finance management by integrating gender-responsive reporting in the systems of independent oversight institutions and government budgeting initiatives. This allows ministries, departments, and counties to more effectively track financial allocations through a gender lens. In FY 2022/23, for example, gender-responsive allocations amounted to about $56.5 million, proving that budgets are not neutral, and with deliberate effort, they can align with national gender priorities.  

These gains are worth celebrating. They show what is possible when governments design for inclusion, opening doors for women to seize opportunities and fuel economic growth. Yet, they also reveal how bureaucratic delays and deep-rooted structural barriers can limit progress. We see this most glaringly in unpaid care. 

In Kenya, women spend on average 28.2 hours per week on unpaid care and domestic work, compared to 7.2 hours for men. This ratio of nearly 5:1 is not simply a statistic—it’s an invisible tax on women’s time, aspirations, and earnings. It determines who can pursue paid work, who can scale a business, and who is trapped in a cycle of informality. This persistent challenge is not only in Kenya. Across sub-Saharan Africa, women perform three times as much unpaid care as men, locking them into low-paid, informal sectors. 

Kenya’s National Care Policy, finalized this year, could mark a turning point. It aims to address this imbalance by expanding care infrastructure, introducing care-friendly employment policies, and supporting community-based initiatives. However, without financing and implementation, the policy risks remaining a promise on paper. 

In countries like Rwanda, coordinated investments in early childhood development increased enrollment from 13% in 2010 to 21% in 2020, illustrating how systemic care responses can improve human capital. Ethiopia’s Productive Safety Net Programme has piloted care-responsive design, including childcare centers. At the same time, South Africa’s Child Support Grant, covering more than 12 million children, has demonstrated that social transfers can indirectly boost women’s employment. The evidence is clear: when governments implement intentional strategies, women benefit, families thrive, and economies grow stronger. 

But too often, such policies are underfunded or vulnerable to shifting political priorities. 

Even where the frameworks exist, fiscal realities threaten to erase hard-worn gains. Kenya, for example, devoted about $14.3 billion (approximately 48% of the 2024/25 national budget and 55% of projected revenue) to debt servicing. Such pressures crowd out investments in care, health, and social protection, sectors that disproportionately affect women and determine whether they can fully participate in the economy.  

Priorities for Action 

To move us closer to fulfilling Beijing’s vision, governments must make bold choices. In Kenya specifically, that means: 

• Fully adopt and fund Kenya’s National Care Policy, expanding care services for children, the elderly, persons with disability, and the sick, and recognizing care as essential social and economic infrastructure. 
• Enforce the two-thirds gender rule to ensure women are represented in leadership across public institutions and in the political space. 
• Connect credit programs, like the Women Enterprise Fund and Hustler Fund, to pathways for business formalization, social protection portability, and safe workplaces. 

And across sub-Saharan Africa, that means:

• Publish transparent, accessible data that tracks gender-responsive financial allocations and outcomes.  
• Ratify and enforce ILO Conventions 189 and 190, extending protections to domestic workers and addressing violence and harassment at work. 
• Introduce gender-responsive fiscal frameworks to safeguard social spending and shield women’s economic empowerment gains from austerity measures and rising debt service obligations. 
• Strengthen land and inheritance rights for women, ensuring equal access, ownership, and control over productive resources to enhance their economic security and agency. 
• Enforce equal pay legislation, formalize women-dominated sectors, and extend social protections to informal workers. 

From Aspiration to Reality 

With structural reforms, innovative coalitions, sustained political will, regional solidarity, and audacious investments, we can accelerate women’s economic empowerment. When care is valued, women’s work is protected, and fiscal policy secures social investment, transformation follows. It drives economic growth, reduces poverty, and strengthens democracy.