This paper empirically analyses the impact of gender disparity in access to education and under 5 mortality on economic growth in selected sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries from the period 2005 - 2020. The study engaged a panel data of 17 selected SSA countries sourced from the World Development Indicators (WDI) and the United Nations Institute for Statistics (UNIS) and applied the instrumental variable generalised method of moments analytical approach. The result shows that the interaction between gender parity in access to education and primary school enrolment has a significant impact on economic growth. The study concludes that policies to promote gender parity in access to education would be of paramount importance to increase economic growth towards the actualisation of sustainable development goal related to inclusive and equitable quality education and the promotion of lifelong learning opportunities (SDG4) in SSA countries.
One of the critical issues of concern is how African countries can take agriculture as a business that creates wealth which can help transform rural communities, increase income, reduce poverty and help the continent achieve the United Nations (UN) Sustainable Developments Goals (SDGs) of no poverty (SDG-1) and food and nutrition security (SDG-2) by 2030. Hence, this study examines how participation in agriculture through cassava value chain can improve households' livelihood income in Africa using the case of Nigeria. To achieve its objective, the study utilised quantitative analysis approach to address the linkages among economic agents within the agricultural value chain. The logit regression and propensity scores matching technique are used for the quantitative analysis. The result show that, while more significant proportion of male cassava production household heads sell cassava in its fresh form, their female counterparts add value by processing cassava further into finished staple foods. Another key insight is the high involvement of youth and women in cassava production, processing and marketing. Thus, they have greater influence in promoting and improving households' livelihood income. Therefore, more targeted efforts should be made by all stakeholders to ensure that youth and women have better, less expensive and dependable assess to facilities at lower interest rates to participate in agricultural value chain. This will engender inclusiveness of the vulnerable groups in agricultural value chain.