Impact of women's political empowerment through gender quotas on improved drinking water access in Africa.

ABSTRACT: Access to safely managed drinking water is a fundamental human right, essential for human health and well-being. However, 2.2 billion people around the world still lack this access, with significant geographical disparities. In this study, we leveraged the implementation of gender quota laws-specifically reserved parliamentary seats for women across African countries-to examine its impact on improved water availability. Our findings reveal that the implementation of gender quotas is associated with a 4.71 percentage point increase, on average, in the likelihood of people accessing safely managed water infrastructure. This effect becomes even more pronounced, rising to a 12.25 percentage point increase, when the quotas mandate reserving more than 20% of seats for women. Households with lowe

SUBMITTER: An J 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC12318221 | biostudies-literature | 2025 Jul

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature