Lifelong gender inclusive education, productive capacity, and governance quality in Africa

The importance of governance quality in driving economic progress is well-established in the existing literature, yet only limited strands of studies have explored the factors that enhance governance quality itself. Hence, this study investigates the effects of lifelong gender-inclusive education and productive capacity on governance quality while also examining the moderating influence of lifelong gender-inclusive education on the effect of productive capacity on governance quality. The analysis is based on a sample of 51 African countries for the period 2005–2022. The adopted empirical strategy includes the pooled OLS, the instrumental fixed effects (FE), and the dynamic system generalized method of moments (SGMM). The study incorporates four education variables, including primary, secondary, and tertiary school enrollments, along with a lifelong education index derived from principal component analysis (PCA) to capture lifelong gender-inclusive education in Africa. The following findings are established: First, productive capacity overwhelmingly has a positive effect on governance quality. Second, positive synergies become apparent when lifelong gender-inclusive education complements productive capacity to promote governance quality. The policy implications of the findings from this study are discussed in the context of the African Union's Agenda 2063 and the United Nations' Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). • The study investigates the effects of lifelong gender-inclusive education and productive capacity on governance quality. • The analysis is based on a sample of 51 African countries for the period 2005–2022. • The adopted empirical strategy includes the pooled OLS, the instrumental FE and system GMM. • Productive capacity overwhelmingly has a positive effect on governance quality. • Positive synergies become apparent when lifelong gender-inclusive education complements productive capacity.