The impact of gender inequality on economic growth in Somalia: an analysis of health, political representation and labor force participation

Gender inequality remains a major obstacle to inclusive and sustainable growth in fragile, conflict-affected contexts like Somalia. This study investigates how gender gaps in labor force participation, longevity, and political representation relate to Somalia’s economic growth over 1991–2023. To capture the broader socio-political context, internal conflict and institutional quality are also included in the analysis. Using an Autoregressive Distributed Lag (ARDL), we estimate short-run and long-run relationships between these dimensions and economic growth. The results show that greater parity in life expectancy and higher women’s political representation are positively associated with economic growth in both the short and long run. Labor force parity also exhibits a positive long-run association, though its short-run effect is not statistically significant. Internal conflict is negatively related to economic performance, whereas institutional quality is not significant in the baseline specification. Policy implications include investing in women’s health, expanding women’s political participation, reducing barriers to female employment, and strengthening conflict-resolution efforts. While limited by reliance on secondary data and the omission of other gender indicators such as education and income gaps, the study provides Somalia-specific evidence that advancing gender equality supports economic development and offers actionable guidance for a fragile, reforming economy.