The African Development Bank (AfDB) and the African Tax Administration Forum (ATAF) urged African states to rethink tax policies that can disproportionately affect women.

The appeal was delivered at a hybrid seminar hosted by the two organisations in Abidjan, which gathered policymakers, tax administrators, researchers, development partners and gender specialists.

Why women are more vulnerable to tax burdens

According to the AfDB’s African Economic Outlook 2026, informal employment makes up about 86 % of total employment in Africa, and women are over‑represented in this sector.

Tax measures such as presumptive taxes, market levies, compliance requirements and formalisation processes can affect women differently because they constitute the majority of the informal workforce.

Gender‑focused objectives of the seminar

Jemimah Njuki, director of the Gender, Women and Civil Society Department at AfDB, said tax systems should reflect the realities of both sexes, improve data quality, and make compliance more accessible to support women’s economic participation.

ATAF’s tax academy manager Caroline Mutayabarwa stressed that reforms must go beyond technical adjustments to confront structures that place an undue share of the tax burden on women.

The gathering also marked the fifth anniversary of the ATAF Women in Tax Network, which was created in 2021 to promote women’s leadership in tax administration; women held only 27 % of executive positions in African tax administrations in 2022.

Future collaboration and policy work

AfDB and ATAF reaffirmed their commitment to continue working together on gender‑responsive fiscal policy and tax administration across Africa, building on the Bank’s Gender and Macroeconomics Programme.