Who Produces Wealth, Who Benefits? Rethinking Fiscal Policy Through a Feminist Political Economy Lens

Economic inequality in East Africa cannot be understood separately from the region’s historical and contemporary political economy. Colonial systems of extraction shaped economies around the production and transfer of resources rather than broad-based social development. These legacies continue to interact with neoliberal economic policies, debt dependence and extractive development models, influencing who controls productive resources, how wealth is generated and distributed, and the fiscal choices available to governments.

The consequences are particularly significant for women and marginalised groups, who are disproportionately concentrated in informal and precarious work, undertake a substantial share of unpaid care work, and remain underrepresented in economic and political decision-making.

The World of Work and the Politics of Public Resources

The world of work is central to understanding the region’s fiscal political economy. Workers, informal workers and communities contribute to the production of wealth, yet their voices are not always adequately represented in decisions concerning taxation, public expenditure, public debt and economic development.

Fiscal policy is therefore inseparable from the world of work. Decisions about how governments raise and spend resources directly affect wages, employment, working conditions, social protection, informal livelihoods and access to essential public services. They also shape the resources available for care and social reproduction, much of which continues to be provided by women without adequate recognition or remuneration.

Fiscal policy is not simply a technical exercise in balancing budgets. Choices about taxation, borrowing and public expenditure are political decisions that determine how resources and opportunities are distributed among the state, capital, labour, communities and households.

Debt, Fiscal Pressures and Economic Justice

Across East Africa, governments face growing pressure to mobilise domestic revenue, manage budget deficits and address rising public debt. Globally, high borrowing costs and substantial debt-service obligations further constrain the fiscal space available to developing countries, limiting the resources that can be directed towards social services and development priorities.

These pressures raise important questions about whose interests fiscal decisions serve, whose contributions are recognised and who bears the costs of economic adjustment. They also highlight the need to examine how fiscal choices affect women, workers and marginalised communities, particularly those whose livelihoods depend on informal economic activity and whose access to public services and social protection remains limited.

A feminist political economy perspective places these distributional questions at the centre of economic policymaking. It challenges approaches that treat fiscal decisions as neutral and instead examines the power relations, social inequalities and competing interests that shape economic outcomes.

At its core, this perspective asks: Who produces wealth, who captures it, who pays, who benefits and who decides? Whose economic contribution is recognised, and whose voices influence decisions? When fiscal choices change, who bears the consequences?

Building Collective Feminist Alternatives

Building on 2025 FES GJCC–FemLab process, the East Africa Sub-Regional Feminist Political Economy Lab will create a space for feminist, trade unions, researchers, progressive political actors, and other social justice constituencies to collectively analyse contemporary economic challenges and develop alternatives.

Taking place in Nairobi on 13–14 October 2026, the Lab will encourage dialogue across movements and constituencies, connecting structural economic analysis with the lived experiences across the region.

In line with the Gender Justice Competence Center for Sub-Saharan Africa framework, the process will move from structural analysis to national reflections, the development of feminist alternatives and the identification of collective political priorities.

By bringing together diverse perspectives and experiences, the Lab seeks to strengthen a shared understanding of the relationships between fiscal policy, economic inequality, gender justice and the world of work. It will provide na opportunity to explore how feminist movements and their allies can advance more equitable economic policies and challenge the structures that reproduce inequality.

At stake is not only how economies generate wealth, but also how that wealth is distributed, whose work sustains economic life, and who has the power to shape economic priorities.