Abstract

In the 21st century globalized world, each country is striving to grow be it high, uppermiddle, lower-middle, or low-income countries. The regional groups; SAARC and SADC have mixed of both lower-middle-income economies and upper-middle-income economies. The abundance of labour resources and natural resources distinguishes it from all other regional groups. These regional groups face structural dualism, institutional dualism, and wage dualism as the greatest challenge. Male and female labour force participation is important for the faster growth of any economy. The economies of both regional groups show variation in female labour force participation. The study aims to examine the female labour force participation in SAARC and SADC countries. It tries to analyze the impact of access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking and access to electricity on female labour force participation in SAARC and SADC countries. The study tries to co-relate the factors and tries to look at the trend of all three; female labour force participation rate, access to clean fuels and technologies for cooking and access to electricity from 2000 to 2019. The findings derived from this study are anticipated to help the two regional blocs and other similar developing countries worldwide to partially attain the clean energy transition targets mentioned under the 2030 Sustainable Development Goals agenda of the United Nations. The move of the clean energy transition will not only improve the health of females but will save their time as well to participate in the labour force if they are willing to do so. The recommendations made in the paper will be valuable for policymakers to understand the role of females in nation-building and will push the Government’s attention towards strengthening the existing policies and formulating new policies.

Keywords: SAARC, SADC, Female, Labor force participation, Clean fuels, Electricity