Gender, Economic Well-Being and Children’s Access to Schooling in Kinshasa: Evidence on the Consequences of Prolonged Economic Crisis

David Shapiro, Pennsylvania State University

Previous research on the effects of gender and economic well-being on children’s access to schooling in Kinshasa, capital of the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and the second-largest city in sub-Saharan Africa, has documented the importance of both of these factors as relevant to who goes to school in the city and progress made in school. That research utilized data from a 1990 survey. Beginning soon after that survey was carried out, the DRC experienced a protracted period of economic crisis, characterized by an unbroken 12-year stretch during which GDP per capita declined each year. This paper uses data from the Demographic and Health Survey carried out in the DRC in 2007 to examine these same factors – school enrollment and progress in school – to see how, if at all, the relationships between gender, economic well-being, and school attendance and progress have changed since 1990.