The Roles of Foreign Aid in Gender Equality for a Sustainable Environment in Africa

ABSTRACT Anchored in the sustainable development goals, this study examines the impact of foreign aid (SDG‐17) and gender equality (SDG‐5) on environmental sustainability (SDG‐13) across 28 African countries during 2000–2023. In addition, it explores the moderating role of foreign aid in the linkages between gender equality and sustainable environments. The empirical findings are based on Driscoll–Kraay with fixed effects, augmented mean‐group, two‐step system generalised method of moments and method‐of‐moments quantile regression. The results show that foreign aid and gender equality reduce the ecological footprint, thereby strengthening ecological quality. Furthermore, the result from the moderating model reveals that foreign aid and gender equality complement each other to achieve environmental sustainability. The study highlights the role of gender equality and foreign aid in improving Africa's environmental quality.