Gender-Responsive Digital Public Service Delivery and Women's Poverty Reduction in Nigeria: Extending the Effective Women Empowerment Policy Framework to Public Administration

Women bear a disproportionate share of poverty in Nigeria, yet most empowerment policy debate treats public administration as a neutral delivery channel rather than as a determinant of outcomes. This paper argues that the administrative systems through which empowerment policies are delivered, particularly as services move online, shape whether women can actually convert policy entitlements into income, assets and voice. Building on the six-component Effective Women Empowerment Policy Framework proposed by Owoniya et al. (2026), the paper translates each component into specific public-administration mechanisms and develops the Gender-Responsive Digital Service Delivery (GR-DSD) model. Using a qualitative documentary and thematic analysis of national policy instruments, institutional reports and the empirical literature, the paper derives six propositions and an implementation roadmap for federal, state and local government. The analysis suggests that gaps in digital access, legal identity and documentation, institutional coordination and gender-disaggregated monitoring are the main administrative bottlenecks linking policy intent to poverty outcomes. The paper contributes a testable conceptual model and practical guidance for policymakers, and sets out a research agenda for empirical validation.