UNCTAD XII
Trade and Gender
Perspectives for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Alleviation
The Commonwealth Secretariat in collaboration with UNCTAD, delivered a parallel event on Trade and Gender: Perspectives for Sustainable Growth and Poverty Alleviation, on Tuesday 22nd April at the UNCTAD XII in Accra, Ghana. The event was introduced by UNCTAD Secretary-General Supachai Panitchpakdi, and Chaired by Commonwealth Deputy Secretary General Ransford Smith.
22 April 2008, Accra, Ghana: Thematic roundtable on “Globalization, development and poverty reduction – their social and gender dimensions”.
In his introductory remarks, Dr. Supachai Panitchpakdi emphasised the need for growth to be more inclusive, and spoke of both the challenges and opportunities that trade impacts have on women in the labour market. He underlined the case that women’s incomes have a multiplier effect on the economy and society, and how trade has improved women’s incomes, but also noted that the impacts of trade on women looks less positive in some countries. He mentioned the continued inequities within labour laws such as male female wage differentials; and how in times of adversity such as in a food crisis women often bare the hardest burdens. He also stressed the need for more empirical evidence.
Other panellists included Ms Rachel Mayanja, UN Special Adviser on Gender Issues and the Advcancment of Women who gave the Opening Statement; Shri Gopal Pillai, Permanent Secretary, Commerce Ministry, India; Anh-Nga Tran-Nguyen, Director, Services Infrastructure for Development and Trade Efficiency, UNCTAD; and Savior Mwambwa, National Coordinator of the Civil Society Trade Network, Zambia.
In her Opening Statement, Ms Mayanja noted that urgent attention is needed to accelerate progress towards gender equality and the empowerment of women, across all levels and sectors, and emphasised that resources must be allocated for activities targeting the elimination of persistent obstacles to gender equality and the empowerment of women if the international community is serious in the pursuit of gender equality as a central pillar in poverty reduction and sustainable development.
Speaking on Equity, Poverty Alleviation and Trade for Growth – Challenges and Opportunities in Policy Formulation at the National Level, Shri Gopal Pillai indicated the “invisibility” of women’s contribution to growth as one of the greatest obstacles, and the subsequent absence of women within business delegations and the policy making process in general. He identified several ways forward, including; addressing through legislative provision the greater employment of women; the framing national policy by getting all departments to adopt gender sensitive approaches; and increased access to credit and capital for women entrepreneurs.
Following on from Mr Pillai’s national level presentation, Ms Anh-Nga Tran-Nguyen presented on the broader opportunities for a gender lens in trade analysis and policy. Efforts towards gender mainstreaming and utilising entry points and policy spaces are a first step, she noted. She outlined the multidimensional impacts of trade liberalisation on gender equality, such as wage differentials, the displacement of women from the food subsistence sector and an increase in the casualisation of the work through the cost competitiveness in labour intensive industries, and argued for more impact assessments of trade and gender and the mainstreaming of gender policies across all Ministries.
The final intervention by Savior Mwambwa presented a grassroots and civil society perspective on the impact of trade policy on gender and poverty reduction. He outlined the Zambian country context, where modest and sustained growth rates have not translated appropriately in terms of human development, and underlined the gender dimensions of poverty that exists within the country, particularly in the rural areas and within the agricultural sector. However, he emphasised the continued lack of clear diagnostic analysis of the gender impacts at the policy level, and the need for empowering women traders and small groups on the practical aspects of trade agreements, allowing for their views to be fed into the national process.
Questions and an active discussion from participants followed the presentations, including avid debate on the implementation of quotas, innovative financing for poor women producers to transition from micro-enterprises to small and medium enterprise, and on the potential impacts of the ACP-EU Economic Partnership Agreements on competitiveness, poverty reduction and gender equality.
In conclusion, DSG Smith summarised the key outcomes of the presentations and the discussion towards the following recommendations:
- A need for increased capacity building among policy makers is required to ensure a gender lens is applied to all stages of trade policy formulation, implementation and negotiation;
- Creating an enabling environment for market access for women producers and workers through strengthening trade support services, such as financial and business services, and developing gender sensitive projects targeted at increased export promotion;
- Adoption of a gender sensitive trade-related regulatory framework both at regional and international level;
- National level policies should provide incentives for poor women on the one hand to access global markets and on the other to protect their livelihoods from the negative impacts of globalisation;
- Increased involvement in the formulation of trade policies and in global negotiations by women at all levels;
- Increased public debate and access to information on trade processes and agreements;
- Strengthening data analysis and gathering and other empirical evidence on gender towards inclusion within policy making;
- Strengthening access to education, information and technologies for women and girls.
Following work in gender and trade over several years, the Commonwealth Secretariat’s Gender Section is now delivering a major capacity building project in gender and trade. The project works systematically to build capacity at national and regional level with the key government ministries and private sector institutions involved in trade policy formulation, implementation and negotiations. This includes key people across government, senior policy makers and political figures and also women’s organizations and civil society organizations at national /local levels. Regional trade, civil society and training organizations are also included, creating a core body in each country that understands gender and trade related issues and can advocate and champion the integration of such perspectives.
