Gender and trade

This is the final report of the mid-term review of the second phase of the Support to Quality Infrastructure in Agadir Countries (SQIA) financed by Sweden. The purpose of the second phase of the project is to assist the four Agadir countries in the implementation of the Agadir Agreement signed in 2004 with the aim to establish a free trade area between Morocco, Egypt, Tunisia and Jordan. The support focuses on establishing systems and structures to bring down technical barriers to trade (TBTs). The overall expected result is to reduce poverty through boosting trade, increased economic development, and the attraction of Foreign Direct Investments. The support period runs from 2014 to 2018. The local counterpart of the project is the Agadir Technical Unit (ATU) in Amman, Jordan, and the technical assistance is provided by the Swedish Board for Accreditation and Conformity Assessment (Swedac). The review adopts a contribution analysis approach, recognising that there are alternative explanations for the changes observed. The project is but one contribution to a broader process of trade reform in the Agadir countries. The main data collection activities organised by the review team during implementation were a documentation review and semi-structured interviews conducted during a field visits to the Agadir member countries, visits to Stockholm to meet Swedac and the two Swedish partners, and additional Skype interviews. The main limitation of the review is the slow progress of the project, which inhibited any systematic assessment of outcomes, impact and sustainability.

This report aims to measure the global economic costs of gender inequality. The report finds: -Globally, women account for only 38 percent of human capital wealth versus 62 percent for men. In low- and lower-middle income countries, women account for a third or less of human capital wealth -On a per capita basis, gender inequality in earnings could lead to losses in wealth of $23,620 per person globally. These losses differ between regions and countries because levels of human capital wealth, and thereby losses in wealth due to gender inequality, tend to increase in absolute values with economic development -Two main factors lead women to have less earnings and thereby lower human capital wealth than men: lower labor force participation rates and fewer hours worked in the labor market, and lower pay. These factors keep many women in a productivity trap due in part to social norms relegating them to unpaid care and informal work -To increase women’s earnings and human capital wealth, investments throughout the life cycle are needed, from early childhood development and learning in schools to building job-relevant skills that employers demand, encouraging entrepreneurship and innovation, and ensuring that both women and men have equal access to opportunities and resources.

The report provides a comprehensive and authoritative assessment of progress, gaps and challenges in the implementation of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) from a gender perspective. The report monitors global and regional trends in achieving the SDGs for women and girls based on available data, and provides practical guidance for the implementation of gender-responsive policies and accountability processes. As a source of high-quality data and policy analysis, the report is a key reference and accountability tool for policymakers, women’s organizations, the UN system, and other stakeholders. This report lays the basis for robust, gender-responsive monitoring of the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development by: -showing how gender equality is central to the achievement of all 17 SDGs and arguing for an integrated and rights-based approach to implementation; -explaining gender data gaps and challenges for robust monitoring and establishing starting points and trends across a range of gender-related indicators based on available data; -providing concrete guidance on policies to achieve two strategic targets under SDG 5 (violence and unpaid care) and outlining how these policies are synergistic with other goals and targets; and setting an agenda for strengthening accountability for gender equality commitments at global, regional, and national levels.

This report is intended to do – provide aggregate information on women serving on the boards of companies listed in the stock exchanges of 12 large economies in the region as ranked by the World Bank. Beyond the numbers, the precise names of companies with and without women directors are indicated, as well as the names of women currently serving on these corporate boards. The difficulties encountered by researchers in securing the data already point to a need for greater transparency and access to current corporate information equivalent to those available in other regions of the world. The low percentage of women directors in the African countries covered will not surprise anyone, but it should be noted that numbers globally are indeed low, except in those countries, which have decided to do something about improving those numbers as noted above. The African percentage of women directors actually surpasses the percentages in other regions of the world. What is evident, however, is that board composition is tied to corporate governance, and the principles of what constitutes good governance is still at its early stages in many African countries.

This paper discusses some relevant gender-related issues regarding the implications that the agricultural trade expansion and liberalization have on aspects linked to gender inequalities that exist in the agricultural and rural sector. Section 2 provides a general framework together. With a brief review of women’s contribution to agriculture. Section 3 gives an analysis regarding the experiences of selected developing countries, from which some conclusions are drawn out about the impact of the agricultural trade development on aspects like agricultural work, land use, women access to productive resources and to new productive opportunities in agriculture. Section 4 considers the main features of trade liberalization agreements, both multilateral and regional, and in particular provides an overview of four key commodities for developing economies. Section 5 makes some considerations on the main implications of liberalized agricultural trade for small-scale farming, questions the conditions in which are provided the new economic opportunities for women, and indicates other aspects of relevance from a gender perspective that are ignored in trade policies and negotiations on agricultural commodities. Section 6 highlights some major considerations and conclusions that arise out of the examination conducted throughout this article.