Gender and trade

Oxfam-Québec’s Program ACCESS Innovation is aimed at meeting these challenges and supporting the endeavours of the Canadian government and DFATD. The program will help strengthen food security through improvements in agricultural productivity and the resilience of production systems to climate change, while also supporting improvements in the structure and profitability of value chains in rural-urban trade. Interventions will target promising sectors offering high nutritional value and will support transformation and marketing processes that contribute directly to rural development by generating income and jobs, particularly for women and youth. The initiative will also foster sustainable economic growth by boosting women’s and young people’s employability, assisting school-to-work transition, and supporting the development of small and medium-sized businesses.

The ultimate objective of Gender Budgeting Guidelines is to enhance SADC Member States efforts in realising gender responsive budgeting. The Guidelines endorse the need for regional guidance to fortify on going gender responsive budgeting initiatives in many SADC Member States. These initiatives are rooted in the realisation that the quest to improve national economies is intimately linked to the concrete attainment of gender equality through the allocation of adequate budgetary resources. These Guidelines are meant to systematically direct Member States’ efforts to develop national frameworks suitable to their specific country contexts. Although most Gender Budgeting initiatives are still in early stages, they have scored important successes, ranging from actual expenditure re-allocations to opening up of traditionally secretive budget processes, thus allowing greater transparency and accountability.

The European Commission services are currently reflecting on the follow-up to the Strategy for equality between women and men 2010-2015 (COM (2010) 491 final). The current strategy barely integrates gender equality into trade policy, thus providing an opportunity for the INTA committee to consider whether and how gender issues should be dealt with in the context of the EU's trade policies. This paper begins with a short overview of the current understanding of the gender and trade policies nexus, describes how gender aspects are treated by the World Trade Organisation (WTO), then assesses how the Commission handles gender in regard to trade policy and concludes with some possible policy options.

The Global Gender and Economic Policy Management Initiative (GEPMI) is a comprehensive capacity development and policy advisory services programme that aims to accelerate achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) by making economic policies and poverty reduction strategies deliver results equitably to women and men, girls and boys. This programme was designed by the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP), through regional partnerships, in order to respond to the urgent need to incorporate gender perspectives into national development frameworks.

This technical note is divided into three main parts. The first part compiles and presents the conclusions of the literature review on representative initiatives in the trade and gender area implemented in the region, which are the basis and guide for gender mainstreaming in INT operations, and identifies opportunities for future intervention by the Bank. The second part presents the process of gender mainstreaming in three types of trade interventions in INT. The last part outlines the knowledge and dissemination products, besides this technical note, that have been developed to supplement the knowledge and methodological needs identified: (1) a manual for mainstreaming gender in trade interventions; (2) a working paper on mainstreaming gender in the process of preparation, negotiation, and implementation of trade agreements; (3) analysis of specific trade agreements and proposed preparation of clauses with gender perspective; and (4) the Community of Practice on Trade and Gender.