Gender and trade

Sexual and Gender-Based Violence against Refugees, Returnees and Internally Displaced Persons is a Guidelines for Prevention and Response. These Guidelines offer practical advice on how to design strategies and carry out activities aimed at preventing and responding to sexual and gender-based violence. They also contain information on basic health, legal, security and human rights issues relevant to those strategies and activities.

The Gender Gap Index 2006 covers 115 countries, representing over 90% of the world’s population. The country comparisons are meant to serve a dual purpose: as a benchmark to identify existing strengths and weaknesses; and as a useful guide for policy, based on learning from the experiences of those countries that have had greater success in promoting the equality of women and men.

The Global Gender Gap Report 2007 provides an analysis of the trends in gender equality across 128 countries in Africa, Asia, North and South America. It is intended to lead to greater awareness of the gender challenges and opportunities, in addition to serving as a catalyst for change in both high- and low-ranking countries. The report also aims to serve as a useful benchmarking tool for policy-makers as they define their national priorities by providing them with a snapshot of their relative strengths and weaknesses. It is argued that as policy-makers and business leaders seek to address talent shortages, it is becoming increasingly urgent to close gender gaps and leverage the talents of both women and men. Addressing this challenge will require a multi stakeholder approach.

Through the Global Gender Gap Reports, for the past three years the World Economic Forum has been providing a framework for quantifying the magnitude of gender-based disparities, tracking their progress over time and designing effective measures reducing them. In addition, in 2008, we have launched our Global Gender Parity Group and Regional Gender Parity Groups in Latin America, the Middle East, Africa and Asia. These multi-stakeholder communities of highly influential leaders—50% women and 50% men—from business, politics, academia, media and civil society seek to examine the specific challenges and opportunities linked to the global gender gap in business, education, politics and health; exchange best practices and collectively construct creative and viable strategies to optimize the use of talent. The data in this Report serve as a framework for the efforts of these communities

The Global Gender Gap Report 2009 shows that the 134 countries covered by the Index have on average closed over 96% of the gap on health outcomes between women and men and almost 93% of the gap on educational attainment. However, the gap between women and men on economic participation and political empowerment remains wide: only 60% of the economic outcomes gap and only 17% of the political outcomes gap have been closed