UNCTAD15 Gender and Development Forum: High-level panel on shaping gender-responsive economies and societies – What role for trade?

Statement by Isabelle Durant, Deputy Secretary-General of UNCTAD

Welcome to all of you,

It is impossible to think and build resilient, inclusive and sustainable societies if inequalities between women and men persist.

I have often wondered why, in the economic world, this inequality was considered as secondary, incidental, and in any case not a priority.

It seems to me more than ever that overcoming the obstacles that women have faced for so long and in all areas should be at the top of the new agenda.

This requires a wide range of policies.

And it will not be enough to encourage women's participation in trade as such through various technical measures. It will also require appropriate domestic policies and coherence between policies and levels of intervention.

This ranges from social protection to the organization of society, education and training, zero-tolerance of violence against women and the fight against gender biases.

The business community has finally, and thankfully, abandoned the traditional view that "business is gender neutral”.

But this remains a relatively new area of work, including for most countries and institutions.

Let's look at some data:

• In developing countries, women make up 33% of the workforce in trading firms, compared with just 24% in non-exporting firms;
• Workers in both developed and emerging economies are almost 50% more likely to be employed in formal jobs if they work in sectors that trade more or that are more integrated into global value chains: it is no coincidence that women are the majority in the informal sector;
• Market openings, as well as the digital value chain, have created new wage employment and entrepreneurship opportunities for women and men. However, not necessarily have women and men benefitted equally.
• About 42% of women-led companies are micro-enterprises, compared to 22 % of men-led companies. Only 19% of trading companies are women-led.

 Let's consider the impact of trade liberalization in two regional groups: The South American trade bloc MERCOSUR and the East Africa Community EAC. And when we look at the trade and regional agreements, we find that the jobs they have made available to women are mainly in simple tasks that do not include management or supervisory responsibilities, in other words, they are not empowering jobs.

There are at least three ways to make trade policy more gender-responsive:

1. In trade instruments: gender issues are addressed in trade agreements, and there has been a shift from simply mentioning gender in the preambles to having entire chapters specifically dedicated to gender. But this approach may not be ambitious enough in that it does not include specific gender equality milestones nor consequences for not meeting targets. The focus is too exclusively on information exchange and technical cooperation.
2. In ex ante assessments: they provide a solid basis for making trade agreements more gender-responsive. While some countries are already performing such assessments (e.g. Canada), this should become the "new normal". UNCTAD has developed a methodology for conducting ex ante gender assessments of trade agreements in its "Toolbox: Trade and Gender”.
3. Commitments at the multilateral level: we need to continue the path started with the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Gender.

The WTO informal working group on trade and gender is taking this work forward, and UNCTAD is part of it. As the draft declaration of the 12th WTO Ministerial Conference is being discussed, some points of consensus seem to be emerging. It is now up to our conference to set the tone and make proposals on this issue.

But as with previous shocks, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a disproportionate socio-economic impact on women because of the disadvantages they face in the economic, social, financial and regulatory ecosystems.

The crisis has led to a decline in women's economic opportunities: according to the ILO, in 2020, women's employment rate decreased by 4.2%, while men's decreased by 3%. Many women have left the labor market altogether, which is of great concern for the future.

Sectors where female employment is comparatively high have been hit hard, such as tourism. And women have been at the forefront in sectors considered essential: health, care or retail (cashiers).

Poverty is on the rise for the first time in two decades. And it is more acute in female-headed households.

Intervention and recovery programs are gender-sensitive, but those focused on economic recovery have largely ignored women in their design.

Women also remain underrepresented in decision-making processes. For example, of the 225 working groups created to design and implement COVID's life-saving programs for which data are available, women make up less than a quarter of the membership and are not represented at all in 12% of all working groups. Not surprisingly, the results of these taskforces do not match the support for women.

So there is work to be done, and UNCTAD will do its part.