On January 4th, UNCTAD launched the second iteration of its trade and gender online course. The course is being delivered to over 100 students from 56 different countries representing government agencies, international organizations, civil society and academia.
The seven-week course is based on the teaching manual, Trade and Gender: Unfolding the Links, developed by UNCTAD's Virtual Institute.
The course will introduce participants to central concepts surrounding the two-way relationship between trade and gender and provide them with analytical tools to effectively integrate trade and gender considerations into research, project/programme development, and policy-making.
This second iteration of the course builds on the success of the inaugural course delivered in 2015. Last year 66 students successfully completed the programme, with 85 per cent reporting that the course was very good or excellent and 87 per cent confirming that it significantly enhanced their understanding of the relationship between trade and gender. One student, a female from Botswana, thanked UNCTAD saying "through this course I am more knowledgeable, [and] better equipped to contribute to the development of my country."
The students were selected from a pool of 172 applications and all of them were granted scholarships funded by the Government of Finland. All developing regions, as well as several economies in transition, are represented amongst the course's participants.
And this year's class is not just geographically diverse. Participants include officials from a variety of government agencies, including among others, national banks, ministries of foreign affairs, trade and agriculture, national statistics institutes, and foreign missions such as delegations to the WTO.
Other participants are specialists from intergovernmental organizations, and programme managers at national and international civil society organizations. Finally, researchers, lecturers and professors from universities and other academic institutions account for almost a half of this year's class.
The course has only just begun, but already the participants are expressing a great deal of interest and enthusiasm for the material. "I have taken off in pursuit of the course and have all materials. The course looks both exciting and informative and I am ... looking forward to an exciting 7 weeks", wrote a participant from the Association of African Women for Research and Development in Kenya.
