The case for gender equality is unequivocal. It is a fundamental condition for the full enjoyment of human rights and a crucial factor in reducing poverty and spurring economic growth. Its importance is highlighted in Millennium Development Goal 3 on promoting gender equality and empowering women.
Discrimination against and marginalization of women make societies worse off. Just as with income inequality, gender discrimination tends to reduce growth and to hold back development by crippling a significant part of society’s human capital – in this case 50 per cent. By contrast, there is ample evidence that enhanced opportunities for women lead to improvements in poverty reduction and to accelerated economic growth. It is therefore high time for gender equality to be incorporated more broadly into development efforts, including measures related to trade, investment and entrepreneurship.
The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) has both the responsibility and the expertise to play a key role in ensuring that gender concerns are incorporated in a meaningful way in economic policies, including trade, investment and enterprise development. As part of its mandate, UNCTAD has been working on gender and development-related issues since the 1990s. UNCTAD activities include research, intergovernmental discussions, capacity-building for policymakers, training of entrepreneurs, and the sharing of lessons, best practices and examples. UNCTAD is currently analysing how innovation affects women entrepreneurs and how science and technology can be made more responsive to the needs of women.
The Accra Accord resulting from UNCTAD’s twelfth Ministerial Conference – held in Accra, Ghana, in April 2008 – requested the organization to strengthen its work on the linkages between trade and internationally agreed development goals and objectives, including those related to gender, and to make efforts to mainstream cross-cutting issues of gender equality and the empowerment of women in all its work. UNCTAD is currently in the process of implementing a strategy of “gender mainstreaming” in the substantive work of the organization. Its purpose is to better enable UNCTAD staff and the whole organization to address gender-related issues and to look at the topics included in UNCTAD’s mandate through a “gender lens”.
UNCTAD has carried out a research project on women entrepreneurship and innovation, supported by the Swedish Government. The project examined the process of innovation from a gender perspective in both developed and developing economies. It examined what impediments to innovation there may be from a structural or societal perspective and how these impediments may vary by gender. The report suggested policy recommendations and best practices to foster a greater level of innovation in women-owned enterprises.
UNCTAD, in its role as Lead Agency of the United Nations Inter-agency Task Force on Gender and Trade, has produced a resource paper on gender equality and trade policy which reflects the views of the United Nations system on the issue. The paper is intended to enhance policymakers abilities to ensure that men and women equally benefit from trade.
UNCTAD is also exploring the exposure of women’s employment to international trade and the consequent impacts trade policies have on households. As trade policies have a direct impact on employment, some sectors benefit from trade preferences or trade agreements, while others see a decline in employment due, for example, to growing imports of competing products or to the relocation of production. Trade agreements may enhance or hinder exports in sectors where women are most active. The consequent upturns or downturns in these sectors offer female workers new employment and training opportunities or, conversely, expose them to redundancy, unemployment and underemployment.
Through its Empretec programme, UNCTAD promotes entrepreneurship among women in developing economies, including least developed countries. As its spin-off, the Empretec Women in Business Awards have been presented biannually to women trained by Empretec, who have excelled in developing innovative business ideas, providing jobs and increasing income in their communities. Both the programme and the awards have had a very real impact on the lives of recipients, on their access to education and resources, and on their motivation to continue developing their enterprises.
I hope that UNCTAD’s Women in Business Awards will serve to highlight the challenges faced by women in entrepreneurship, and provide an incentive for women in all countries to rise to the challenge and become entrepreneurs.
UNCTAD will hold its thirteenth quadrennial Conference in 2012 in Doha, Qatar. Gender issues will figure prominently at UNCTAD XIII.The Women in Development event, which will run all day on 23 April, will provide the opportunity to discuss the crucial role that women could play towards more equitable, inclusive, prosperous and democratic societies. It will discuss ways and means of ensuring that women’s knowledge, skills and talents are fully utilized, for their own benefit and for that of society.
Supachai Panitchpakdi
Secretary-General of UNCTAD
(21 December 2011)
