Gender, Poverty Eradication and Economic Empowerment

Gender, Poverty Eradication and Economic Empowerment is the third critical area in the 2005-2015 Commonwealth Plan of Action for Gender Equality (PoA). The PoA notes that gender inequality causes and exacerbates the impact of poverty on women, who globally account for about 70 percent of those living in poverty.

It also noted that new opportunities for economic growth from globalisation and trade liberalisation can also pose critical challenges related to loss of livelihoods and employment for both women and men, but with many women shouldering the primary responsibility for household and community management through their paid and unpaid work, and with existence of gender-based occupational segregation, the impacts of trade policies on men and women are often different.

In order to effectively address the processes of the feminisation of both labour and poverty, the PoA recognized the need for the Commonwealth to broaden its approach to gender and economic empowerment to encompass the macro-, meso-, and micro-level.

Within the Gender Section’s remit of activities, this has included: 

• promoting the mainstreaming of gender analysis in trade negotiations and the formulation of trade policy and implementation at national regional and international levels; 
• promoting the application, extension and institutionalization of gender responsive budget processes at national level;
• mainstreaming gender into poverty reduction strategies – MDGs, PRSPs, aid modalities and other poverty reduction policies;
• support to women’s entrepreneurship by providing an enabling environment for business development and through securing market access (networking, linking to global markets, access to finance); 
• promoting enhanced participation of women in economic processes, including trade agreements, poverty reduction strategies, and national budgets, and ensure 30 per cent representation of women in business, banking, and financial boards;
• promoting recognition of the informal economy and equitable social protection systems to deal with risk and vulnerability caused by poverty, loss of employment, sickness, HIV/AIDS and maternity.

Since 2004, a host of activities in these areas have been taken forward substantially. Below are a few of the major highlights so far:

Capacity building in gender and trade given a boost in 2006

The Gender Section’s work in trade issues received a significant boost last

year with the successful application for additional funds of over £500,000 from the UK Department for International Development (DfID) in July 2006 for Phase 1 of a multifaceted Capacity Building in Gender and Trade project that includes regional capacity building, advocacy, resource development and embedding in selected countries.

Following the success of the Commonwealth Secretariat’s 2005 Regional Capacity Building

Workshop in Gender, Trade Policy and Export Promotion in Arusha, Tanzania, for the East Africa Region, the area of Gender and Trade has since been taken forward with another two regional workshops in the Caribbean and South Asia respectively. Teams of participants from 13 countries have attended these workshops, comprising representatives from Ministries of Trade, Commerce Bureaux, National Women’s Machineries, and civil society. Objectives of the workshops were: to build capacity to integrate gender analysis in trade policy formulation and implementation; to analyse impacts of trade policy on women’s employment and entrepreneurship; to focus on region specific issues and trends and impacts on women; and to build capacity of public and private institutions to enable women to respond to changes in trade policy.

In September 2006, an advocacy event – “Equitable Trade: creating a level playing field for men and women” – was organised by the Gender Section at the World Trade Organisation (WTO) Public Forum, What WTO for the 21st Century? Panellists included Ambassadorial representatives to the WTO from Sweden, Sri Lanka and Rwanda. Future plans within the project include preparations for the next regional workshop – for the Southern Africa region – in July 2007.

The Gender Section has also commissioned a Training Module in Gender and Trade. In the final stages of development, this tool will be available by 8th Women’s Affairs Ministers Meeting in June 2007 and is targeted for use by a spectrum of professionals.

Gender Responsive Budgets

Following discussion with the UNDP Gender Unit and the Gender Responsive Budget Initiative (GRBI) project, in Pakistan, the Gender Section, in collaboration with the

Education Section, decided to enter into formal partnership with GRBI to undertake gender responsive budgeting related activities in the Education sector in the province of Sindh, Pakistan. A number of selected GRB tools would be applied with help of a partner research institution. The Government of Sindh has also agreed to support the initiative.

Other areas of work in GRB include the commissioning of papers on gender and revenue raising measures in Uganda and India.

In 2005, following the presentation of the a report, Gender-responsive Budgeting in the Commonwealth: Progress and Challenges 2005, Ministers at the Commonwealth Finance Ministers Meeting (FMM) in Jamaica, agreed to report biennially on progress made in gender responsive budgets in their countries. Finance Ministries in member countries have already been requested by the Secretariat to start submitting their inputs for the next report, which will be presented at the next FMM in 2007.

Gender and Enterprise Development

The Gender section has adopted a three-pronged approach to Gender and Enterprise Development.

First, it works closely with the Commonwealth Business Women’s Network in developing capacities for women-entrepreneurs in various regions of the Commonwealth.

This has included support for workshops, the establishment of a website www.cbwn.net, linking women entrepreneurs, and inputs for a programme called Link-IT in three countries viz. Tanzania, Uganda and Malawi.

Secondly, it works with the Enterprise and Agriculture Section of the Special Advisory Services Division of the Commonwealth Secretariat to mainstream gender into various projects and programmes.

Thus close association from the inception with the Commonwealth-India Small Business Competitiveness Programme, which consisted of several workshops with pan-Commonwealth representation (and is now entering a second phase) has resulted in not only ensuring that the content of the workshops mainstreamed gender but also that participation was gender balanced.

Lastly, the Gender Section has initiated work directly with poor women producers as in the case of women handicraft producers in Pakistan.

Publications

Several publications have been developed across each of the major activities tasked by the PoA since 2004. Within the area of Gender and Trade, these include Chains of

Fortune: Linking Women Producers and Workers with Global Markets, by Marilyn Carr, a collection of case studies from across the Commonwealth on the potential of economic opportunities and need for increased access to global markets by women producers.

Other publications include a new addition to the New Gender Mainstreaming Series on

Development Issues: Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction: A handbook for policy makers and other stakeholders, by Martha Alter Chen, Marilyn Carr and Joann Vanek. Forthcoming publications include Mainstreaming Gender in Social Protection for the Informal Economy by Naila Kabeer.

In addition, the Gender Section has been contributing to the Reference Books produced for the Finance Ministers Meeting and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meetings on issues such as gender responsive budgets, and gender and aid effectiveness.