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Gender and Economic Development

Gender and Trade
We supported businesswomen from five Commonwealth countries (Jamaica, Kenya, St Kitts, Mauritius and Grenada) to access global markets through the promotion of their businesses at the International Spring Fair in Birmingham, UK in February 2012.  The Spring Fair is the UK’s largest fair, attracting tens of thousands of buyers from across the world.

The pilot project intended to demonstrate the potential and capacity of women to contribute to trade expansion and economic growth.  It also addressed the problem of linking women producers and exporters to global markets, opening up new economic opportunities to fuel business development.

Our post-Fair evaluation revealed a high level of satisfaction from the businesswomen. A number of the participants received significant orders and will potentially develop long-term relationships with buyers.

Gender Responsive Budgeting

Gender responsive budgeting (GRB) provides a means for determining the effect of government revenue and expenditure policies on women and men, girls and boys. These initiatives, led either by governments or civil society groups, involve examining how these allocations affect the economic and social opportunities of women and men.

A Gender Responsive Budgeting (GRB) Workshop, for senior policy officials was undertaken in Trinidad and Tobago in March 2012.  The workshop led to the lead agency, the Ministry of Gender, Youth and Child Development, advocating for the institutionalisation of GRB processes across government ministries.

With the support of the Commonwealth Secretariat a country specific GRB institutional handbook is under design.




Gender Responsive Investment

Gender responsive investment is facilitating access to finance for women and capital flows to women-owned enterprises by governments, financial service providers and other agencies. Also it is the recognition that more equitable allocation of productive resources, including finance, will have a greater impact on sustainable economic development with long-term benefits for the whole economy.

The Secretariat has commissioned research on gender responsive investment (GRI), intended to help policymakers place GRI initiatives in the broader context of economic recovery and growth. 

A GRI Handbook is under development and will serve as a training and capacity building tool to assist public sector policymakers and financial sector operators to pursue more gender sensitive economic growth and investment opportunities. The Handbook is due to be published in the last quarter of 2012.