Trade Finance: Make it work for women says WTO Deputy Director-General Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza
10 Mar 2009
Deputy Director-General Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza said in a press statement on 10 March 2009 that “women urgently need a gender-specific component built into responses to the international financial crisis to ensure they are not further left out of the shrinking credit pool”.
Trade Finance: Make it work for women
Women own 1% of the world’s wealth, have a 10% share of the global income and occupy 14% of leadership positions in the public and private sector. It is therefore no surprise that they account for 70% of the world’s poor.
“If we truly want to tackle poverty, we must do things differently: we must empower women to succeed in business and trade, and change the business environment through policies that support women,” said Patricia R. Francis, Executive Director, International Trade Centre, speaking at the International Colloquium on Women’s Empowerment, Leadership, Development, International Peace and Security Colloquium (Monrovia 7-8 March).
“Access to finance is critical to business success. Women’s lack of access to finance has been well documented. The global financial crisis exacerbates an already dissatisfactory situation of trade financing for women entrepreneurs. Women urgently need a gender-specific component built into responses to the international financial crisis to ensure they are not further left out of the shrinking credit pool,” stated Valentine Sendanyoye Rugwabiza, Deputy Director-General, World Trade Organization.
Source:WTO
