The World Trade Organization (WTO) has called for collaboration between different government agencies and statistical experts to fill the data gap on women in trade.
This need was agreed upon by participants in the second Think UP! reflection session of the WTO Gender Research Centre, which took place virtually last Wednesday (27.07.2022).
At the meeting of this Center that serves as a platform for collecting knowledge in which the most recent research works are shared, the Ambassador Stephen de Boer from Canada He stressed the need for “a strong evidence base to support policy development and monitor its implementation and impact.”
“The lack of resources and trained statisticians, and the difficulty in collecting data from the informal sector, where most women run their businesses, also complicates the gender analysis of trade," according to Stephen de Boer.
In turn, the Head of WTO Trade and Gender Unit, Anoush der Boghossian, noted that statistical analysis of trade often does not clearly distinguish between foreign and domestic trade or retail sale.
In this context, Anu Peltola, Acting Head of Statistics and Information at UNCTAD, reported on a research project that links existing data to gain new insights into gender equality in trade. This approach also “depends on the Partnerships between international agencies to gain experience and identify resources for this work,” he argued.
On Georgia pilot project for the use of gender methodology in trade, the Former Deputy Executive Director of Geostat, Tengiz Tsekvava, which revealed that “highly skilled female workers were the most resilient to gender inequality, showing the highest employment rate and the lowest gender pay gap.”
Likewise, Heidi Stensland, World Bank specialist, described a study on the trade facilitation that analyzed two data gaps: the number of cross-border business enterprises led by women and gender-specific challenges to cross-border trade.
Also Nelson Manuel Paredes, Head of the Department of Commercial Information of the Undersecretariat of International Economic Relations of Chile, reported on a research project related to the participation of the women in exports from Chile, which involved the Internal Revenue Service, providing information at the company level, and the export promotion agency Pro Chile, to find out the gender ownership of companies.
Based on this, Chile launched a study in 2017 on the participation of women-led companies in Chilean exports. In addition, in 2019 it conducted a follow-up survey on gender gaps and barriers to better support women's participation in foreign trade.
Finally, it was reported that, 5 7 to the December, the WTO Trade and Gender Unit and the WTO Gender Research Centre will organize the World Trade Congress on Gender, the first global research conference dedicated to trade and gender. (WTO Press Release)
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