On 12 March the World Trade Organization (WTO) announced that Members had adopted a 2021 Work Plan to intensify efforts to increase women’s empowerment through trade at the 26 February meeting of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender.
Members agreed to Canada's proposal for the Work Plan, which outlines activities aligned with the four (4) key elements that the Informal Working Group intends to focus on: reviewing gender-related analytical work; experience sharing on increasing the participation of women in trade; considering the WTO Aid for Trade work programme.
The Informal Working Group was established in September 2020 as the next phase of an initiative launched at the 11th Ministerial Conference in 2017 in Buenos Aires, where the “Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment” was signed. Currently 127 members and observers support the Declaration.
A number of Members at the meeting said time could be spent later in the year to draft a declaration on trade and gender for the 12th Ministerial Conference, which will take place in the week of 29 November 2020 in Geneva. Several Members suggested additions to the Work Plan as well, which Canada said it would incorporate in a revised document.
Botswana Ambassador, one of the Informal Working Group's co-chairs, noted that the Informal Working Group had agreed to proceed on the basis of the Work Plan with the suggested improvements. Iceland Ambassador is also a co-chair.
At this meeting, members addressed one of the activities identified in the Work Plan by hearing and discussing a presentation by the WTO Secretariat and the World Bank of their joint report titled “Women and Trade: The role of trade in promoting gender equality”.
Story by: Riaan de Lange