Enduring gender inclusivity in trade
It is important that government mandates supportive facilities for women, such as accommodation, childcare and cold storage at the border. Capacity support specific to potential women exporters is also needed. This should include programmes to support changing customs around land ownership, the creation of gender-responsive investment products such as gender/social impact bonds and debt and equity products with more concessionary terms. At a policy level, it is important for women's organisations as well as international partners such as UNCTAD and UNECA to apply pressure on governments to broaden the collection of ex-ante and ex-post gender disaggregated data. Regional economic communities should also develop regional frameworks and standards for gender benchmarking to measure this data. Gender should be included in FTA and value chain analyses, and ultimately in FTA provisions. To improve the effectiveness of these policies, governments should allocate budget for gender sensitive training in ministries.
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