women and trade
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender
The Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender brings together WTO members and observers seeking to intensify efforts to increase women's participation in global trade. It was established in September 2020 as a follow-up to the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment launched at the 2017 Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires.
The Group aims to share best practice on removing barriers to women's participation in world trade, to exchange views on how to apply a “gender lens” to the work of the WTO, to review gender-related reports produced by the WTO Secretariat, and to discuss how women may benefit from the Aid for Trade initiative.
Participation in this Informal Working Group is open to all WTO members. The initiative is chaired by Cabo Verde, El Salvador and the United Kingdom.
News
Current work
As of May 2024, there were 130 WTO members and five observers participating in the Informal Working Group.
The Working Group’s Work Plan is based on four pillars:
- sharing best practices and exchanging views on removing trade-related barriers to women's participation in trade
- considering the scope for a “gender lens” to be applied to the work of the WTO
- reviewing analytical work undertaken by the WTO Secretariat
- contributing to the Aid for Trade work programme as a means of increasing women's participation in trade.
In February 2021, the Working Group adopted a Work Plan to help advance its activities and to focus its work towards the WTO's 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12), with a focus on developing a better understanding of trade and gender issues and how gender is integrated into members’ trade policies. A progress report on this work is available here: INF/TGE/R/1.
At MC12 in June 2022, ministers recognized multilaterally the links between women's economic empowerment and economic growth, noting the work of the WTO on this issue. In addition, the three co-chairs of the Informal Working Group issued a statement highlighting the achievements of WTO members’ joint work and reaffirming their commitment to advancing gender equality in trade.
After MC12, members' work accelerated, with dedicated discussions, a workshop on gender equality and the private sector organized by the three co-chairs and a workshop on data collection broken down by gender organized by Canada. In addition, the European Union and International Trade Centre organized four workshops on “Developing a gender lens framework for the WTO,” focusing on government procurement, e-commerce, trade facilitation and investment facilitation. The workshops were organized in collaboration with Ecuador, Chile and the United States.
At the 13th Ministerial Conference (MC13) in February 2024, members also led advances in gender equality. Through a dedicated paragraph on women's economic empowerment, the MC13 Ministerial Declaration (WT/MIN(24)/W/12/Rev.1) recognizes that women's participation in trade contributes to economic growth and sustainable development. It also recognizes the work of the WTO on the topic, outlining capacity building and sharing experiences as essential initiatives, two key pillars of the work of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender.
In addition, the co-chairs of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender released their “Joint Statement on Promoting Inclusive and Sustainable Trade Growth through Gender Equality and Building a Gender-responsive WTO” (WT/MIN(24)/6). This contains important commitments that will help members take the work on trade and gender to the next level and achieve concrete results in mainstreaming gender issues into the WTO.
At MC13, members also launched the Compendium of Financial Inclusion Initiatives for women entrepreneurs (INF/TGE/W/7/Rev.3), a practical tool for inclusive trade policymaking. The Compendium was launched jointly by the Informal Working Group, and the Micro, Small, and Medium-sized Enterprises Working Group. The initiatives in the Compendium are compiled in a database with a search feature that allows users to find specific initiatives, keywords, countries and territories, or institutions.
Background
In the margins of the WTO's 11th Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017, 118 WTO members and observers endorsed the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment. This initiative seeks to foster women’s economic empowerment through their participation in international trade, focussing on the sharing of experiences and best practices and workshop discussions. A total of 120 WTO members and seven observer governments support the Buenos Aires Declaration.
On 23 September 2020, the Buenos Aires participants created the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender (WT/L/1095/Rev.1) in the WTO.
Meetings
Forthcoming meetings
Draft schedule of meetings 2025 (INF/TGE/W/9)
Date |
Topic |
Organizer |
Documents |
|---|
Previous meetings
Schedule of meetings 2024 (INF/TGE/W/8/Rev.4)
Schedule of meetings 2023 (INF/TGE/W/5/Rev.2)
Schedule of meetings 2022 (INF/TGE/W/4/Rev.3 )
Schedule of meetings 2021 (INF/TGE/W/2/Rev.3)
Date |
Topic |
Organizer |
Documents |
|---|---|---|---|
27 February 2025 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
18 November 2024 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
25 July 2024 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
17 May 2024 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
6 March 2024 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
23 January 2024 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
16 November 2023 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
22 September 2023 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Cabo Verde, El Salvador and United Kingdom |
|
20 June 2023 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland and El Salvador |
|
21 April 2023 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
14 February 2023 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
12 December 2022 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
22 September 2022 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
21 June 2022 |
Botswana, El Salvador and Iceland |
Statement on inclusive trade and gender equality from the co-chairs of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
|
12 June 2022 |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
Statement on inclusive trade and gender equality from the co-chairs of the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
|
2 June 2022 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
22 February 2022 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
9 November 2021 |
Botswana, El Salvador and Iceland |
Progress Report on WTO Members and observers technical work on women's economic empowerment |
|
28 October 2021 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
23 September 2021 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
16 July 2021 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
Presentation by Statement from |
23 June 2021 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
Presentation by |
28 Apr 2021 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland, Botswana and El Salvador |
|
26 Feb 2021 |
Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Iceland and Botswana |
|
10 Dec 2020 |
Launch of the report: Delivering on the Buenos Aires Declaration on Trade and Women’s Economic Empowerment. Other items will be discussed during this meeting. |
Iceland and Botswana |
|
Workshops
21 march 2023
Organizing Member
Australia
Title
Technical Workshop on Gender Perspectives in Development Programming in the Pacific
Documents and Resources
Presentation by WTO
Presentation by Australia
- Incorporation of Gender Objectives and Indicators into Aid-for-Trade Monitoring and Evaluation (M&E)
Presentation by TradeWorthy
Presentation by Tonga
2 November 2022
Organizing Member
Canada
Title
Workshop on Gender-Disaggregated Data Collection
Documents and Resources
Presentation by OECD
Presentation by ITC
Presentation by UNCTAD
5 October 2022
Title
Workshop on Gender Equality and Private Sector: The Business Case of Trade and Gender