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 on 23 September 2020 as a follow-up to an initiative launched at the Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017, known as the Joint Declaration on Trade and Women's Economic Empowerment.
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 Botswana, Iceland and El Salvador.
News
Background
In the margins of the WTO's 11th Ministerial Conference in Buenos Aires in 2017, 118 WTO members and observers endorsed the informal 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, by focussing on experience and best practices sharing and workshop discussions. Since 2019, 120 WTO members and 7 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, the ultimate outcome of the Buenos Aires Declaration.
The first objective of the Informal Working Group included crafting and adopting a new Declaration on trade and gender at the WTO 12th Ministerial Conference (MC12). On 1 December 2021, the "Joint Ministerial Declaration on Gender Equality and Women's Economic Empowerment within Trade" was published (WT/MIN(21)/4/Rev.1) and is currently supported by 121 WTO Members.
The MC12 Declaration is the first formal Declaration on trade and gender equality in the WTO. This Declaration gives members a clear mandate to act in four key areas, that are instrumental to move gender equality in trade forward. The MC12 Declaration also establishes for the first time a formal process to report back annually in the General Council and at the WTO 13th Ministerial Conference. Through this process, the MC12 Declaration further institutionalises gender issues in the WTO. It will be adopted at MC12 in 2022.
Work of 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.
Meetings on the four pillars were completed in July 2021. Since then, members have focused on developing an MC12 outcome document on trade and gender. Nineteen WTO members, four international organisations and the WTO Secretariat have formed the “Friends of Gender Group" to work towards a draft outcome document for the 12th Ministerial Conference.
- Progress Report on WTO Members and observers technical work on women's economic empowerment
- Joint Ministerial Declaration on the advancement of gender equality and women's economic empowerment within trade - 12th WTO Ministerial Conference
Documents submitted by WTO members
Date |
Member |
Title |
Document number |
---|---|---|---|
13 April 2022 |
Botswana, El Salvador and Iceland |
Draft schedule of meetings for 2022 |
|
6 December 2021 |
The Russian Federation |
Communication from the Russian Federation on joint ministerial declaration on the advancement of gender equality and women's economic empowerment within trade |
|
22 October 2021 |
Mexico |
Mexico's recent work on trade and gender |
|
14 October 2021 |
Botswana, El Salvador, Iceland |
Draft schedule of meetings for 2021 |
|
30 April 2021 |
Botswana, El Salvador, Iceland |
Proposal for a framework to deliver an ambitious ministerial outcome on trade and gender for MC12 and beyond |
|
29 March 2021 |
Canada |
Final work plan for implementing activities under the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
|
3 Feb 2021 |
Canada |
Revision of Draft Work Plan for implementing activities under the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
|
11 Jan 2021 |
Australia |
Australia Experiences with Gender-Related Practices and Processes |
|
21 Dec 2020 |
Canada |
Draft work plan for implementing activities under the Informal Working Group on Trade and Gender |
Meetings of the Informal Working Group
Forthcoming meetings
Draft schedule of meetings — January — July 2021 (INF/TGE/W/2/Rev.2)
Date |
Topic |
Organizer |
Documents |
---|---|---|---|
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 |
|
Meetings
2021
- 23 September
- 16 July
- 23 June
- 28 April
- 26 February
2020
- 10 December
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