How can we support women’s economic empowerment through trade?
来源:World Economic Forum;发表于:2022-05-07;人气指数:269
How can
we support women’s economic empowerment through trade?
https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2022/02/empowerment-women-trade-gender-equality-economy/
Women in South Asia
have often been constrained to low-skilled or unskilled labor within the
informal sector.
Image: UNSPLASH/Evan
Krause
21 Feb 2022
Maria Beatriz Orlando
Lead Social
Development Specialist, Social Sustainability and Inclusion Global Practice,
World Bank
Girija Shivakumar
Strategic
Communications Consultant, World Bank
Mandakini Kaul
Regional Coordinator,
South Asia Regional Integration and Engagement, World Bank
*The dominant trend
across South Asia is poor labour force participation rates for women.
*A recent paper from
the World Bank suggests that a targeted inclusion of women in the workforce
would increase economic growth by 26% of global GDP by 2025.
*The South Asia
Regional Trade Facilitation Program (SARTFP) is a regional program that uses a
gender lens to focus on infrastructure sectors such as transport connectivity,
trade, and entrepreneurship.
For years, Krishna
Kumari Rai from the Kulung Rai community in Nepal, had to leave her home to
secure her family’s livelihood. Forced to travel to Bhutan to work as a laborer
in orange orchards and in Nepal’s carpet factories, making a living meant
facing undue hardship as well as risks to her safety and well-being without
economic security. Yet when she returned home and discovered the commercial
viability of a forest product ‘allo’, which her family, had used for food and
clothing for generations, an entrepreneur was born. She learned how to weave,
began organizing the women in her community into groups and ultimately
initiated a Common Facilitation Center. The now-1200+ member strong Center was
set up as part of an NGO, SABAH Nepal where Ms. Kumari is a Director, and
focuses on increasing trade opportunities for home-based workers. Products made
from allo fibers are distinctive due to their indigenous heritage and hold
enormous potential for large profit margins (64-106% measured between 2014-2018)
in a global natural fibers market otherwise saturated by hemp and jute.
Her story of
hardship, however, is not an exception. Poor labour force participation rates
for women have been the dominant trend across South Asia. Where women do work,
they have been constrained to low-skilled or unskilled labor within the informal
sector. A recent World Bank Paper insists that a targeted inclusion
of women in the workforce would advance economic growth and trade outcomes by
26 percent of the global GDP by 2025 and holds potential for the region as
well. The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted economic growth across South Asia,
highlighting the urgent need to foster growth, especially when the indicators
for women’s employment, income and wealth which have suffered. However,
governmental, local and international initiatives targeting economic
empowerment for women have historically failed to leverage international trade
and development opportunities as a potential area for expansion.
'Higher value-added
products of spice and fiber have allowed women to move up the chain and be
involved in production and marketing and earn more than a daily-wage.'
Image: World Bank
The South Asia Regional
Trade Facilitation Program (SARTFP) is a pioneering trust fund under the World
Bank’s Regional Integration, Cooperation and Engagement (RICE) framework
that supports economic growth and women’s economic empowerment through trade
and connectivity primarily in Bangladesh, Bhutan, Nepal and India. Supported by
Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) by the Government of Australia,
SARTFP is a unique regional program that brings a strong gender focus to
traditionally gender-blind infrastructure sectors such as transport
connectivity, trade, employment and entrepreneurship. SARTFP’s support to
the World Bank study is significant as it sheds light on the
challenges facing women in the production of Allo and Cardamom – two crops with
tremendous export potential - and makes recommendations on strengthening value
chains. Many, like Ms. Kumari, are benefiting from improved regional trade and
connectivity and enabling policies and infrastructure.
The lack of access to
formal financing institutions, coupled with lack of collateral for loans, often
keep women from entrepreneurship opportunities. Through SARTFP’s financing of
micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) that support women, co-operatives
like the Kanchenjunga Himalica Agricultural Udyog (KHAU) in Nepal, owned and
supported by a majority of women, have expanded trade meaningfully. Unlike allo
which was an untapped market, Nepal is the largest exporter of large cardamom
in the world, with its trade valued at 37.5 million USD. The cooperative,
through a collective initial investment by members, source cardamom from local
farmers to produce spice and cardamom-based fibers. Transforming a process
wherein women were traditionally limited to physical labor in harvesting
cardamom, these higher value-added products of spice and fiber have allowed
women to move up the chain and be involved in production and marketing and earn
more than a daily-wage.
Recognizing the role
of infrastructure in increasing mobility for women in trade chains, the SARTFP
has been instrumental in supporting the development of regional transport
highways and inland waterways that are accessible for women. This combined with
a push to close gender gaps and to develop women-dominated sectors as led by
the WePower forum has made significant waves. Bangladesh’s largest power sector
player- the Bangladesh Power Development Board has diversified
recruitment to raise the number of women employed in the power sector, and has
committed to training at least 80 women in STEM fields, mentorship of 20 women
professionals in 2020.
In the coming
decades, the role played by the digital landscape of markets will be crucial.
Digital economies such as e-commerce provide unparalleled opportunities to
women entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and enter previously male
dominated sectors. This not only helps to eliminate the gender gap in market
participation, it can boost also market performance by up to 300 billion
dollars by 2030. Data from emerging economies such as Guatemala, Philippines
and Indonesia show that women are embracing digital platforms as entrepreneurs to
reach audiences far beyond their geographical locations. However to tap into
the potential, they need access to business support functions and financial
literacy trainings.
Programs that open up
opportunities for women, like SARTFP, show what it takes to effectively advance
women’s empowerment. Making gender a focus of operations and planning is just
the start. Providing information on where enterprises are located along
economic corridors, and the policies and investments that can help women
benefit from economic opportunities are also critical.