It is necessary to advance in productive and commercial diversification so that women have more and better economic opportunities, said ECLAC

In the countries of the Pacific Alliance, it is key to promote the economic participation of rural women in regional production chains to promote a transformative recovery with equality. This was one of the reflections shared by Nicole Bidegain Ponte, Social Affairs Officer of the ECLAC Division for Gender Affairs, during her moderation at the high-level panel “Policies and strategies for the economic empowerment of rural women in the countries of the Pacific Alliance” of the First Ministerial Meeting on Entrepreneurship and Economic Autonomy of Women of the Pacific Alliance. The meeting was held on August 5, 2022 and was organized by the Technical Gender Group of the Pacific Alliance.

In addition, the Social Affairs Officer of the Gender Affairs Division highlighted the role of the Ministries and mechanisms for the advancement of women to promote the mainstreaming of the gender perspective in trade policies and promote regional cooperation. She highlighted that the Pacific Alliance, through its Gender Working Group, is a pioneer in this regard.

This panel included the participation of Gheidy Gallo Santos, Presidential Advisor for the Equity of Women of Colombia; Diana Mirian Miloslavich Tupac, Minister for Women and Vulnerable Populations of Peru: Luz Vidal Huiriqueo, Undersecretary for Women and Gender Equity of Chile; and Luz María de la Mora, Undersecretary of Foreign Trade of the Mexican Ministry of Economy.

Nicole Bidegain Ponte also participated as a panelist in the panel “Why bet on Economic and Foreign Trade Policies with a gender focus?”, along with representatives of multilateral entities. In this framework, she made a presentation on “Challenges for the economic autonomy of women in foreign trade in countries of the Pacific Alliance.”

According to the Social Affairs Officer of the Gender Affairs Division, the pandemic deepened the structural knots of gender inequality in Latin America and the Caribbean, to which are added new uncertainties and ups and downs in international trade derived from the war in Ukraine. Although the region is undergoing a recovery process, it is uneven. In this context, it is key to promote economic and foreign trade policies with a gender perspective to promote policy coherence and avoid the trade-off between gender equality, sustainability and commercial integration.

She highlighted that according to ECLAC data, the proportion of women employed in the export sector in the countries of the Pacific Alliance is higher than the average for Latin America (16.7% compared to 12.7%). From a sectoral perspective, agriculture and agribusiness represent, respectively, 10.3% and 7.1% of employment associated with exports for women. However, the weight of these activities may be underestimated given the invisibility of women’s work in family farming, which is often considered an extension of unpaid domestic work. In agriculture and agribusiness in the Pacific Alliance, for example, 27.6% of women workers are unpaid auxiliary family workers.

In addition, for rural women, producers and entrepreneurs, the expansion of their enterprises beyond national borders becomes more difficult, since they tend to be concentrated in smaller companies and face gender gaps in access to productive resources, financing , technology and markets. Also, rural women tend to have a higher unpaid workload compared to urban women and men.

Based on this panorama, Nicole Bidegain Ponte concluded her speech by highlighting the importance of international commitments and the Regional Gender Agenda to move towards productive and commercial diversification in sectors with more and better economic opportunities for women. In this sense, the Montevideo Strategy proposes to align trade policies with women’s rights and the Santiago Commitment to develop programs for the generation of quality employment and enterprises led by women in international trade, to carry out gender impact assessments of policies and cooperate to prevent harmful competition between countries and protect women’s labor rights.

Finally, he made a call to participate in the XV Regional Conference on Women in Latin America and the Caribbean, which will take place from November 7 to 11, 2022, in Argentina, whose central theme will be “The care society as a horizon for a sustainable recovery with gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean”. In this framework, issues related to the economic autonomy of women and their participation in productive and commercial sectors will be addressed.

rmation:

See the presentation “Challenges for the economic autonomy of women in foreign trade in countries of the Pacific Alliance”.

See the broadcast on Facebook.