Breaking the statistical silence and incorporating the gender perspective in trade policies is key to transforming international trade into a means that contributes to sustainable development and gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean, representatives raised today in a side event to the First Meeting of the Regional Conference on South-South Cooperation in Latin America and the Caribbeanwhich is being held this Tuesday, May 30 and Wednesday, May 31, at the ECLAC headquarters in Santiago, Chile.
The meeting, organized by the Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) and the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung Foundation (KAS), included opening remarks by José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, Executive Secretary of the United Nations regional commission; Winfried Weck, Representative of KAS and Director of the Regional Program Alliances for DEmocracy and Development with Latin America (ADELA) (virtual); and Claudia Sanhueza, Undersecretary of International Economic Relations of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Chile.
During the meeting, which was also attended by Nadine Gasman, President of the National Institute for Women of Mexico (virtual), among other specialists, the document Gender gaps in global value chains in Latin America and the Caribbean was released : new and old challenges in a scenario of uncertainty.
“International trade is not neutral to gender inequalities. On the one hand, gender inequalities can influence the commercial performance of countries and, on the other, changes in the commercial specialization of countries can affect the gender gaps present in the labor market, improving or worsening them. Incorporating the gender perspective in trade policies is key for international trade to be a means that contributes to sustainable development and gender equality in Latin America and the Caribbean,” said José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs.
The highest representative of ECLAC explained that almost two thirds of international trade is managed through the so-called Global Value Chains (GVC) and gender inequality is intrinsic to several of them. In fact, he said, many women participate mainly as low-cost labor, in less protected jobs, in precarious conditions and in sectors with less contact with technology and innovation.
However, progress can be seen in some countries in the region, assured José Manuel Salazar-Xirinachs, mentioning the recent experiences of Costa Rica and the Dominican Republic in the export sector of medical devices, with positive results for women.
“From ECLAC we have pointed out that export specialization strategies in primary products and manufactures based on natural resources, or labor intensive, have not been enough in the region to diversify the export basket towards more intensive sectors in knowledge, technology and generation of quality employment, particularly for women”, remarked the Executive Secretary of ECLAC.
Finally, he called for breaking the statistical silence in the analysis of international trade and for more and better data to design and implement trade policies, to attract investment and promote exports, sensitive to gender, with information disaggregated by sex to evaluate ex ante and ex post the gender impacts of public policies or programs, in all sectors of activity and along each of the links that make up the global value chains.
For his part, Winfried Weck, from the Konrad Adenauer Stift Foundation, appreciated the alliance with ECLAC for the preparation of the study, which he described as “a very important book.” His institution, he said, has decided to focus on the issue of gender, for which they have cooperation programs with regions in Latin America and the Caribbean and Africa to strengthen the South-South and triangular modalities. “We must continue to create a critical mass and thus ensure that women have access to the different areas of work in society,” he said.
The Undersecretary of International Economic Relations of Chile, Claudia Sanhueza, also highlighted the launch of the document, since it is, she said, “an issue where there is not as extensive a literature as on other issues of gender gaps.”
“We are observing lower rates of female labor participation in Latin America, that is part of the diagnosis, and we are also seeing occupational segregation in the different productive sectors. Women are concentrated in sectors that usually have less added value, such as agriculture, textiles, tourism, domestic service, among others,” she explained.
However, the Undersecretary called attention to the fact that women who are in productive sectors integrated into the world economy receive salaries up to 40% higher than those who participate in sectors that are not in global value chains. “There is a space where the greater participation of these women can also improve their living conditions”, she highlighted.
The study prepared by ECLAC and KAS provides guidelines for analyzing and understanding gender inequalities in GVCs, several case studies and evidence of gender gaps in some sectors (agriculture, manufacturing, tourism, modern services provided by digital media, among others) and specific countries.
