Section outline

  • The COVID-19 pandemic is threatening to reverse decades of progress on gender equality and women's empowerment, notably in the areas of poverty eradication, educational attainment, labor market participation, and trade. These areas are closely linked to the 2030 Development Agenda and its Sustainable Development Goals. Economic downturns, such as the present one, tend to affect men and women differently, mainly because of gender-segmentation into different economic sectors, the structure of markets and institutions and the inequalities within them, and the different roles women and men play in society. Women's shrinking participation in the economy may have negative longer-term effect not only on gender equality. Phenomena linked to unemployment, such as skill erosion, discouragement, loss of business networks, and discrimination, may lead women to permanently exit the labour market with high risks of productivity losses for the broader economy.

    The course will update delegates on the impact of the pandemic on women and on the rescue measures that countries, especially developing and least developed countries, have put in place to help people and companies to shoulder the pandemic-induced economic shock. Among the various initiatives, the presentations will focus on those that, directly or indirectly, by design or by coincidence, have the potential to benefit in particular women. The discussion will then respond to the question: What does "building back better" mean for women? Trade policy is one of the important tools that can be used to provide new economic opportunities for women. Devising measures that promote women’s participation in trade and ensuring that the benefits from trade reach women and men equally can be an effective way for all countries to step up their efforts towards a more inclusive and gender-equal order after the pandemic.