CIDA’s Head of Development Co-operation Raymond Drouin says women have untapped potential that could be used to further trade and development, but governments and donor partners are seemingly unaware of this fact.
The senior official made the comment on Thursday at the Cara Lodge during the opening of a series of national workshops to address the treatment of trade, labour and gender in international trade agreements.
Drouin told the women drawn from various organisations that the Canadian policy was that “all international investments support the achievement of equality between women and men to ensure sustainable development.”
Utilising information from the Bureau of Statistics’ Guyana Poverty Assessment Report, Drouin said there were sharp differences in participation in the local labour force. “Guyana has the lowest female participation rate in the region, and the widest gender participation gap. While 84% of men aged 15 to 64 years old look for a job or have a job, the proportion for women is only 37%,” he said.
Drouin added that this was suggestive of distinct gender roles in Guyanese society which created a disincentive for women to participate in the labour market.
He noted the superior enrolment and performance of females in educational institutions and said that the challenge was to “translate girls’ education into female empowerment–economically, socially and politically.” Further, he added that gender equality is a critical point where trade and development intersect.
“Women’s role and contribution to national and global economies is unequivocal yet governments and development assistance actors are not aware they can harness the potential of women and equality to further trade and development goals and vice versa,” he explained.
Trade is presumed to be gender-neutral, Drouin said, but he added that trade policies produce changes in employment, price, income, and consumption patterns which affect men and women differently.
The six workshops are being held by the National Working Committee on Trade (NWCT) as part of a wider project to enhance the capacity of civil society in the Caribbean to relate to issues dealing with trade, labour and gender.
It is being managed by the Caribbean Policy Develop-ment Centre (CPDC) in seven countries across the Caribbean.
According to CPDC representative Maureen Holder, the primary project objectives included the wide dissemination of information on trade related labour and gender issues; increasing the level of awareness on the labour rights of vulnerable groups; and building technical knowledge of civil society leaders on trade related, labour and gender issues.
More specifically, the project will seek to provide education and build awareness on trade related labour issues currently being discussed under the Caricom/Canada trade negotiations.
The workshops are being executed by Women Across Differences in collaboration with the CPDC and CIDA.
