BIBLIOGRAPHY GENDER AND PRIVATE SECTOR
DEVELOPMENT
Market
Access for the poor
February
2011
Annette Evertzen
First two annotated bibliographies:
Bell,
Emma; Brambilla, Paola.
Gender
and economic globalisation. An annotated bibliography.
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/bb12.pdf
This bibliography
focuses on the economic aspects of globalisation and
the impact on gender relations.
The texts are divided into three main sections: the
impact of globalisation; trade agreements, policy and
financial institutions; and responses to globalisation.
The overview combines a focus on the impacts of globalisation
with trade agreements, policy and financial institutions as the later
influences the former. The overview then goes on to look at the different
responses by the women’s movement and attempts to incorporate gender into
theory, policy and practice concerning globalisation.
Finally, suggestions for future research are outlined.
Some
documents can be found online, and some are in French.
Esplen, Emily; Brody, Alyson.
Putting gender back in the picture. Rethinking women's economic empowerment.
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/bibliographies.htm
Overview and annotated bibliography
The first section of this overview explores the
dominant analysis taking hold around women’s economic empowerment and
highlights critical issues that remain as yet on the margins of debate and
action. It seeks to promote a nuanced understanding of the gendered barriers
that prevent some women from benefiting from economic opportunities or from
being empowered despite access to these opportunities. It goes on to suggest a
practical starting point for overcoming some of these barriers: tackling the
‘double burden’ of paid work and care work that is shouldered by so many women.
The second section provides an annotated bibliography of useful, relevant and
timely resources related to the issues covered in the overview. Summaries and
publication details of each resource are included in the bibliography.
And further:
Morrisson, C. and J. Jutting.
The
impact of social institutions on the economic role of women in developing countries.OECD
Development Centre, 2004.
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC15046
This working paper challenges the view that the
socio-economic role of women in developing countries will be substantially
improved through increased access to education, health, credit, formal legal
rights and employment opportunities, in conjunction with economic growth.
Using a newly developed data set, the study undertakes
a regional statistical comparison of the impact of social institutions such as
laws, norms and traditions on the possibilities of women to participate in
economic activities.
Comparing the results for different regions, the paper
finds that social institutions, rather than factors such as country income or
level of participation in education, constitute the most important single
factor determining women's freedom of choice in economic activities.
OECD
2011 Women's
economic empowerment. Issues paper. OECD.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/50/60/47561694.pdf
The economic
empowerment of women is a prerequisite for sustainable development, pro-poor
growth and the achievement of all the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Gender equality and empowered women are catalysts
for multiplying development efforts.
Issues paper
with key messages and casus.
Riisgaard,
l., A.M. Escobar Fibla & S. Ponte
2010
Gender and value chain development. Ministry of
Foreign Affairs, Evaluation Department / Danida.
Value chains have
become a key concept in international discussions on development, in particular
in relation to the effects of globalization on employment and poverty reduction
in developing countries. However, knowledge among practitioners and policy
makers on the gender aspects of value chain interventions is still limited.
The overall
purpose of this study is to examine which gender issues are important when and
where in value chains – based on findings of existing evaluations complemented
by other relevant studies. The focus in this report is on development
interventions that explicitly or implicitly employ a value chain approach.
Coverage is not limited to interventions targeting only women, but will also
include evaluations and lessons learned from more generic value chain
interventions insofar as they address or reflect upon gender issues.
United States Agency for International Development
Promoting
gender equitable opportunities in agricultural value chains.
A handbook. USAID, 2009.
This handbook
is based on research studies and training programs conducted under the Greater
Access to Trade Expansion (GATE) Project.
The GATE
project developed a suite of resources to provide development practitioners
with an understanding of and the tools for addressing gender issues in value
chain analysis and development programs.
The Handbook
covers conceptual and practical issues for addressing gender in agricultural
value chains and is divided into two parts.
§
§
Part II. A Process for Integrating Gender Issues into Agricultural Value
Chains. Part II offers practitioners a five-step process for identifying and
evaluating genderbased constraints within agricultural value chains with tools
and worksheets for implementing the process.
United States
Agency for International Development.
Women in the economy. A
review of recent literature.
http://www.usaid.gov/our_work/cross-cutting_programs/wid/pubs/GATEWomen_EconomyFeb2006.pdf
Drawing attention to the numerous aspects of gender
inequality that limit women’s full participation in “productive” activities,
this paper investigates the unique position of women within the economy. It
explores why the inclusion of gender issues is not only beneficial, but also
crucial to the success of economic development programs. Through examining the
domains of economic development and trade liberalisation, the paper emphasises
that integrating gender considerations leads to a greater understanding of the
impediments that hinder women’s full participation in the economy. This
recognition enables the creation of more targeted assistance programs to
address those hindrances; thereby creating an environment for better policy
response.
Training
guides:
Bauer, Susanne; Finnegan, Gerry; Haspels,
Nelien.
GET ahead for women in enterprise training package and
resource kit. Bangkok: ILO, 2004
http://www.ilo.org/public/english/region/asro/bangkok/library/pub4c.htm
The GET Ahead training package focuses on developing
women's confidence, creating a 'business mind', managing people and risks, and
grasping opportunities in the business environment. The training modules
include:
Module 1 -
Basic on gender and entrepreneurship: promotion of equality between men and
women and the life cycle of people and enterprises
Module 2 -
The business women and her environment: self-development and business mapping
Module 3 -
Business project: business ideas, opportunities and challenges; marketing;
production, services and technology; finance
Module 4 -
People, organization and management: management of self and others; business
support and networking; action planning.
International
Labour Organisation.
Women’s entrepreneurship
development capacity building guide. Genève: ILO, 2006.
http://www.siyanda.org/docs/WED_capacity_building_guide.pdf
This guide is designed to meet the needs
for documentation to support women's entrepreneurship development. It is aimed at
a range of support agencies, including microfinance institutions. The guide
provides a systematic guide that can be adapted to a range of contexts. It goes
beyond the narrow approach that sees training as the major contribution to
women's entrepreneurship development, and introduces a wide range of support
mechanisms, including research, networking and association building, market
access, and a broad spectrum of business development services. Furthermore, it
integrates gender issues into the technical approaches to business development.
It also takes account of special situations or target groups where women's
entrepreneurship development can be effective, such as women living with
HIV/AIDS, women affected by trafficking, women entrepreneurs with disabilities,
and refugee women.
And further:
See how they
grow. Business development services for women's business growth.
ICRW, 2001.
Report focuses on lessons learned by two organizations
– BRAC in
The study also makes a case for more demand-driven
services which take into account issues, such as domestic and public violence,
that constrain business growth for women entrepreneurs. It argues that business
development services that are provided to cooperatives or income-generating
groups are an effective tool for achieving women's business growth, especially
in rural areas. The study also encourages funders to pay attention to the
ability of BDS providers to address gender concerns in their grantmaking programs.
Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation
Gender-oriented entrepreneurship promotion. Swiss
Agency for Development and Cooperation, 2003.
http://www.intercooperation.ch/sed/download/wep-manual/manual.pdf
This manual
provides strategies, concrete instruments, and practical examples, to help
professionals in the field realize a more gender-balanced approach when
implementing micro and small enterprise promotion programs.
The manual is
divided into two parts. The first part focuses on the strategies and tools of
the WEP project cycle: planning, implementing and monitoring. Planning involves
the assessment of the current situation and the future development of key
factors. Implementation focuses on the adaptation of the program design to meet
women’s specific needs. Monitoring is the last step in the project cycle and is
the systematic observation and, if necessary, correction of the implementation
progress.
The second
part of the manual presents concrete worksheets and forms
for practitioners who want to use the tools presented in Part
White,
Susanne.
Women's
employment in the agro and food processing sector. South Asia and
http://www.wiego.org/papers/white.pdf
The following paper will
address several issues related to women in the informal agro and food
processing sectors. In Part One, an overview of the
agro and food processing industries in
First an annotated
bibliography:
Brambilla,
Paola.; Bell, Emma; Sever, Charlotte.
Gender
and microcredit. Useful resources.
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/reports/re61.pdf
International development organisations have for the past decade supported
small-scale loans and credit in different forms (solidarity-groups, small
enterprises, rotating saving schemes). There have been many texts written on
the positive and negative long-term and short-term impacts of such projects and
programmes, and considerable information on measures
to combat gender inequity has been generated.
This is a collection of
relevant resources and information about institutions and people working in the
field of Microcredit and small loans for women.
This document provides:
§
A bibliography on
evaluation-literature. This section is divided into key texts, general texts,
guides and case studies categorised according to
region. If the text is online a website address has been included.
§
A summary of institutions with experience in the field of microcredit and banking for women, and promotion
of small-scale entrepreneurs. Contact details are also listed.
§
Contact details and
information about consultants.
§
§
Checklists & guidelines
Johnson, S. Gender and microfinance. Guidelines for best practice.
http://www.gdrc.org/icm/wind/gendersjonson.html
Mayoux, L. Sustainable
micro-finance for women's empowerment. Strategy
checklist. 2006
http://www.genfinance.info/Documents/Gender%20Checklist.pdf
Woroniuk,
B., and Schalkwijk, J. Microcredit & equality between women and men.
http://www.oecd.org/dataoecd/2/41/1896456.pdf
And further:
Amendáriz,
B., and Roome, N.
Gender empowerment in microfinance. Harvard University Department of Economics, 2008.
http://www.economics.harvard.edu/faculty/armendariz/files/Gender%20Empowerment.pdf
Ever since microfinance was popularised in the
mid-1970s in
In this paper the researchers argue that the promotion
of women in microfinance initiatives and the bias against men is taking place
in the absence of solid empirical evidence on the effects of this approach on
the balance of power in households and on the health, education and well-being
of all household members.
Australian
Government / Office of Development Effectiveness.
Microfinance, gender and aid effectiveness. Australian Government, 2008.
http://www.ode.ausaid.gov.au/publications/pdf/microfinance_issues_note.pdf
This factsheet examines the way that gender is treated
in microfinance activities. It argues that irrespective of the primary
rationale for supporting a microfinance activity, gender should be fully
integrated into design from the beginning. This includes having a clear gender
objective in the design of the program and a monitoring and evaluation system
that collects data on specific gender indicators.
Boros,
A.; Murray,
Ú.; Sisto, I.
A guide to gender sensitive micro
finance. FAO, 2002.
www.fao.org/sd/seaga/downloads/EN/Microfinanceen.pdf
This guide was developed as a
practical aid for those involved in microfinance programmes to ensure that
socio-economic and gender issues are taken into account when starting or
developing a microfinance programme, when designing national policies for
microfinance and for disaggregating microfinance markets to find out more about
clients. Such an approach can minimise risk and improve efficiency by drawing
on lessons learned regarding socio-economic and gender concerns that can help
microfinance institutions become sustainable.
The Guide structures questions
that can be asked by microfinance intermediaries in attempting to ensure that
their operations are gender sensitive. There are suggestions in the Guide for ensuring that policy or macro level
microfinance planning is gender sensitive. Questions are also posed for finding
out more about gender relations at the microfinance client level. Overall, this
Guide should serve as a reference point to ensure that microfinance activities
reach their intended socio-economic target group.
Also in French, Spanish and Portuguese.
Gentilhomme,
I.
Microcredit and women's empowerment. What
do we know? Brussel: WIDE, 2009.
http://62.149.193.10/wide/download/Background%20Reading%20for%20the%20Conference.pdf?id=865
Microcredit has become a popular tool in developing
countries to fight poverty, and is subject to a number of criticisms,
especially concerning its capacity to empower women. This paper reviews some
recent literature and lists some of the positive and negative impacts of microcredit
on women.
More specifically, the paper explains what microcredit
is and why it is targeting women. It discusses the definition of empowerment to
provide a comprehensive approach to specific terms. It introduces the main
positive and negative impacts of microcredit on women that can be found in
reports available from the international organisations.
Kabeer, N.
Is
Microfinance a ‘magic bullet’ for women’s empowerment. Analysis of findings
from South Asia.
Economic and Political Weekly, 2006.
This paper examines the empirical evidence on the
impact of microfinance with respect to poverty reduction and empowerment of
poor women in
Mateja, C.
Women and microfinance: a route to poverty reduction?
How successful are microfinance initiatives directed at women in achieving
poverty reduction?
http://www.e-ir.info/?p=1480&article2pdf=1
The aim of this essay is to evaluate the success of
microfinance initiatives that are directed at women in achieving poverty
reduction. It argues that while these initiatives are beneficial, the belief
that they alone can reduce poverty is too simplistic.
The essay is divided into two parts. The first part
introduces the concept of microfinance and the rationale behind targeting
women, which is critically examined. The second part looks at the impact of
microfinance initiatives directed at women on poverty alleviation. Drawing on
examples from some African and Asian countries, the argument is built on the
examination of two dimensions of poverty, namely income generation and
empowerment.
Mayoux,
Linda.
Women’s
empowerment through sustainable micro-finance. Organisational gender training for MFI‘s and NGO’s. Aga Khan Foundation
http://www.genfinance.info/TrainingResources.htm
Microfinance programmes reach millions of women and men
worldwide. Although no ‘magic bullet’, they are potentially a very significant
contribution to gender equity and women's empowerment. However it has become
increasingly clear that gender equity and women’s empowerment cannot be assumed
outcomes from financially sustainable micro-finance. Gender discrimination in
access to many micro-finance services continues. Moreover evidence suggests
that actual contribution to women’s empowerment is often limited. This is the
case even in financially successful microfinance programmes. This is not just a
question of lack of impact, but may also be a process of disempowerment.
This training manual is divided into 6 modules:
Module 1: What is gender? Basic concepts and goals
Module 2: Micro-finance and women’s empowerment:
Approaches, evidence and ways forward
Module 3: Participatory tools for empowerment
Module 4: Empowerment versus sustainability? Products,
services and participation with a gender lens
Module 5: Gender mainstreaming for empowerment:
organisational gender policy
Module 6: Bringing it together: organisational action
plan
The site contains a trainer manual, a participants
manual and backgroundpapers.
Mayoux, L.
Women's
empowerment through sustainable micro-finance. Rethinking
"best practice".
Sustainable Micro-finance for
Women's Empowerment, 2006.
http://www.genfinance.info/Documents/Mayoux_Backgroundpaper.pdf
This paper challenges assumptions about the automatic
benefits of micro-finance for women. It argues that financial indicators of
access - such as women's programme membership and size of loans - cannot be
used as indicators of women's empowerment. High repayment levels by women do
not necessarily indicate that women have used the loans themselves. Men may
take the loans from women, or women may choose to invest the loans in men's
activities. Likewise, high demand for loans by women may be a sign of social
pressure to access resources for in-laws or husbands rather than a sign of
empowerment. Where women are unable to negotiate changes in intra-household and
community gender inequalities they may become dependent on loans to continue in
low-paid occupations with heavier workloads and enjoying little benefit.
Mayoux, L., and Hartl, M.
Gender and rural microfinance.
Reaching and empowering women. Guide for practitioners.
http://www.ifad.org/gender/pub/gender_finance.pdf
This guide is intended as an overview of gender issues
for rural finance practitioners.
It highlights the questions that need to be asked and
addressed in gender mainstreaming. It will also be useful to gender experts wishing
to increase their understanding of specific gender issues in rural finance.
Swain, R.B.,and Wallentin, F.W.
Does microfinance empower women? Evidence from Self Help
Groups in India.
http://www.nek.uu.se/pdf/wp2007_24.pdf
This paper contributes by arguing that women
empowerment takes place when women challenge the existing norms and culture, to
effectively improve their well being. Since women empowerment is unobservable
it is measured as a latent variable. Using quasi-experimental sampling design
1000 households were surveyed and their responses were recorded for the years
2003 and 2000. The results are especially robust,
indicating that on average there is a significant increase in the women
empowerment.
The paper is organised as follows. Section 2 gives a
brief overview of the literature on impact of microfinance on women
empowerment, followed by a section on the conceptual and theoretical framework.
Section 4 describes the data, its characteristics and indicators of women
empowerment. Under Section 5, we discuss the measurement problems, explain the
treatment of the ordinal variables and present the measurement and the
structural models. The next sub-section explains the estimation technique used
in the paper. The final section presents the results and conclusions.
(FAIR) TRADE
A checklist:
Vargas, M., and Siles, J.
Fair Trade.
Gland: UICN, 2004.
http://www.generoyambiente.org/arcangel2/documentos/402.pdf
A bibliography:
In 2005 BRIDGE came with a Cutting Edge Pack on Gender and trade.
In what ways can trade advance or impede gender
equality?
What practical ways can policy-makers and
practitioners promote gender equality in work on trade?
Trade and trade liberalisation have very different impacts
on women and men. This pack aims to support trade specialists in bringing a
gender perspective into their work, and to help gender specialists to
understand the broad implications of trade policy and practice.
The pack is a concise & practical resource
consisting of:
§
Overview report
- by Zo Randriamaro (WEDO) with support from Mariama
Williams (IGTN and
§
Collection of supporting resources - summaries of key texts, case studies and tools, and key organisations
§
Gender and Development In Brief bulletin
The Cutting Edge Pack on Gender and Budgets is
available from the BRIDGE website at:
http://www.bridge.ids.ac.uk/go/bridge-publications/cutting-edge-packs/gender-and-trade/
And further:
Ascoly, N., and Finney,
C.
Made by women. Gender, the global garment industry, and the movement for
women’s workers rights.
http://www.cleanclothes.org/resources/ccc/gender/made-by-women
Gender influences labour practices in
countless ways - ideas about the jobs women can do,
how they should do them, their wages, their relationship to employers and the
law. This publication aims to provide a clear understanding of the key role
that gender plays in shaping the issues that labour rights activists in the
garment industry are tackling. This document is part of CCC efforts to document
examples of initiatives that have recognised the gendered nature of the
processes which underpin the current garment and sports shoe industries.
Chapters address issues such as gender and labour mobility in the global
garment industry, the impact of gender roles in garment workers' health, and
the shifting patterns of women's work. Profiles are also given of women who are
actively campaigning for the rights of women workers, as well as examples of
organisations working to promote better lives for women workers, such as the
Chinese Working Women Network and the Committee for Asian Women.
Also available in French
and Spanish.
Canadian
International Development Agency - CIDA
Gender
equality and trade-related capacity building. A resource tool
for practitioners. CIDA,
2005.
www.oas.org/cim/Documentos/Trade-Manual.Trade-Related.Cap.Building.pdf
CIDA's
Gender Equality Division has released a new publication, Gender equality and
trade-related capacity building: A resource tool for practitioners, to be used
by CIDA officers, partners, and development practitioners inter-nationally to
ensure that trade policies take into account the differential impact of trade
on women and men. The resource tool, launched during the WTO Ministerial
Conference in Cancún, highlights gender equality
issues, including barriers and needs in relation to various aspects of trade
liberalisation and trade-related capacity-building programming. It also
suggests ways to address these concerns in developing programming.
Franck,
A.
Key feminist concerns regarding core labour
standards. Brussel: WIDE,
2008.
http://62.149.193.10/wide/download/FINAL%20-%20Internet.pdf?id=650
'Labour standards' are established by the
International Labour Organisation conventions and implemented by national
governments. A limited number of labour standards have been established as the
'Core Labour Standards' (CLS) that apply to all ILO members. A 'social clause'
refers to the inclusion of labour issues in trade agreements. 'Voluntary
measures' refer to voluntary corporate social responsibility measures for
private corporations. The opposition to including compulsory labour standards
within the multilateral framework has made it increasingly popular to include
them in bilateral and regional free trade negotiations. The EU has set out to
include it as a part of the sustainable development section in its ongoing and
future free trade agreements.
This paper aims to discuss the gendered
nature of these measures, to highlight the implications for women workers in
developing countries. The paper is mainly a study of the available literature
within academia as well as relevant official documents and material from
non-governmental organisations.
Sparr, Pamela
Basic building blocks for a gender & trade
analysis.
http://www.coc.org/system/files/81_BuildingBlocks_0.pdf/
This pamphlet has been
designed as a series of questions and answers that describe the rationale for a
gender analysis and then some of the basic analytical principles or concepts.
The goal is to point out some of the types of questions and the range of areas
that need our attention. Some international gender issues related to trade and
investment are widely known – like trafficking in women and girls and the
exploitation of females in sweatshops around the globe. Others are more subtle
or obscure – lurking in the corners and crevices of the global economy.
Tallontire,
A.; Smith, S.; Njobvu, C.
Ethical
trade in African horticulture. Gender, rights and participation. Final report on
http://www.eldis.org/cf/rdr/rdr.cfm?doc=DOC15044
Codes of conduct for ethical trade have been criticised for failing to
consider gender issues or extend to temporary workers. In response, this paper
explores ways to develop codes that are effective and inclusive of all workers,
including female and temporary workers. The research:
* analyses how ethical trade can enhance the economic
and social rights of women and men workers in African export horticulture,
* identifies best practice in implementing
gender-sensitive ethical trade based on worker and stakeholder participation.
The paper argues that the success of these actions
depends on instituting a process through which the voices of all workers can be
heard in an ongoing manner. It finds that Ethical trade could make a positive
contribution to this sustained process of improvement if a number of changes
are made to the way codes are implemented and audited. These changes centre around the adoption of a participatory, multi-stakeholder
approach which would involve: participatory social auditing tools, a process
approach, stakeholder engagement and a local multi-stakeholder initiative.
Williams,
M.
Gender mainstreaming in the
multilateral trading system. A handbook for
policy makers and other stakeholders.
This handbook is an
information and training tool for policy-makers and inter-governmental and
civil society organisations interested in building and enhancing their
knowledge of the important linkages between trade and investment policy and
gender equality objectives and priorities. It also presents recommendations on
the key issues as well as the identification of strategies that could be
utilised by different stakeholders.
ISBN:
0-85092-736-6
Agri-Profocus
Gender in value-chains
http://genderinvaluechains.ning.com/
This platform fosters exchange between professionals worldwide.
We aim to increase the gender sensitivity of value chain oriented sustainable
rural economic development programmes. A core group
from KIT, HIVOS, Cordaid, ICCO, Oxfam
Novib coordinates activities supported by the APF
team. We recommend you to:
Contains: factsheet; toolswiki;
resources; kinks; and,
news, events and
forum Questions.
Genfinance
Sustainable Micro-finance for Women's
Empowerment
This website builds on work on gender, empowerment and
micro-finance by Linda Mayoux and brings together resources which can inform a
rethink and innovation with respect to women's empowerment and microfinance.
The website complements more detailed discussion and web links for development
concepts, gender, livelihood development, participatory methods and other
material for empowerment-focused NGOs. This website is intended as ongoing
resource which will grow over time to enable gender experts and micro-finance
specialists to work together to develop realisable ways forward.
The Global
Improving
Women's Access to Credit in Community Development Programmes
http://www.gdrc.org/icm/wind/wind.html
Virtual
library with documents, strategies and tools, organizations,i
nternational networks and programmes, and gender and development resources.
Besides there are links to the Virtual Library on Microcredit at the SEWA,
Streedhan and Working Women's Forum case studies from India; and "Short
Takes" - features of credit programmes adopted by women's groups in Asia,
Africa and Latin America.
International Labour Organization
Equality and discrimination
Women's Entrepreneurship Development and Gender Equality
http://www.ilo.org/empent/Areasofwork/lang--en/WCMS_093870/index.htm
The WEDGE team is part of the ILO's SEED programme. It works on enhancing economic opportunities for
women, by:
• taking positive action in support of women
starting, formalizing and growing their enterprises (Women's Entrepreneurship
Development);
• mainstreaming gender equality
issues into the ILO's other Small Enterprise
Development (SED) work (Gender Equality).
The site contains research, publications, meetings, tools, and links.
Network
Women in Development
Microcredit
http://www.wide-network.org/index.jsp?id=445
Network Women in Development Europe
is a European network of gender specialists, women active in
Non-Governmental Development Organisations (NGDOs), and human rights activists.
It was formed in
The site contains information about their activities around economic development: awareness raising, lobbying and advocacy; with a lot of online resources (papers, statements, recommendations, declarations, briefing papers, cases, instruments) referring to the United Nations, Beijing, the European Union, WTO & IFIs, and alternative economics & women's economic rights). Further the site contains news, their newsletter, and publications.
Contains
also resources in Spanish.
Sustainable Micro-finance for Women's
Empowerment
This website
builds on work on gender, empowerment and micro-finance by Linda Mayoux and
brings together resources which can inform a rethink and innovation with
respect to women's empowerment and microfinance.. The
website complements more detailed discussion and weblinks for development
concepts, gender, livelihood development, participatory methods and other
material for empowerment-focused NGOs. This website is intended as ongoing
resource which will grow over time to enable gender experts and micro-finance
specialists to work together to develop realisable ways forward.
United Nations Platform for Action Committee
(UNPAC)
Women & the Economy
http://www.unpac.ca/economy/index2.html
The UN Platform for Action Committee
(UNPAC) in
Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and
Organizing - WIEGO
WIEGO is a worldwide coalition of institutions and
individuals concerned with improving the status of women in the economy's
informal sector.
The coalition was born out of the conviction that
women workers - particularly those from low-income households - are
concentrated in the informal sector. Although the informal sector contributes
to both poverty alleviation and economic growth it remains largely invisible in
official statistics and policies. Thus, WIEGO strives to improve the status of
the informal sector through compiling better statistics, conducting research
and developing programmes and policies.
The site contains information about WIEGO and their programme areas and affiliates. Fact sheets, publications,
news and events, and links.
Also accessible in Spanish.