Gender Mainstreaming, Employment and Youth - Sweden

Sweden has supported UNCTAD’s project on trade and gender. The project will provide a country-tailored “Trade and gender toolbox” for policymakers and other stakeholders in a selected developing country to identify the possible effects of trade policies on gender outcomes and ensure that trade policy contributes to women’s social and economic empowerment.

The trust fund aims to support research projects, capacity building actions and support targeted at developing countries south of Sahara in order to increase the ability to integrate gender aspects in their trade policies. The funding also intends to contribute to the evaluation of women’s opportunities to take part in the so-called green economy. The target groups for these projects are development workers, researchers, politicians and civil society organisations working on these issues in the countries concerned.

Sida funded a project that aimed to analyze how women and men, respectively, in Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine are likely to be affected by the implementation of the EU Association Agreement including the Deep and Comprehensive Free Trade Area (AA/DCFTA). The project identified possible ways to mitigate negative gender impacts and how to strengthen the positive impact. Findings show that trade policies impact men and women differently. Implementing the trade agreements in the right way can positively influence the food prices, product safety, distribution of income between men and women and create new employment and business opportunities.

Support through International Alert promotes women’s civic, political and economic empowerment through knowledge, networking, and advocacy in eastern DRC and Uganda, Burundi, and Rwanda. Working with 14 civil society organizations, the project aims to increase gender equality and inclusiveness, improve women’s access to economic resources and participation in civic and political life, and increase trust and collaboration on women’s empowerment and participation in DRC and across the Great Lakes. Among other things, the project has supported traders’ associations/cooperatives, women small-scale cross-border traders and border officials.