Gender mainstreaming workshop opens at ECA

Abstract

An Inception Workshop on Mainstreaming Gender into Trade Policies opened Tuesday 21 April at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (ECA) in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. The two-day workshop is organized by the African Trade Policy Centre (ATPC) of ECA. While opening the workshop, the director of ECA’s Trade, Finance and Economic Development Division, Mr. Abdoulahi Mahamat, reiterated the important contribution that women traders are making to Africa’s development. “Gender discrimination and marginalization reduces growth by crippling a significant part of a country’s human resources,” he said. The main objective of the workshop is to strengthen the capacity of African countries and regional economic communities to formulate more gender responsive trade policies. By increasing capacities to mainstream gender analysis into trade policy, Africa will be in a better position to exploit international trade opportunities.