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To what extend can the multilateral trading system help to support the financing of gender equality and women’s economic and social empowerment in Commonwealth developing countries? This paper provides an overall framework for understanding how the multilateral trade system, working in tandem with the International Financial Institutions can contribute to the financing of gender equality and women’s economic empowerment. The authors look at how trade liberalisation and trade reform impact on the resources available for financing gender equality, and seek to identity the likely direct and indirect gendered impacts of trade on resource availability.

The paper offers a tentative overview of how trade impacts on the three domains of gender equality and explores the financial impacts of the World Trade Organisation and other trade arrangements on financing and gender equality. Its main focus is on the area of trade reform, in addition to looking at aid for trade and trade related capacity building and technical assistance. Specific recommendations made in the paper are:

• each count should develop a framework for engendering its trade related capacity building and Aid for trade programmes
• it is important to ensure that trade diagnostic studies focusing on promoting trade readiness and market entry include gender analysis and pay specific attention to the needs of women-owned small and medium enterprises as well as to the sectors in the economy most likely to be adversely affected by changing trade policies
• trade negotiations mandates should proactively include a gender sensitive framework for each of the sectoral areas under negotiations
• gender sensitive measures are needed to deal with the negative outcomes of trade reform underlying the implementation of trade agreements.

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