Liberalizing Trade in Agriculture and Women

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Liberalizing Trade in Agriculture and Womens
Human Rights

• Simone Heri

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Contents

• Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture
• Women as Consumers
• Women as Producers Feminization of Agriculture
• A Human Rights Approach to Trade
• Issues of Concern under CEDAW
• The Approach of the CESCR
• The Fundamental Principle of Non-Discrimination
• Indicators for measuring changes in gender
  equality through trade
• Conclusion

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Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture

• Three pillars of the Agreement on Agriculture
  (1995)
• Increasing market access
• Reducing trade-distorting domestic support
• Reducing export subsidies
• Balanced by Special and Differential Treatment
  for developing, least-developed and net-food
  importing countries
• Still of limited scope compared to de facto
  existing special and
• preferential treatment for developed countries

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Women as Consumers

• According to the underlying rationale of trade to
  move production to where it is comparatively more
  efficient, food prices will eventually fall.
• However
• Highly distorted agricultural production in OECD
  countries with artificially cheap products for
  export,
• Prices of these products will rise if agriculture
  is liberalized
• Demand for biofuels drive food prices up (by 10
  percent in 2006)
• A rise in food prices will most likely not be
  gender-neutral

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Women as Producers Feminization of Agriculture

• Women are the main producers of the worlds
  staple crops (rice, wheat, maize)
• providing up to 90 percent of the rural
  poors food intake
• producing between 60 and 80 percent of food in
  most developing countries.
• HOWEVER Fewer than 10 percent of women farmers
  in developing countries own land

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Feminization of Agriculture?

• Gender bias and gender blindness persist
  farmers are still generally perceived as male
  by policy-makers and development planners. For
  this reason, women find it more difficult than
  men to gain access to valuable resources such as
  land, credit and agricultural inputs, technology,
  extension, training and services that would
  enhance their production capacity. A lack of
  available gender-disaggregated data means that
  womens contribution to agriculture in particular
  is poorly understood and their specific needs
  ignored in policy-making

FAO, Gender and Food Security, http//www.fao.org/
GENDER/en/agri-e.htm.
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Matrix of domination for women in agriculture
Gender-blind macro-economic policies
Social Class
Salary and Wage Discrimination
Discrimination in access to Eco- nomic
productive ressources
Labour force segmentation
Un-waged work
Women as reserve labour force
Access to reproductive health
Access to education
Implications of multiple roles for productivity
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Dominating factors determining whether gender
impacts will be positive or negative

• Impact on growth and employment opportunities
• The sectoral distribution of exports and import
  competition
• The skill level of male and female employment
• Competitive pressures which may reduce or
  encourage gender discrimination, in particular
  wage differentials
• Labour market policies and institutions
• Laws and the enforcement of anti-discrimination
  laws
• Management of national government budget
  pressures due to declines in tariff revenues
• The gender division of labour in households
• The cultural pattern of male and female roles in
  the economy at large, including the unpaid economy

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Gender-Neutral Data?

• Intangible Nature of Social Impacts
• Tendency to emphasize the quantifiable impacts
• Relatively poor integration of a qualitative
  perspective
• Reductionist Assumption of Cost-Benefit Analysis

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Contents

• Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture
• Women as Consumers
• Women as Producers Feminization of Agriculture
• A Human Rights Approach to Trade
• Issues of Concern under CEDAW
• The Approach of the CESCR
• The Fundamental Principle of Non-Discrimination
• Indicators for measuring changes in gender
  equality through trade
• Conclusion

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Human Rights, Gender and Trade

• A Human Rights approach to promoting equality
  between men and women in the context of trade can
  add force and precision
• Force States have Human Rights obligations
  concurrent with their commitments in the area of
  international trade
• Precision Covenants and General Recommendations
  set out precisely the obligations of States to
  respect, protect and fulfil the respective human
  right

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Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture Issues of
concern under CEDAW

• RIGHT TO WORK
• (Art. 11 CEDAW, as interpreted by Art. 14 (1)
  CEDAW and General Recommendations Nos. 13 (1989)
  and 16 (1991))
• Has the government assessed the impacts of the
  right of rural women to remunerative work of its
  current trade-driven approach to development? Has
  it reminded ist trading partners of their
  obligation under human rights law to undertake
  such assessments?

See 3D, Niger Agricultural trade liberalization
and womens rights (August 2006), available at
http//www.3dthree.org/pdf_3D/3DCEDAWNigerAg.pdf
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Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture Issues of
concern under CEDAW

• RIGHT TO HEALTH
• (Art. 12 CEDAW, as interpreted by Art. 14 (1)
  CEDAW and General Recommendation No. 24 (1999))
• Has the government taken measures to ensure that
  special and differential treatment for
  developing countries gained in agricultural trade
  fora are matched at the national level with
  implementation of poverty alleviaton strategies
  that provide for rural womens physical and
  economic access to productive resources, in
  furtherance of their right to health?

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Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture Issues of
concern under CEDAW

• RIGHT TO PARTICIPATE
• (Art. 7 (b) and 14 (2) (a) CEDAW)
• Has the government facilitated public education
  and consultations, with women as well as men, on
  trade negotiations, agricultural trade
  liberalization, and their impacts on human
  rights?

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Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture Issues of
concern under CEDAW

• RIGHT TO TEMPORARY SPECIAL MEASURES
• (Art. 4 CEDAW)
• Has the government considered that a human-rights
  approach to agricultural trade could require
  special and differential treatment for
  developing countries as a means of fulfilling
  Article 4s requirement of temporary special
  measures to accelerate de fact equality for
  women?

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Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture The CESCR
Approach

• Please describe what measures your country has
  taken to ensure that your colleagues responsible
  for trade policy know about their obligations
  under the Covenant.
• Describe the steps you have taken to assess the
  impacts, particularly on vulnerable groups, of
  the trade agreements you are currently
  negotiating.
• 3. Have you sought technical assistance from
  OHCHR relating to your capacity to participate in
  trade negotiations, or implement your trade
  commitments in a way that is consistent with
  human rights?

See 3D, Accountability of Trade Policys Effects
on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (Apr. 30,
2007), available at http//www.3dthree.org/pdf_3D
/presentation_cescr2007.pdf
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Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture and the
principle of non-discrimination

• The principle has since ist inclusion in the
  Charter of the United Nations been restated in
  all major human rights instruments.
• gt All WTO State Parties have at least ratified
  one human rights treaty
• Also applies to indirect discrimination
• gt When a neutral measure has a disparate and
  discriminatory effect on different groups of
  people and when that measure cannot be justified
  by reasonable and objective criteria

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Contents

• Liberalization of Trade in Agriculture
• Women as Consumers
• Women as Producers Feminization of Agriculture
• A Human Rights Approach to Trade
• Issues of Concern under CEDAW
• The Approach of the CESCR
• The Fundamental Principle of Non-Discrimination
• Indicators for measuring changes in gender
  equality through trade
• Conclusion

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The Beijing Platform for Action

• Actions to be taken by Governments
• Seek to ensure that national policies related to
  international and regional trade agreements do
  not have an adverse impact on womens new and
  traditional economic activities (para. 165(k))
• Use gender-impact analyses in the development of
  macro- and micro-economic and social policies in
  order to monitor such impact and restructure
  policies in cases where harmful impact occurs
  (para.165(p))

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Elasticity Indicators

• Indicators should be
• Simple
• Comparable
• Dynamic
• Feasible
• Elasticity Indicators
• Compare the percentage change in one variable,
  with the accompanying percentage change in
  another variable.

See Irene van Staveren, Gender Indicators for
Monitoring Trade Agreements (WIDE Briefing Paper,
February 2007).
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Trade Elasticities of Gender Equality

• Numerator Measures changes in gender equality
• - Income / - Wages
• - Employment (export sectors / import-competing
  sectors, unemployment / under-employment rates,
  gendered job segregation)
• Denominator Measures changes in trade
• - Total value of trade of a country / region
• - Total value of trade as a share of GDP
• - Bilateral or regional value of trade as a
  share of total trade of a country or region
  
• - Openness measured as tariff reduction of x
  percent)

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Policy responses to trade and gender

• Direct policy measures
• Inclusion of gender expertise in trade
  delegations
• Stimulation of foreign investment into particular
  sectors of the economy
• Technical support in the enforcement of labour
  laws in export processing zones
• Stricter social accountability requirements for
  subsidiaries of companies that have their
  headquarters in the trading partners country
• Indirect policy measures
• Labour market policies
• Fiscal policies
• Polices in the area of human resource development

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Conclusion and Suggestions

• More Gender-disaggregated data and data about
  time spent on unpaid work necessary
• Incorporating gender considerations in Trade
  Policy Review Mechanism
• Incorporating gender considerations for the
  designation of Special Products in WTO
  Agriculture Negotiations
• Technical Assistance to enhance production
  capacity for women producers access to land,
  credit, agricultural inputs, extension and
  training, education, technology, rural
  organizations, services

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Future Research

• Role of women in securing food, biodiversity,
  environmental services, cultural practices,
  coping with HIV/AIDS epidemic
• The role of patents in agriculture relative to
  traditional knowledge, agro biodiversity,
  communal ownership and gender
• Water use and consumption for agricultural
  production and rural development, and the link to
  gender