Attachment J.1- Gender Analysis - TIF.pdf

Trade, Investment, and Finance Activity

Gender Analysis

The first-ever interagency U.S. Strategy on Global Women’s Economic Security lays out a vision in which women and girls around the world, in all their diversity, are able to fully, meaningfully, and equally contribute to, and benefit from, economic growth and global prosperity. The U.S.

Global Women’s Economic Security Strategy (2022) provides high-level guidance on four key lines of effort: promoting economic competitiveness and reducing wage gaps through well-paying, high quality jobs; advancing care infrastructure and valuing domestic work; promoting entrepreneurship and financial and digital inclusion, including through trade and investment; and dismantling systemic barriers to women’s equitable participation in the economy.

In a recent blog post on January 24, 2024, the urgent need to empower women and invest in gender equality for economic resilience and growth is emphasized. The world faces unprecedented challenges, including extreme weather events, rising food insecurity, and the economic impacts of climate change. Women, constituting half of the global population, bear a significant burden, with nearly 60% of those facing severe hunger being women and girls.

The authors argue that closing the gender gap in employment could boost long-term gross domestic product per capita by almost 20% on average across countries. Despite this potential economic contribution, women are often absent from decision-making positions, hindering economic resilience. The statistics reveal a stark gender divide in labor force participation, with only 1 in 4 women in South Asia and 1 in 5 in the Middle East and North Africa engaged in the workforce. Discriminatory laws, weak enforcement, and societal barriers continue to impede women's progress, limiting nations' economic potential. Shockingly, in at least 65 countries, women are barred from lucrative professions, and in 93 countries, it is legally acceptable to pay women less for jobs of equal value.

The Palestinian context is influenced by prolonged occupation and sociopolitical relations among

Palestinian governing authorities. The social, political, and economic situation has deteriorated in recent years because of the coronavirus pandemic, the decline in peace prospects, and the severe security and economic conditions in the Gaza Strip. The situation affects all Palestinians, but, more acutely, women.

In order to achieve effective and sustainable development outcomes, gender equality and women’s empowerment must be fundamental to any intervention. Women’s economic empowerment exists when women can equitably participate in, contribute to, and benefit from economic opportunities as workers, consumers, entrepreneurs, and investors. This requires https://blogs.worldbank.org/voices/its-time-mobilize-economic-power-women access to and control over assets and resources, as well as the capability and agency to manage the terms of their own labor and the benefits accrued. Women’s economic equality exists when all women and girls have the same opportunities as men and boys for education, economic participation, decision-making, and freedom from violence. In trade, this requires collectively addressing barriers to commercial activity and labor market participation, such as restrictive laws, policies, and cultural norms; infrastructure and technology challenges; unpaid care work;

limits on collective action; and poorly enforced protections, unequal access to distribution networks; and trade information.

The crisis in Gaza has generated negative impacts on all productive sectors of the Palestinian economy. The prolonged struggle has put severe strains on MSMEs, stopping most if not all production in Gaza, and leaving many in the West Bank at risk of permanent closure. The crisis is expected to exacerbate the gendered challenges and barriers to women’s economic participation. Revised estimates indicate that approximately 66% of employment has been lost in Gaza, equivalent to 192,000 jobs, while around 32% of employment has been lost in the West

Bank, equivalent to 276,000 jobs. This amounts to approximately 468,000 jobs lost in the West

Bank and Gaza as of November 30, 2023. Moreover, the escalation of hostilities has contributed to a significant increase in the unemployment rate in the WBG, projected to rise from 24% in the

4th quarter of 2022 to 46.1% in the 4th quarter of 2023. Employment across all economic sectors is forecasted to decline, except for the agricultural sector, which is expected to remain stable.

However, within the agricultural sector, there is a shift occurring as men increasingly take over women's agricultural jobs, reflecting a replacement process within the sector.

Palestine Economic Policy Research Institute (MAS) report titled "Gender Roadmap to Enhance

Financial Inclusion" comprehensively analyzes the state of financial inclusion for women in WBG, addressing the barriers to access and participation in the financial sector. The report highlights the global disparity in the usage of banking services between men and women, stating that women are less likely to use banking services. Despite significant efforts by the Palestinian

Monetary Authority (PMA) and the Capital Market Authority to increase financial inclusion, Palestinian women still face numerous barriers that limit their access to financial services.

Women in WBG face social, cultural, structural, and regulatory barriers that hinder their full participation in the financial sector. These include societal norms and roles, political and economic instability, and Israeli-related restrictions. Despite efforts to bridge the gender gap in financial inclusion, progress has been slow, and in some cases, the gap has widened.

Promoting and enabling digital solutions into women’s businesses is one way to empower

Palestinian women-led MSMEs given movement and access restrictions. It will also reduce some of the social burdens and norms that are associated with their reproductive roles and limitations paused on women travel by offering more flexible working hours and working at home in many cases. The Trade, Investment, and Finance activity will address this gender gap by targeting

Palestinian women with its interventions in order to expand their economic opportunities.

Women small-scale traders struggle with low literacy levels and a lack of entrepreneurial expertise. They tend to lack access to capital, social and political influence, and representation and organization. They operate in male-dominated environments, where they hold little power relative to male customs and border officials. Lack of trade information is a major barrier for female-owned SMEs and small-scale traders; customs officers sometimes lack sufficient knowledge of rules and procedures. They are marginalized, hampered, and unrecognized.

Moreover, in emerging economies, border infrastructure does not meet the safety and physical needs of women traders.

Total non-disaggregated trade figures are usually presented due to a lack of gender-disaggregated data on trade in the WBG. Only a few national surveys assess women’s access to resources in the context of women-owned enterprises. This forms the main motivation to carry out a field study on women's participation in the economy, and specifically in trade, in the WBG.

The low representation of female entrepreneurs and traders in West Bank and Gaza is attributed to several barriers that make it difficult for women to start and grow their businesses including political instability, limited business management skills, lack of mobility due to geographic and social restrictions, limited access to finance, and women’s smaller less diverse networks.:1

Palestinian women also have the absence of social protection, social security laws and labor market protective policies, whether in the organized or unorganized sector, the insufficient implementation of the minimum wage law, and the overall protection of women.

There is a need for effective, coordinated, and systematic gender mainstreaming in trade activities by governmental and nongovernmental trade agencies. Although those agencies already mainstream gender in their implementation agenda, the recorded impact over an extended period has been insufficient. The need arises, therefore, for a realignment and prioritization of gender mainstreaming policies as a cross-cutting issue to get the most impact.

Collection of gender-disaggregated data on trade is also important for mainstreaming gender in trade policy.

1 IFC Case Study: Bank of Palestine Strengthens Women-Owned Businesses and the Economy