Data is essential to debate women’s participation in foreign trade

According to the International Trade Center (ITC) women own only around 20% of exporting companies globally. For this reason, the G20 members have emphasized in recent years the need to accelerate progress towards inclusive international trade, involving initiatives to promote greater female participation. One of the challenges is the lack of data.

Female participation in international trade is still insignificant. Women-led companies are less likely to access foreign markets and benefit from these opportunities. According to the International Trade Center (ITC), women own only around 20% of exporting companies in the world. That is why G20 members have emphasized in recent years the need to accelerate progress towards inclusive international trade that involves initiatives to boost women's participation.

The Trade and Investment working group gathered on Thursday (25) at the G20 headquarters in Brasilia to debate women's participation. The group also discussed sustainable development, reforming the World Trade Organization (WTO), and strengthening the Multilateral Trade System.

According to Tatiana Prazeres, Foreign Trade Secretary at the Ministry of Development, Industry, Trade and Services (MDIC), in general, the vast majority of G20 member countries measure the participation of women in the economy. Notably, however, most of them do not have disaggregated data on women's participation in international trade. 

The term disaggregated data refers to the separation of information collected into smaller units to reveal underlying trends and patterns. They can identify, for example, the sex, race, or age of certain population groups to measure participation in foreign trade.

Brasil is interested in a better understanding of methodologies to measure and capture, for example, the participation of women in service exports. "We know that the services sector is particularly dynamic, that is, international trade in services is growing at a higher rate than international trade in goods. And yet few countries have data on the participation of women in trade in services," explained Prazeres.

During the meeting, she disclosed that representatives from G20 member nations were briefed on a study conducted by the MDIC's Foreign Trade Secretariat, which provided insights into the involvement of Brazilian women in foreign trade. The report uncovered, for instance, that women oversee merely 14% of the country's exporting companies. Prazeres underscored the paramount importance of data availability to inform evidence-based policymaking. She highlighted significant interest from the attendees regarding this matter.

One of the goals of the working group is to consolidate a compendium of best practices from G20 countries regarding policies to increase female participation in trade. The group's next meeting will be on June 27 and 28 in Rio de Janeiro (RJ).

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