Empowering Central Asia’s women traders through gender-sensitive reforms

Women traders in Central Asia face many barriers to competing internationally and scaling their businesses. However, both the public and private sectors can empower these women by boosting transparency in trade processes, adopting digital innovations and embedding gender-sensitive measures into trade facilitation reforms, a new International Trade Centre (ITC) publication says.

Gender-Responsive Trade Facilitation for Women in Central Asia: Crossing borders, breaking barriers is based on interviews, trainings and surveys of 1,506 women traders, 52 business and civil society organizations, and 32 government agencies in Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The report finds that adopting gender-sensitive trade facilitation measures can unlock major benefits for women-led businesses, foster a more supportive environment for women traders and entrepreneurs, and promote their equal economic participation.

The report identifies the top challenges and concerns for women traders and small business owners in the region and groups them into four main areas: the need for gender-disaggregated data and gender-responsive trade reforms; limited access to finance, which restricts international trade opportunities; insufficient information on cross-border trade rules and processes; and a need to improve confidence, advocacy and digital skills so they can participate fully in trade.

Regional cooperation is essential to tackle these challenges and create a more inclusive, prosperous trade environment across the region, the report says.

‘The Central Asian region is making progress on gender-responsive policymaking and governments, business associations, along with donors and development partners, are all helping to make trade facilitation work better for women,’ said ITC Executive Director Pamela Coke-Hamilton. ‘Nonetheless, more work remains.’

How to unlock opportunities for women?

This work involves offering greater access to information and increasing transparency in trade procedures through trade portals and ‘one-stop’ information desks, introducing digital reforms such paperless cross-border trade solutions and simplified trade regimes, according to the report.

The report also calls on governments to integrate gender-responsive policymaking into trade reforms and budgets, strengthen partnerships between women business associations and national trade facilitation committees, and set up gender focal points in public institutions.

To create a more inclusive border environment, the report suggests incorporating gender-responsive infrastructure at border posts, collecting and improving gender-disaggregated trade data, and ensuring sustainable gender-awareness initiatives for government officials. Capacity building, regional dialogue and gender mainstreaming are critical elements to empower women in trade, the report says.

This publication is part of ITC’s Ready4Trade Central Asia project, which seeks to support investment, competitiveness and trade in the region and is funded by the European Union.