Gender, Trade and Green Growth Volume I

The impact of opening up of trade opportunities has always been diff erent for diff erent groups of people, often exacerbating inequalities in the absence of counteractive measures and barriers. While inequalities exist in many forms – across the rich and the poor, the skilled and unskilled, the urban and the rural –the focus of this research is on the inequality between women and men.

When we add to this mix of trade and gender, the aspect of sustainability in development or “green growth”, some new issues are seen to emerge. The UN Conference on Sustain-able Development held in Brazil in 2012 (Rio +20) solidifi ed the international community’s commitment to building a “green economy”. It also identifi ed trade as one of the key drivers towards this greening of the economies. This renewed focus on sustainable development and the “green sectors” provides the third dimension to this study. This report looks at trade expansion in the “green sectors” in four South Asian economies and how this impacts women...