Advising policy, alleviating poverty: in the current financial crisis, governments need to provide opportunities for women living in poverty by including them in policy dialogue.

• Author: Fox, Rita Sharma

In the current economic climate, forward movements in market access and trade capacity building for developing countries can seem unlikely. But at both bilateral and multilateral levels opportunities exist to create policies that would increase access to global markets, credit and technical skills for women living in poverty around the world.

Women Thrive Worldwide (formerly the Women's Edge Coalition) is a non-profit organization focused on making United States policies foster economic opportunity for women living in poverty. Women Thrive brings together over 50 organizations and 25,000 individuals, united in the belief that empowering women is not only right, but also the most effective long-term solution to world poverty.

In this unique trade environment, Women Thrive advises policymakers in the United States on how preferences help women in developing countries and their economies as a whole, while having positive impacts on the United States economy. It also strives to extend gender integration in trade policy, capacity-building efforts and sustainable development programmes. By holistically linking the approach to these programmes, 2009 can be a productive year in global trade.

Global trade, the financial crisis and women

The last decade has seen some of the world's poorest regions begin to climb out of poverty. In just the last six years, for example, Africa's exports have jumped by about $240 billion, which is far more than either humanitarian assistance from wealthy countries or remittances from the 16 million Africans working abroad. More than 100,000 new jobs have been created on the continent in the export-based textile industry alone, with up to 90% of these jobs going to women living in poverty.

It's estimated that each woman employed in the textile sector supports up to seven family members.

But as Americans and Europeans rein in their spending due to the global financial crisis, these exports from Africa will fail, putting thousands of new manufacturing jobs in danger. Women are most likely to have jobs in the informal sectors of the economy with virtually no job security and are the first to be laid off. Even when they have jobs in the formal sector, women are disproportionately affected: they are more likely to be unskilled in comparison to their male counterparts in factories and are more likely to be made redundant first.

But the financial crisis will affect more than just export levels. Women in low-income countries...