First, let me express my deep appreciation to Mr. Juan Somavia, Director-General of the ILO for his keynote address on decent work in the global economy. My congratulations also to the Government of Thailand, Mr. Ruben Ricupero, Secretary-General of UNCTAD, for the organization of this important meeting.

I would like to highlight a few issues on women's work in the global economy so that more appropriate approaches may be designed at this cross-road to maximize the development gains from the globalization of trade, investment and technology.

Industralization has been as much female as export-led, and this has represented a huge leap in the participation of women in the market and money economy concentrated in textiles and electronics. There is also evidence that the rapidly expanding international business and financial services sector is also female intensive. Trade-related demand for female labour has also grown within the informal sector through piece-rate work and subcontracting links with the formal sector. In other words, to a far greater extent than is generally valued and recognized, the export boom, especially in East and Southeast Asia - the "winner" societies - and the resulting economic growth was in no small part driven by the paid and unpaid work of women.

There are some clear advantages for women from all this. The wages paid in export manufacturing are often considerably higher than previous alternatives for women - agricultural wages, wages in the domestic service sector. However, this expansionary process was not managed adequately to ensure that the economic boom benefitted as many women in as many ways as possible. The gains in wages and autonomy must be balanced against the negative effects of poor working sometimes sweat-shop conditions. This has an impact on individual health and welfare, and an impact on domestic and other social costs.

Since the emphasis was on increasing employment rather than on decent work, much of the employment expansion was in the form of short-term employment by foot-loose industries, encouraged by gender stereotypes that women are secondary income earners who can readily return to the unpaid household care economy in times of lay-offs. There is little protection for women's labour or provision for security in the face of joblessness, with little regard for workers' safety or other hazards. All these aspects contributed to the unsustainable nature of the boom.

It is imperative to make the global economy more supportive of decent work for women both as agents and as beneficiaries. Globalization is clearly an unfinished business, a work in progress that can be shaped and steered by human interventions and values of equality, poverty reduction and social justice. The challenge for developing countries is how to reconcile the need to provide decent work without it becoming "a social clause" to justify protectionist policies vis-a-vis developing countries exports. This can be done by subjecting globalization to United Nations conventions and to the development targets and consensus reached at the various United Nations conferences, halving the proportion of the world's absolute poor, especially women by 2015, removing gender gaps in education and health. This is extremely important, or women will be further excluded from the knowledge-based economy and from the higher skilled service and technology sectors.

In order for women to respond effectively to new opportunities, as well as to address barriers and negative impacts associated with global trade and investment, four inter-related strategies are required:

1. Action Programmes to help women as workers, entrepreneurs and investors gain access to and bargain effectively within labour, goods, services and financial markets. Currently, very few women entrepreneurs have actually succeeded in entering international markets. The major obstacles that confront them include limited access to capital, legal rights of ownership, land, production inputs, information and knowledge, networking and business management training.

2. Research, Data and Statistics to document the contribution and working conditions of women, as well as the impact of globalization on them. Using good statistics and data for decision-making and to shape appropriate government policies can change things radically for the better.

3. Organizations to increase the visibility, inclusion and participation of home-based workers.

4. Policy Dialogues to promote a more supportive policy environment for women workers.

UNCTAD and ILO should encourage individual countries to collect and use more extensive and better quality information on women's economic roles in and contribution to the domestic economy and to international trade. Appropriate mechanisms and criteria should be identified and implemented to ensure the integration of a gender perspective and women's active participation in future UNCTAD processes and activities.

Dated: 15Mar2000