Commonwealth Secretariat publishes two new books by WIEGO staffMainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty ReductionWIEGO Coordinator Martha Chen, WIEGO Statistics Program Director Joann Vanek and WIEGO Global Markets Director Marilyn Carr authored a book for the Commonwealth Secretariat's "Gender Mainstreaming Series on Development Issues". The book, entitled Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction, examines the link between informal employment, gender and poverty, discusses the changing world of world, highlights promising examples that support informal enterprises and protect informal workers, and provides a strategic framework for formulating policies towards those who are informally employed. This book was launched at a meeting of Finance Ministers from Commonwealth countries in September 2004.View the accompanying brochure Chains of Fortune: Best Practices in Linking Local Women Producers and Workers with Global MarketsEdited by Marilyn CarrWIEGO Global Markets Director Marilyn Carr also edited a volume for the Commonwealth Secretariat which brings together six case studies which describe how women have been successfully integrated into global markets. These include: a cocoa cooperative of 45,000 producers in Ghana who are co-owners of a chocolate company in the UK; family-based cooperatives in Samoa which produce organic virgin coconut oil for export; small enterprises in Mozambique which are helping to regenerate the cashew processing and export industry; thousands of wage workers in global value chains which export deciduous fruits from South Africa; ready made garments from Bangladesh; and newly created call centers in India. Each case study is written by a team of international and national researchers and aims to present decision makers with concrete examples which spread the gains of globalization to poor working women through shifting the balance of access, power, and returns within global value chains. |