The World Trade Organisation, World Bank, World Economic Forum, and the International Monetary Fund are driving the debates on the digital economy, setting the policy agendas that will shape its future direction. This webinar unpacks the dominant discourse in trade and economic policy spaces: that digitalisation of the economy will automatically empower women in the global South by opening up new opportunities for entrepreneurship and flexible employment. In reality, e-commerce brings forth a new kind of corporation that thrives on controlling data and reorganizes supply chains by creating or expanding precarious and cheap labor opportunities, for which women are particularly vulnerable. As currently configured, it is another avenue to promote neoliberal economic and trade models that prioritize narrowly defined economic growth and profit maximization over people's wellbeing and human rights.
Organized by the Gender and Trade Coalition (GTC) in collaboration with WIDE+ and Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, the webinar imagines feminist trade and economic policies to regulate the digitalization of our economies in a way that empowers all women. It is moderated by Crystal Dicks (University of Witwatersrand) and includes the following speakers:
- Nandini Chami (IT for Change);
- Scheaffer Okore (Ukweli Party, Kenya); and
- Sofia Scasserra (Argentinian Federation of Commerce and Services Workers–FAECYS, World of Work Institute at Universidad Nacional de Tres de Febrero–UNTREF, and the UNI Global Union Presidency).
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