What does embrace equity mean to you?

To #embraceequity means adjusting conditions to account for imbalance. It’s providing the necessary support so the overlooked, historically silenced, and disconnected have an equal opportunity to engage and succeed. 

From a global trade perspective, I believe embracing equity refers to championing a fair and balanced trade system that benefits all countries and citizens. It’s reducing the advantages and disadvantages that some gender groups, ethnicities, countries, or companies have over others, making it possible for everyone to participate in the global marketplace and access the benefits of trade that have historically been unevenly distributed and whose negative impacts have been disproportionately felt. 

Embracing global trade equity requires addressing unequal access to markets, reducing trade barriers, unfair labour practices, tax avoidance, and subsidies. Addressing this was a deciding factor in coming to work with Altana, where we use AI to achieve transparency into cross-border supply chain networks, so companies can foster more inclusive behaviors, and governments can assess the impact of proposed trade policies to encourage sustainable action.

At the heart of global trade lies a curiosity for the diverse exchange of goods and ideas. Embracing equity can inspire innovation and lead to greater economic prosperity, improved living standards, and reduced poverty making the world better for all.

What does embrace equity mean to you?

Equity for me is an essential value which is the key to shift society and economy into the next stage of development. Only with appreciation of all genders’ efforts will we succeed.

What does embrace equity mean to you?

To embrace equity means to ‘support inclusion in company value chains.’ Now, more and more suppliers in emerging markets are involved in global supply chains, but large importers lack the gender-lens necessary to promote diversity and inclusion in their supplier network, and women-owned businesses lack the trade and supply chain finance necessary to compete. Estimates suggest that less than one percent of multinational companies’ sourcing budgets is used to buy from women-owned suppliers, who are largely invisible in global and local value chains and export markets. To address these challenges and promote gender inclusion in supply chains in emerging markets, IFC recently launched the Global Supply Chain Finance Program. #EmbraceEquity

What does embrace equity mean to you?

Embracing equity means that first we create that equity before we embrace it. Equity means having equal and fair access to trade opportunities regardless of gender. Opportunities include access to trade information such as price of goods, labour, access to markets, taxation, sales platforms, and fora where trade-related policies are discussed and formed. Equity means looking at gendered tenets of trade, such as women’s safety in cross-border trade. Several women in economically disadvantaged communities are the financial pillars of the family. So equity means that a woman who lives deep in a village in a least developed country can access finance to expand her business, and sell whatever she produces in local and international market, in the same way as men. It also means that women, whether from rural or urban area, at national or international level, have access to trade technology, and digital upskilling for example in the use of electronic commerce.

What does embrace equity mean to you?

Embracing equity opens us up to new ideas, innovation, and opportunities, yet it can also be challenging, as it disrupts existing power dynamics and institutions. In my field, we see that women-led businesses account for just one in five exporters, and only 2% of venture capital funds in the US go to women founders. If we take additional factors into account, such as race and education levels, we find even further underrepresentation amongst women professionals and entrepreneurs.

To truly #EmbraceEquity and enrich our work, we need to address issues of intersectionality, recognise our positions of privilege and use them to amplify the voices of women who have often been denied access and opportunity, including indigenous and afro-descendant women. I have been both the recipient of such support and have sought to extend it to others in my career in international trade over the past 20 years.

Let’s forge a gender equity path that recognises that we don’t all have the same starting position or face the same obstacles.

What does embrace equity mean to you?

To embrace equity, we need to create a world free of gender, racial, social bias and discrimination in all its forms. It’s about feeling included and accepted where we want to belong on the basis of our talent or personal decision rather than social background, sexual orientation or gender.

In fact, it’s not just something we write or talk about. It’s something we believe in unconditionally.

What shall we do to embrace equity? I believe we need to take concrete actions around our individual behaviour to make this happen. At the same time, we shouldn’t forget the importance of collective activism which equally matters. Through the process of equity, we stand a better chance of reaching equality.

What does embrace equity mean to you?

Embracing equity is a two-part action – understanding that people come from different circumstances, and building structural enablers that provides everyone tools that address their specific circumstances so they can perform to their fullest potential. 

It goes a step further than equality in that it is not only about providing people the same opportunity and rights but also about acknowledging different people need resources that work for them.

For instance, those with care-giving responsibilities are provided flexible policies that do not require them to choose between attention to career vs attention to their families. This is also intrinsically linked to gender equity including proactively delinking caregiving from being a woman’s domain. 

There is enough evidence to show that equity leads to better outcomes for everyone – in the context of workplaces, this means higher personal happiness, productivity and creativity leading to enhanced overall performance of the organisation.

Ultimately, embracing equity is as much about workplace and institutional policies as about individual action to review the status quo and build inclusivity into the ways we engage.

What does embrace equity mean to you?

Embracing equity begins with understanding how current systems and policies may be keeping some groups out. In a complex system like trade, there may be many factors. These include access to knowledge, networks, finance and the internet, property ownership and land rights, market access and the equitable protection of traditional knowledge, traditional cultural expressions and intellectual property rights. 

Trade policies and private sector practices can play a positive role here. The communities in question must be meaningfully involved throughout the process from design to implementation and review. It’s also important to bring everyone along to avoid a backlash. This may involve demonstrating why inclusion is a net positive for economies, societies and the environment as a whole and what the unique opportunities are in engaging traditionally marginalised groups.