CARIBBEAN-CDB to fund regional gender differential labor market impact study

BRIDGETOWN, Barbados, CMC – The Barbados-based Caribbean Development Bank (CDB) Tuesday said it is providing funding for a Gender Differential Labour Market Impact Study (GDLMIS) in 15 regional countries aimed at narrowing the gender gap in the Caribbean’s labor market in the post-COVID-19 pandemic.

The CDB, which is providing US$362,300 to fund the initiative, said that GDLMIS would include a baseline assessment of the socio-economic situation and labor market structure in the Region before COVID-19 and the pandemic’s direct impact on national output and fiscal spending.

The Region’s premier financial institution said that the study would also assess gender access to credit for micro, small, and medium-sized enterprises (MSME) and the implications for entrepreneurship, identify the most at-risk workers, and analyze policy response to identify gaps in design and implementation and solutions for improving gender equality.

It said data collected in the GDLMIS would inform decisions related to labor market shocks in times of crisis or rebuilding.

Caribbean countries that will participate in the study already have baseline data from previous Surveys of Living Conditions or Country Poverty Assessments.

Director of the CDB’s Economics Department, Ian Durant, said that with only eight years remaining to 2030, Caribbean countries are hastening efforts to meet their sustainable development goals.

“Following the overlapping economic, social, and trade crises, the focus on people, planet and prosperity has never been more relevant and even more crucial is ensuring equal and sustainable access to resources by disadvantaged and often disenfranchised groups such as women,” Durant said.

According to the World Bank’s 2021 Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC) labor market impact study, women were 44 percent more likely than males to lose their jobs during the COVID-19 pandemic. Women are over-represented in retail, tourism, services, and hospitality industries, which lost 56 percent of jobs in the Region.

“This project highlights the bank’s commitment to promoting gender equality and will allow CDB to produce more focused evidence-based projects, knowledge products, and services to enhance gender mainstreaming by providing the necessary data to inform existing projects,” Durant said.

The CDB’s 2016 Country Gender Assessment Synthesis report found that despite higher education rates, women in the borrowing member states (BMS) had higher unemployment rates and were in predominantly lower-paid occupations. T

“This and other socio-cultural issues affect women’s economic opportunities and life chances and are closely tied to the “female face of poverty,” the CDB added.