Gender-responsive trade and development policy is an essential component of inclusive, sustainable economic and social development. To effectively formulate and implement such policy, it is necessary to first understand the depth and breadth of women’s contribution to Africa’s economy. To support these efforts, the ECA's African Centre for Gender and African Trade Policy Centre have jointly developed a gender statistics toolkit to assist African countries to collect, analyze and report on data concerning women in informal cross border trade (WICBT).

This toolkit validation workshop will bring together 25–30 experts in statistics and WICBT from national statistical offices, gender and trade ministries, universities and other research institutions, and regional and international organizations, including ECA and UN agencies. It is expected that the workshop will generate recommendations that will be used to fine-tune and finalize the toolkit.