INTERNATIONAL PRIZE FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN
TRADE
CONCEPT
NOTE
The following revised communication, dated 28 February, is being
circulated at the request of the delegations of Cabo Verde, El Salvador and the
United Kingdom.
_______________
1 BACKGROUND AND CONTEXT
The Co-Chairs of the Informal Working Group
on Trade and Gender (IWG) launched the second edition of the International
Prize for Gender Equality in Trade at the meeting of the IWG held on 27 February
2025.
Based on a set of eight criteria, the Prize
will recognize the best and most impactful gender‑responsive national trade
policy, export programme or aid for trade project (thereafter policy, programme
or project) adopted and implemented by WTO Members as well as observer governments
in support of women's inclusion in trade and women's (economic) empowerment.
2 ELIGIBILITY
·_
only WTO Members
or observer governments are invited to apply for the Prize;
·_
international and
regional organizations are not eligible to apply for the Prize;
·_
applications can
be put forward by:
_ ministries (trade or other);
_ national or regional governmental agencies, institutions or bodies
(includes customs, statistics bureaus, etc);
·_
joint
applications between several governmental institutions and ministries are
possible and welcomed.
3 DETAILS ABOUT THE SUBMISSIONS
3.1 Overall information
All the applications
must be submitted online by using the following link: https://wto.formstack.com/forms/international_prize_application_form
The submissions must demonstrate a great
achievement in providing solutions to (economically) empower women through
trade. They must also describe how the policy, programme or project was
formulated and implemented.
Submissions must include detailed information
on the following (as outlined in the application form):
·_
description and
key features of the policy, programme or project;
·_
challenges
overcame in designing/adopting the policy, programme or project;
·_
implementation
processes and results of the policy programme or project;
·_
description of
the main benefits of the policy, programme or project for women;
·_
description of
how the policy, programme or project contributes sustainable development,
poverty reduction and gender equality;
·_
explanation of
how the project meets each of the 8 Prize criteria published in this concept
note (see section below).
3.2 Applicants' choice of instrument to submit: one out of three
Applicants will have the choice to submit only
one of the following three instruments:
·_
gender-responsive
national trade policy;
·_
export programme;
·_
aid for trade
project.
3.3 Four Prize categories
Applicants will be able to apply to one of
the categories detailed below. Governments are invited to apply once and
under one category only, using the list provided in the table below.
Multiple applications from the same government in different categories or in
the same category will be rejected.
|
Category table
|
|
Category 1
|
Female
entrepreneurs (includes female farmers)
|
|
Category 2
|
Sustainable development
and gender
|
|
Category 3
|
Trade
facilitation
|
|
Category 4
|
Services in
trade
|
|
Special
prize category
|
Youth
empowerment from a gender perspective
|
4 SELECTION COMMITTEE AND REVIEW PROCESS
4.1 Selection Committee
The Co-Chairs of the IWG will constitute the Selection
Committee. The Co-Chairs will be supported by the WTO Secretariat.
The WTO Secretariat will gather the
applications and organize them by region, country, prize category, etc. based
on the information provided by applicants.
4.2 Criteria for the applications' review
Applications will be reviewed based on
various criteria described in the table below:
|
Criteria table
|
|
N°
|
Criteria
|
Description
|
|
1
|
Women's
trade inclusion
|
Impact/results
achieved and generated in positively including women in trade and allowing
them to benefit from the opportunities created by trade
|
|
2
|
Women's
empowerment
|
Positive
contribution to social, political and cultural empowerment of women as well
as relevance to UN Sustainable Development Goal 5
|
|
3
|
Partnerships
|
Inter-ministerial
collaboration and/or partnerships with external stakeholders from design to
implementation of policy, programme or project
|
|
4
|
Replication
|
Ability of
the policy, programme or project to be replicated
|
|
5
|
Innovation
|
Innovative
approach to policy, programme or project making
|
|
6
|
Communication
|
Does the
policy, programme or project include a communications and/or media strategy?
How well the applicant informed its target(s) about its actions undertaken as
part of the policy, programme or project?
|
|
7
|
Informal
Working Group on Trade and Gender
|
Link with at
least one of the four work pillars of the IWG
|
|
8
|
Learning
|
What did the
government learn from this policy making/programme designing/project
implementation experience?
|
Other criteria to be taken into consideration during the review:
·_
regional balance
and representation amongst the winners;
·_
category of the
policy, programme or project.
4.3 Applications' Scoring
A score from 0 to 5 (0=not met/no
information; 1=poor; 2=weak; 3=medium; 4=good; 5=very good), together with a
justification, will be given for each criterion.
An overall score for each submission will be
calculated as a mathematical average across the eight criteria (sum of criteria
score/10).
5 TIMELINE
|
Action
|
Date
|
|
Launch of Prize
|
27 February 2025
|
|
Launch of application process
|
28 February 2025
|
|
Applications' deadline
|
30 April 2025
|
|
Applications' review
|
1-16 May 2025
|
|
Informal announcement to winners (to prepare for the Prize ceremony)
and formal communications to the unsuccessful applicants
|
26 May 2025
|
|
Prize ceremony (at the World Trade Congress on Gender)
|
26 June 2025 (TBC)
|
_______________
Annex 1
|
INTERNATIONAL
PRIZE FOR GENDER EQUALITY IN TRADE
Application
Form (for information only)
Only applications received
through the following link will be taken into consideration https://wto.formstack.com/forms/international_prize_application_form
|
|
PART I
|
GENERAL INFORMATION ON APPLICANT
|
|
Name of applying organisation(s) government
agency(ies) and body(ies)
Note: in case of joint
applications, please add the names of all the applicant authorities
|
|
|
Country/Separate Customs Territory
|
|
|
Contact person/focal point
Note: in case of joint
applications, please add the names of all contact persons/focal points in all
applicant authorities
|
First name:
|
|
Last name:
|
|
Mobile phone:
|
|
Email:
|
|
PART II
|
SELECT THE PRIZE CATEGORY FOR WHICH YOU ARE
APPLYING FOR
|
|
Category 1
|
Female entrepreneurs (includes female farmers)
|
|
|
Category 2
|
Sustainable Development and gender equality
|
|
|
Category 3
|
Trade facilitation
|
|
|
Category 4
|
Trade in
services
|
|
|
Special Prize Category
|
Youth empowerment from a gender perspective
|
|
|
PART III
|
TYPE OF INSTRUMENT PRESENTED
|
|
Gender-responsive trade policy
|
|
|
Export programme
|
|
|
Aid for Trade project
|
|
PART IV
|
APPLICATION
|
|
Overall description and key features of the policy, programme or
project (no more than 500 words).
|
|
|
Please describe
the challenges you overcame (and how you overcame them) when
designing/adopting the policy, programme or project (no more than 500
words).
|
|
|
Please explain the implementation processes and results of the policy
programme or project (no more than 500 words).
|
|
|
Please describe the main benefits of the policy, programme or project
for women in general and for your target audience in particular (no more
than 500 words).
|
|
|
Please describe how does the policy, programme
or project contribute to, sustainable development, poverty reduction and
gender equality (no more than 500 words).
|
|
|
Please explain how your
policy, programme, project meet each of the 8 Prize criteria published
and described in the Prize concept note.
|
Criteria 1: Women's trade inclusion
|
no more than 200 words.
|
|
Criteria 2: Women's empowerment
|
no more than 200 words.
|
|
Criteria 3: Partnerships
|
no more than 200 words.
|
|
Criteria 4: Replication
|
no more than 200 words.
|
|
Criteria 5: Innovation
|
no more than 200 words.
|
|
Criteria 6: Communication
|
no more than 200 words.
|
|
Criteria 7: IWG
|
no more than 200 words.
|
|
Criteria 8: Learning
|
no more than 200 words.
|
PART V
|
MOTIVATION AND RATIONAL
ESSAY
|
|
Please explain
in no more than 500 words what is the rationale behind the
development, adoption and implementation of the gender-responsive
trade policy/export programme/aid for trade project.
|
|
PART VI
|
SUPPORTING DOCUMENTS
|
|
Please attach
any documents, photos and other material that would support your application
(recommended, not compulsory)
|
PART VII
|
SIGNATURE
|
|
Applications will
need to be OFFICIALLY signed by the applicant Authority(ies). By signing this
form, the applicant Authority(ies) certifies(y) that all the information
included is complete and correct.
|
|
Date,
signature & STAMP (Authority(ies))
|
|
|
|
|
|
__________