Caribbean Gender and Trade Network (CGTN) works to strengthen the capacity of Caribbean Women's Organizations for understanding the impact of trade liberalization on women's economic and social advancement. 

CGTN addresses the critical need to understand the concept of gender, that is, the social dynamism that determines the relationship not only between men and women, but also in their relationship with social and economic production. It is felt that trade is gender-neutral affecting women and men in identical ways. The reality is that trade policies often have a negative impact on the lives of women.

To address the negative effects of trade liberalization on women in the region, CGTN focuses its efforts on research, economic literacy, and advocacy. CGTN has publishesed educational materials with a gender analysis on trade liberalization and privatization and works in coalitions to challenge current trade policy and work for alternatives.

CGTN focuses on:

• The analysis of technical and political dimensions of international trade topics from gender and development perspective.
• The training of local trainers of trainers for women’s organization, business and community groups, government officials, women’s national machinery, parliamentarians and academics on gender and trade issues.
• The enhancement of on-going training and research efforts particularly for dissemination and preparation of the Caribbean Gender and Trade agenda.

CGTN works to involve in expand awareness of and research on gender and trade and is developing a network and information database to support the on-going research efforts of national and regional women’s organizations national in order to foster greater inter-organizational collaboration and coalition building.

For further information on CGTN, please contact: Mariama Williams or secretariat@igtn.org