Training and resources: Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Tourism Sector of the Indian Ocean Rim Region.

IORA and UN Women delivered a training course in May 2021 on Women’s Economic Empowerment in Tourism. Recordings and resources are available below.

Women make up 54% of the tourism workforce, and have felt shocks from COVID more acutely than their male counterparts. According to the UNWTO Global Report on Women in Tourism, the tourism sector can offer greater opportunities for women’s entrepreneurship than the broader economy, and that investment in skills training for women and gender equality training across the sector lead to greater outcomes for gender equality.  UN Women delivered an online training course on Women’s Economic Empowerment in the Tourism Sector of the Indian Ocean Rim Region from 11-20 May 2021.

The training was run in two groups. The first group took place on 11-13 May 2021 and the second group took place on 18-20 May 2021. The trainer was Ms Lucy Ferguson, researcher and consultant in gender issues in tourism, and Co-Author of the UNWTO’s Global Report on Women in Tourism.

The objectives of the training were to enable participants to:

• Understand the potential contributions of the tourism sector to women’s economic empowerment
• Become familiar with some good practices and different approaches to women’s economic empowerment in tourism
• Explore how to advocate for women’s economic empowerment in tourism
• Acquire the basic skills to be able to deliver an introduction to women’s economic empowerment in tourism for colleagues.

Resources on women’s empowerment in tourism

1. Webinar recording. A public one-hour webinar was held on 28 May 2021 on the challenges and opportunities for promoting women’s empowerment in tourism. A recording is available here.

2. Training recordings. Two sessions of the virtual training in May 2021, on ‘Case Studies and Good Practices’, have been made available to the public, as follows:

• Workshop A Session 2: Speakers: Ms Maylene Broderick, Chief Director (Enterprise Development and Transformation), Ministry of Tourism, South Africa; Dr Catheryn Khoo, Associate Professor at the Griffith Institute for Tourism; and Ms Lydia Bebe-Kum, UNWTO Regional Department for Africa.
• Workshop B Session 2: Speakers: Dr. Tricia Barnett, Director of Equality in Tourism; Ms Ghada Jiha, Co-Author of UNWTO Regional Report on Women in Tourism in the Middle East; and Ms Maylene Broderick, Chief Director (Enterprise Development and Transformation), Ministry of Tourism, South Africa.

      3. Training materials, including recommendations:

• Session 1: Concepts and definitions
• Session 2: Case studies and good practices
• Session 3: Implementation and next steps (including recommendations)

This training was provided under IORA’s collaboration with UN Women to strengthen research on women’s economic empowerment, and promote the Women’s Empowerment Principles in the region, supported through a three-year project funded by the Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT). 

The full list of activities under the IORA-UN Women partnership, supported by the Government of Australia, is available here.