Two day Technical Meeting on Equal Pay (EPIC) Concluded

Today, 10 UNU-GEST fellows who are enrolled in the module Gender, Labour and Migration, concluded a two day technical meeting of the Equal Pay International Coalition (EPIC) on promoting better indicators, statistics, data and policies to reduce the gender pay gap.  The technical meeting was attended by 70-80 international/local specialists with an overall aim of identifying how pay gaps between women and men can be analysed in broader contexts of inequality, including looking at women’s limited access to paid employment (in emerging and low income countries) and the unequal division of unpaid work  within  households (in all economic contexts). The meeting included presentation of the findings and recommendation of the new ILO Global Wage Report, as well as various round table discussions on policies, methodologies and lessons learned relevant to analyzing gender pay gaps. 

For the final assignment in the module Gender, Labour and Migration, Hassan Waddimba, UNU-GEST fellow who has a BA in Development Economics, says he is going to examine the need for Equal Pay legislations in developing countries, focusing on Uganda. Hassan said that this topic would also fit to his previous assignment in the module Gender and Development where he analysed the National Employment Policy for Uganda and where he did not raise the issue of equal pay specifically. The technical meeting provided him with insights and details which allow him to look at how equal pay could fit into the existing employment policy framework in Uganda.

The EPIC technical workshop was hosted by the Prime Minister Office and Ministry of Social Affairs of Iceland in partnership with the Nordic Council of Ministers and International Labour Organization.