Person:
Chemutai, Vicky
Author Name Variants
Fields of Specialization
INTERNATIONAL TRADE,
CLIMATE CHANGE,
CARBON ACCOUNTING,
TRADE POLICY
Degrees
External Links
Departments
Trade and Regional Integration
Externally Hosted Work
Contact Information
Last updated
January 31, 2023
Biography
Vicky Chemutai is a Young Professional with the Trade and Regional Integration Unit of the World Bank. Her interests include analyzing the dynamics of international trade and its interactions with global issues—among others, climate and gender concerns. She has developmental experience spanning (1) the public sector in several Ugandan government agencies (health, social security, and the central bank); (2) the private sector as founder of several small-scale entrepreneurial ventures; and (3) the international development sector, focusing on trade policy formulation and implementation, formerly at the World Trade Organization and presently at the World Bank Group. She has been an adjunct lecturer at the International University in Geneva in the fields of trade and statistics and has coauthored publications on trade policy and its impacts on countries’ development. She holds an MSc in international trade policy and trade law from Lund University (Sweden); an advanced postgraduate diploma in international trade policy and trade law from the Trade Policy Training Centre in Africa (Tanzania); and a BSc in quantitative economics from Makerere University (Uganda).
Publication Search Results
1 - 4 of 4
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Publication
Leveraging ICT Technologies in Closing the Gender Gap
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-01-04)In recent decades, the growth of information and communications technologies (ICT) and the move toward the digitalization of trade and global value chains has been radically transforming the global trade scene, with important implications for women engaged in trade. In order to identify adequate measures to reduce gender disparities, this paper reviews and discusses evidence from the existing literature, as well as presents evidence from several new empirical analyses. It also introduces two new frameworks to analyze the gender dimensions of e-commerce. Digital technologies have the potential to empower women socially and economically by creating new employment and entrepreneurial opportunities, removing trade barriers for women, enhancing access to finance and information and optimizing their business processes. For example, e-commerce substantially lowers the barriers to entry for micro-, small- and medium sized enterprises by reducing the investment needed to launch and run a business. Digital solutions that remove the need for face-to-face interactions when trading can help reduce the difficulties women business owners face, such as mobility constraints, discrimination, and in some countries even violence. As workers, digital technologies may help women overcome time and mobility constraints by connecting women to work from different locations and in flexible hours through emails, instant messaging and tele-conferences. It will also benefit women as consumers by saving time, providing access to information, reducing transaction costs, or giving them more control over the purchasing process. Yet, technology is not the silver bullet in resolving all the gender gaps in trade. This is because women’s access and use of ICTs and digital technologies tend to lag in contrast to men. The benefits of digital technologies hinges on well-designed and specifically targeted policies. -
Publication
Trade Responses to the COVID-19 Crisis in Africa
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-04-06)Countries in Africa should strive to maintain trade flows during the crisis to secure access to medical goods and services, and food and other essential items such as farm inputs. This requires keeping borders open to the largest extent possible and avoiding measures such as export bans or taxes. Countries should take action to reduce taxes and duties on trade, to streamline trade procedures and to support transport and logistics services in maintaining cross-border and international value chains. By joining together, countries in Africa can implement coordinated trade measures that result in better responses to the crisis. Joint actions include bilateral cooperation on border management, joint information campaigns, coordinated purchasing of medical equipment, partnering on repurposing production to produce medical goods, and management of health specialists to deal with emerging hotspots on the continent. Development partners should support coordinated actions by regional institutions through analysis, technical assistance and perhaps operational projects. Identifying the appropriate level (sub-national, national, regional, continental) for interventions and the most effective institutions, in terms of relevance and capacity, to manage coordinated actions will be essential. -
Publication
Emerging Emitters and Global Carbon Mitigation Efforts
(World Bank, Washington, DC, 2020-12)International efforts to avoid dangerous climate change have historically focused on reducing energy-related carbon-di-oxide (CO2) emissions from countries with the largest economies, including the EU and U.S., and/or the largest populations, such as, China and India. However, in recent years, emissions have surged among a different, much less-examined group of countries, raising the issue of how to address a next generation of high-emitting economies that need strong growth to reduce relatively high levels of poverty. They are also among the countries most at risk from the adverse impacts of climate change. Compounding the paucity of analyses of these emerging emitters, the long-term effects of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic on economic activity and energy systems remain unclear. Here, the authors analyze the trends and drivers of emissions in each of the fifty-nine developing countries whose emissions over 2010-2018 grew faster than the global average (excluding China and India), and then project their emissions under a range of pandemic recovery scenarios. Although future emissions diverge considerably depending on responses to Coronavirus (COVID-19) and subsequent recovery pathways, the authors find that emissions from these countries nonetheless reach a range of 5.1-7.1 Gt CO2 by 2040 in all their scenarios, substantially in excess of emissions from these regions in published scenarios that limit global warming to 2 degrees Celsius . The authors results highlight the critical importance of ramping up mitigation efforts in countries that to this point have played a limited role in contributing the stock of atmospheric CO2 while also ensuring the sustained economic growth that will be necessary to eliminate extreme poverty and drive the extensive adaptation to climate change that will be required. -
Publication
The Trade and Climate Change Nexus: The Urgency and Opportunities for Developing Countries
(Washington, DC: World Bank, 2021-09-29)While trade exacerbates climate change, it is also a central part of the solution because it has the potential to enhance mitigation and adaptation. This timely report explores the different ways in which trade and climate change intersect. Trade contributes to the emissions that cause global warming and is itself also affected by climate change through changing comparative advantages. The report also confronts several myths concerning trade and climate change. The report focuses on the impacts of, and adjustments to, climate change in developing countries and on how future trade opportunities will be affected by both the changing climate and the policy responses to address it. The report discusses how trade can provide the goods and services that drive mitigation and adaptation. It also addresses how climate change creates immense challenges for developing countries, but also new opportunities to promote trade diversification in the transition to a low-carbon world. Suitable trade and environmental policies can offer effective economic incentives to attain both sustainable growth and poverty reduction.