Akademik Veri Yönetim Sistemi
Aydıner Avşar N., Zarrilli S.(Yürütücü)
Diğer Uluslararası Fon Programları, 2016 - 2019
This project aims to strengthen national capacities in Malawi, the United Republic of
Tanzania and Zambia to leverage informal cross-border trade (ICBT) for the empowerment
of women, economic development and regional integration.
ICBT has broad poverty alleviation and development ramifications in Eastern and Southern
Africa. It constitutes a vital source of employment and livelihood for the poor in border
districts. The trade also contributes importantly to food security, as food items and livestock
account for the bulk of informal exports. There is a discernible gender component to ICBT:
an estimated 70-80% of informal cross-border traders in Sub-Saharan Africa are women.
Informal cross-border traders, particularly women, face an array of daunting challenges when
trading across the border: complex customs procedures and high transaction costs, coupled
with lack of awareness of rights and responsibilities; harassment at the border; supply-side
obstacles and lack of entrepreneurial skills. Authorities need to tackle this wide array of
obstacles in a coherent and comprehensive fashion. A particularly thorny issue for national
authorities is the effective implementation of a facilitated trade regime for cross-border
traders consistent with their multiple regional and multilateral commitments.
Through new analyses and capacity-building activities, the intervention tackles two issue
areas: (i) how to address the complexity and opacity of trade barriers to ICBT, in a context of
multiple overlapping trade arrangements; and (ii) how to accommodate the specificities of
ICBT, especially women, when designing and implementing suitable supply side services
that support cross-border trade flows. It revolves around three sets of activities: analytical
work, the piloting of micro-level schemes at selected border crossings, and policy dialogue.
The project will build capacities to mainstream ICBT in national policies and to rationalize
the regulatory regime for cross-border trade, in interplay and against the background of
multiple overlapping regional trade agreements (RTAs).
The project targets three categories of beneficiaries: small-scale traders and associations of
small-scale and informal cross-border traders, especially female traders, and women's
associations; trade ministries; and regional organizations. Key entities involved in the project
implementation are border agencies and trade ministries in Malawi, the United Republic
Tanzania and Zambia, associations of small-scale and informal cross-border traders,
especially female traders, and women's associations. To maximize synergies and avoid
duplication of efforts, activities have bene planned and will be implemented in close
coordination with the World Bank, TMEA, COMESA and the Commonwealth Secretariat.