Despite the integration of the East African countries and
the coming into force of the Customs Union and Common Market Protocols, women
continue to engage in informal cross border trade by largely using ungazetted
border crossing routes.
There is need
therefore to identify how the provisions in the Customs Union and Common Market
Protocols can be exploited in order to increase women’s trade volume, reduce transaction
costs and eliminate the non-tariff barriers which remain obstacles to trade.
EASSI with financial support from Trade Mark East Africa
(TMEA) is implementing the Empowering Women Informal Cross Border Traders
Project in the East Africa Common Market. EASSI will be implementing the
project in partnership with its focal points in Uganda, Kenya, Tanzania, Rwanda
and Burundi.
On Friday 3rd August 2012, the implementing partner
organisations gathered at the EASSI secretariat in Kampala, Uganda to reflect
more about the project and the impact of the Customs Union and Common Market
Protocols on women’s effective participation in cross border trade within the
EAC region.
The participants were invited from the following implementing partner organisations; Tanzania Media Women’s Association (TAMWA) in
Tanzania, Collectif Des Associctions et ONGS Feminines du Burundi (CAFOB) in
Burundi, Caucus for Women’s Leadership (CWL) in Kenya, Profemme/Twese hamwe in
Rwanda and National Association of Women Organizations in Uganda (NAWOU) in
Uganda.
The objective of the inception meeting was also to enable
implementing partners of the project to have a common understanding of the
project, implementation mechanisms and the role each partner. Participants
during the workshop reflected on the status of the implementation of Customs
and Common Market protocols and impact on women’s effective participation in
cross border trade with in the EAC region.
“Women have not fully benefited from the Customs Union
and the Common Market Protocol largely because they lack knowledge of their
rights and entitlements; they lack business information and have limited
knowledge on trade procedures and protocols” noted Eric Tumesigye, EASSI's Project Coordinator speaking at the
meeting.
“We hope by the end of this project, women will have
access to more markets, access better networks and add value to their products
and may be cease to be informal women cross border traders” The Programs
Director EASSI, Christine Nankubuge noted.
The implementing partners pledged to support the project
and ensure more women informal traders benefit from the project through;
increasing networking opportunities for the women; proper documentation;
increased sensitization; increased utilization of the media including community
radio stations and so on.
