Enhancement of policies, skills and access to information for women are some of the key issues that were brought to light during a round-table dinner held in Kigali Tuesday under the theme, ‘Harnessing the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) for gender equality.’

The African Continental Free Trade Area agreement seeks to turn the continent into a single trading bloc which would significantly improve economic growth across Africa.

The signing of the AfCFTA in March this year set the stage for the integration of the African continent into a single market and it requires participating countries to remove tariffs from 90 per cent of goods from other partner states, allowing free access to goods and services across the continent.  

It is in this light that officials at the gathering shared lessons and experiences and explored how best Eastern Africa could prepare to strengthen its women’s participation in trade policies and their implementation. 

The agreement is yet to open up new economic opportunities, but what can be done to ensure that it is gender responsive?  That was one of the key questions.

Rose Rwabuhihi, the Chief Gender Monitor at Gender Monitoring Office, says there is need to ensure safety if the agreement is to be gender responsive.

"Women are not as safe; crossing borders for trade may not always be safe for them for many reasons,” Rwabuhihi said. "Free movement needs safety.”

"When there is safety, people will move much more. Mobility is linked to the safety of countries and the borders. In Rwanda, the safety of goods and people in general has been a key factor and, with it, we have seen tremendous change. When security is guaranteed, women have an opportunity to demonstrate their capabilities,” she added.

Rwabuhihi said access to information is critical in terms of giving a platform to women. For many years women have not been able to exploit information as a tool for change yet this is very important when it comes to trade.

"Having information gives women access to market, it also pushes them out of their traditional boundaries and makes them able to engage themselves in the market,” she said.

Frank Matsaert, the Chief Executive Officer of TradeMark East Africa, said trade is a very powerful tool that changes the pattern of how people do things and with come great opportunities to think through on how equality between men and women can be realised. 

The agreement gives us a chance to think through the ramifications of inequality such that in case of opportunities in areas like agriculture, women too have the same opportunities as men, he said.

"The informal trade is massive; we need to find ways to ease the way women do business. They should be protected and we need to find ways to fight harassment amongst other prevailing impediments,” Matsaert said.

Call for clear policies

The Deputy Executive Secretary of the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA), Giovanie Biha, said there is need for very clear policies that address systemic issues of inequality, otherwise instead of making progress, countries will remain in similar situations. 

"Yes the agreement will certainly help women move into productive sectors and enable them enter into high paid work and sectors of the economy, but this will not happen automatically. We need to think about critical areas,” she said.

"Access to trading skills and education are some of the critical areas we need to think about when we are talking about developing the value chains in the agricultural sector and how we can really integrate women into this value chain,” she adds.

Biha also said that it is important that the social aspect is covered, for example, the issue of cultural impediments.

"We have political representation but we also know that there are still a lot of cultural barriers and that sometimes progress is slowed down because we are not taking into consideration this factor. We need to ensure that men are with us, society and religious leaders are with us, otherwise it is going to be difficult to penetrate in order to transform society in general,” she said.

Empowering women

Grace Ubaruta, an African Union youth volunteer and gender activist, says supporting the economic empowerment of women by creating trade and investment opportunities would go a long way in fostering gender equality.

She also says that easing cross-border movement for women can be an added bonus.

"Trade facilitation measures will benefit women in trade and contribute positively to gender equality. There should be recognition of the critical role of women as producers and traders, address their specific challenges in order to facilitate women’s equal and active participation in domestic, regional and international trade.”

Furthermore, improvement in education and closing the gender gap in secondary and tertiary education, and putting in place skill development programmes to enable women to match what is needed to work in higher-value-added sectors is another step that can be taken to harness gender empowerment, Ubaruta says.

Sarah Mujawase, a businesswoman, agrees with Ubaruta saying that there is need for enforcement or encouragement of women to take part in tertiary education as that would equip them with more skills that can help them operate business in East Africa and beyond.

editorial@newtimes.co.rw