Africa\u2019s land borders can be busy, chaotic and, for the many thousands\nof women who operate as small-scale cross-border traders, dangerous.<\/p>
In East Africa, Self Help Africa\u2019s social enterprise subsidiary Partner Africa has been working with 2,000 of these operators, providing women along four of Burundi\u2019s borders with the skills and the organisation that they need to overcome the challenges and hazards that they face.<\/p>
Land borders in Africa play a significant role in local economies. But there is huge potential to increase cross\nborder trade. Small-scale women traders\nplay a large part in this commerce, both as porters and traders \u2013 selling\neverything from textiles and cosmetics to fruit, vegetables and fish.<\/p>
The new Partner Africa initiative is organising women involved in trade\nat four of the busiest land borders between Burundi and neighbouring Democratic\nRepublic of Congo and Rwanda, helping them to avert incidents of bribery,\ncoercion, sexual harassment and theft that are commonplace and to increase\ntheir prosperity by removing those barriers to increased trade and incomes.<\/p>
The project is organising small-scale women traders into groups and\ncooperatives, is raising awareness amongst traders of their rights, and is also\nundertaking training and awareness raising activities for border officials, who\nare often vulnerable to corruption. The objective is to make it easier and more\nlucrative to develop cross border trade for women increasing incomes and\nhelping to reduce poverty.<\/p>
In a second phase of the programme, Partner Africa is currently\ndeveloping a new ICT platform that is designed to provide cross border with\nreal time commodity pricing via mobile phone SMS services, so that they have up\nto date information and can trade more effectively between countries.<\/p>
The cross-border project is backed by the Belgian Government through the non profit implementing partners Trademark East Africa (TMEA).<\/p>
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