Resilient Trade

The impact of increasingly severe weather events and harsher long-term conditions on economies in TMA focus regions is likely to get worse, affecting agricultural production and livelihoods in the Sahel, East Africa and the Horn of Africa. Trade facilitation enables vulnerable groups to adapt during a crisis, while addressing the underlying causes of such crises. It makes the distribution of food and the trade of essential products faster and cheaper, connecting food-surplus to food-deficit countries. A consequence is a cost reduction in the distribution of food by humanitarian responders and a rise in the quality and predictability of staple food for vulnerable communities.

Ensuring Markets Reduce Poverty. If trade facilitation is to impact effectively on poverty reduction, it cannot ignore vulnerable and marginalised groups, including women, youth and people with disabilities. Young people constitute over 60% of Africa’s population, a number that will only increase, and closing the gender gap in trade could increase the value of exports from women-owned businesses by up to $1 trillion globally. Yet women- and youth-owned trade businesses in Africa continue to operate primarily in the informal sector, putting them at a disadvantage in accessing logistics, business development services, finance, and the trade regulatory information they need to grow their businesses. Making markets work for the poor, therefore, requires targeted investments that increase business formalisation, reduce specific barriers for small businesses, and boost market access.