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Women earn a living through cross-border trading
Saeanna Chingamuka, Women in Development Southern Africa Awareness (WIDSAA)
Extracted from Gender and Development Exchange Quarterly Newsletter Issue 39 (July-September 2006)
August 30, 2006

http://www.sardc.net/widsaa/gad/view.asp?vol=49&pubno=39

Janet Mujajati, 54, of Harare, Zimbabwe, is a cross-border trader. She travels to South Africa at least once a month to go and sell beds preads, seat covers, cushion cove rs and skirts.

Mujajati has six children (four boys and two girls) whom she has managed to educate beyond secondary school levels with proceeds from her business. She has been a cross-border trader since 1992.

Mujajati says she and her husband, who works for a local private company, would not have managed to send their children for higher education without her cross-border trading.

Economic reforms which have deepened poverty in many southern African countries have pushed women into income-generating activities such as cross-border trading.

Mujajati says trading across borders should be encouraged because it provides an opportunity for many women in the region to contribute to household financial resources as well as increasing their financial independence and their access to, and control over resources.

"My husband's earnings from his formal employment are inadequate to sustain the family. But through cross-border trading we can afford a good life," Mujajati said.

She said the success of other women in her neighbourhood inspired her to venture into cross-border trading. "Their households were flourishing and it seemed they had eve rything they wanted," Mujajati said. "I there fo re thought it was a good idea to join other women and try my luck."

Besides being able to educate their children, Mujajati and her family have managed to build a house in one of Harare's high density suburbs, an achievement she says they would not have accomplished without cross-border trading.

Mujajati's story represents the situation in many countries in southern Africa where economic policies have pushed people out of formal employment into cross-border trading by providing an opportunity to enhance the economic growth potential.

Informal sector activities such as cross border trading are increasingly becoming an important part of survival strategies by families and not just ways of supplementing income from formal sector employment, therefore policies and programmes that support this will help allev i ate pove rty and boost women's income.

While maintaining that cross-border trading is very challenging especially for women, Mujajati yearns for the establishment of more programmes to facilitate the smooth operation of cross-border trading and to ease the challenges encountered in the business.

Mujajati said women cross-border traders lack reliable sources of information on markets and customs regulations, and often rely on other women traders for socio-economic support and information. "It is a nightmare for us when sometimes as a result of not being familiar with customs regulations, we get our hard-earned goods impounded by customs official," Mujajati said.

Most women traders also lack business management skills and have little access to price and demand/supply information in other markets.

Interviews with some women traders in Harare revealed that a majority of them have not heard about the SADC Trade Protocol and do not understand the protocol's local impact (on themselves). They also do not understand the implications to their business of the SADC Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons.

The Trade Protocol aims to create a level playing field in trade of goods and services as well as ensure that there are better conditions to facilitate cross-border trade.

There is need to build on existing programmes such as the cross-border traders associations that exist in many countries in the region to enable women cross-border traders to obtain the needed information from fo rmal sources, and supplement the informal information they already receive from fellow traders.

Cross-border traders associations have a parallel role to play in raising the concerns of members and offering information and training to members in business management skills, such as bookkeeping and marketing.

With the increasing urbanisation and economic transition in southern Africa, women cross-border traders should be seen as important in the private sector development for a number of reasons:

• women's enterprises contribute to regional and national economic growth;
• women's participation in the private sector empowers them by increasing their financial independence and their access to, and control over, resources;
• women are important contributors to household financial resources; and
• women spend their enterprise earnings on household goods and services such as children's education and health.

More business training programmes that focus on increasing the incomegenerating opportunities and building the capacity of women cross-border traders need to be established.

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