The United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA) has said that targeted measures were needed to ensure opportunities from the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement were all-inclusive.
Ms. Thokozile Ruzvidzo, Director, Gender, Poverty and Social Policy Division, UNECA, said this at a roundtable on ‘Human Capital: Culture and Heritage’, hosted during the 2021 Africa Dialogue Series.
The event was hosted by the UN’s Office of the Special Adviser on Africa on May 28, according to a statement issued by the commission on Monday.
The roundtable discussion aimed to examine the role of culture and heritage in unlocking the full potentials of Africans and the economy.
Ruzvidzo said trade alone could not change the fact that women remained underpaid and underemployed compared to men, just as they remained vulnerable to high levies, bribes, harassment, confiscation of goods and violence.
“Women are not a homogenous group. AfCFTA will affect them differently based on their education, economic status and location.
”Understanding the gender impacts of trade under AfCFTA is critical in ensuring equality of opportunity for women and men.
“We know that trade can be a powerful driver of gender equality but that can only happen if we implement measures which stamp out inequalities across the whole system”, she added.
Ruzvidzo said that specific measures could range from customs cooperation to trade facilitation protection from discrimination, sanitary services and administrative support.
She pointed out that women did not benefit from international trade as men, contrary to other global trends.
The UN official recommended to the participants the need to address the challenge by adopting a gender-sensitive approach to the national implementation of AfCFTA, especially in areas that directly affect women.
She further noted that specific continental frameworks were also needed to address gender-based barriers which would guarantee trade opportunities reached every African.
“For instance, introducing a continent-wide ‘Simplified Trade Regime’ that is sensitive to the needs of small-scale female traders can bring those traders into the formal trading system, enabling them to grow and thrive.”
She added that similar interventions that addressed obstacles women faced could improve the productivity and competitiveness of women-owned businesses and enable female farmers to access regional markets.
Ruzvidzo also recommended that African governments should focus on up scaling digitalisation efforts to help industrialise and diversify the African economy.
This would be in addition to ensuring that women’s interests and concerns informed on policy, legislative and procedural frameworks, which would facilitate trade under AfCFTA.
By so doing, she stressed, this would ensure that no one was left behind and the full potentials of trade liberalisation would positively be harnessed for a healthy African economy.
