Members from the Eastern African Sub-Regional Support Initiative for the Advancement of Women from the five east African member states meeting in Kampala have called on the Governments to address none tariff barriers faced by women engaged in cross border trade.
The executive director of this initiative Marren Akatsa Bukachi says that although 70% of the cross trade in east African is carried out by women , they face a number of challenges including lack of
information and lack of capital as they deal in their small business.
Bukachi says Governments should first collect data and use it when they making policies and also involve these women in cross border trade when making policies because they are directly affected.
The Programs Director EASSI Christine Nankubuge Ndawula says that when they carried out a gender analysis on the regional policies on trade they realized that women were not benefiting equally from
opportunities that are being availed by the regional integration process.
Nankubuge says much as the policies say that there is free movement of labor and goods women doing business at the boarders are harassed and some tines sexually abused because of majority of them are
semi illiterate and do not know how to read documents.
The members of EASSI now want the government to have the documents at customs translated into local languages so that women can easily communicate as they do business at the border.
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