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Technical barriers to trade in the agrifood sector

Making the African Continental Free Trade Area work for women: Policy brief








FAO and ITC. 2024. Technical barriers to trade in the agrifood sector –  Making the African Continental Free Trade Area work for women: Policy briefRome.



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    Brochure, flyer, fact-sheet
    Empowering women and boosting livelihoods through agricultural trade: Leveraging the AfCFTA
    A joint initiative between FAO and the International Trade Centre
    2023
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    The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement is a powerful programme which promises to boost the livelihoods of African people. However, if gender equality is not a central component of its implementation, the agreement may worsen the gender gap and exacerbate the challenges faced by women producers, processors and traders due to the existing inequalities that disadvantage them. It is vital that the AfCFTA agreement roll-out ensures that trade policies, practices and regulations are gender-responsive and create the conditions for African women and girls to benefit. We must enable women to seize the new opportunities created by the AfCFTA in the agrifood sector and empower them to be economic actors and agents of change.
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    Policy brief
    Sanitary and phytosanitary measures
    Making the African Continental Free Trade Area work for women: Policy brief
    2024
    Also available in:

    The African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) offers improved trading opportunities for farmers, processors, entrepreneurs of micro, small and medium-sized enterprises, traders and informal cross-border traders across urban, peri-urban, rural and border areas. The simplified requirements under the agreement provides the possibility of moving beyond informality into the formal economy. The AfCFTA can open up opportunities for women agripreneurs and traders to tap into new markets and move up the value chain for trading in agrifood goods. However, gains can only be achieved if trade facilitation is improved for both women and men across the continent. Ensuring the safety of agricultural goods and agrifood products and preventing foodborne illnesses is a goal of governments across the world. This policy brief examines how sanitary and phytosanitary (SPS) measures may facilitate or limit women’s participation in the agrifood sector in Africa and how the AfCFTA provides an opportunity for African policymakers to make the SPS framework gender-responsive. The brief presents the specific SPS challenges facing women traders and agripreneurs, identifies how SPS measures under the AfCFTA can be made more gender-responsive, and provides recommendations on how SPS measures can be implemented to promote understanding and compliance among women traders and agripreneurs.
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    Book (stand-alone)
    Eastern African dairy value chains: what prospects for women in trade?
    Gender policy developments for inclusive dairy markets and trade in Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda
    2024
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    In Eastern Africa, dairy value chains are an important source of income and employment for millions of smallholders, particularly for women who provide an essential contribution to the growth of the dairy sector. While the sector is rapidly growing, and expanding trade in dairy products holds immense potential for boosting inclusive economic growth in Eastern Africa, dairy trade mostly remains a small-scale domestic business in the region. In particular, women’s engagement in dairy markets and trade is constrained by gender-based barriers and inequalities, and dairy intensification and commercialization processes have led to uneven outcomes for women and men. As many countries are increasingly investing in the modernization of their dairy farming systems to spur dairy productivity and commercialization, it is essential that the gender implications of the market-driven development of the dairy sector are taken into consideration. This report reviews gender issues in the Eastern Africa dairy value chains, with a focus on markets and trade, in the context of broader regional policy frameworks and evolving market scenarios. In particular, gender policy developments in agricultural and trade policies relevant for the dairy sector are assessed for Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. By bridging the value chain level into the enabling policy dimension, this study attempts to contribute to ongoing debates on the prospects for women’s participation in dairy markets and trade through more gender-responsive policymaking.

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