Empowering Women and Youth to Participate in Structured Cross-Border Grain Trade through CBTAs in ESA Regions

← All ProjectsEmpowering Women and Youth to Participate in Structured Cross-Border Grain Trade through CBTAs in ESA Regions
Funded By
Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA)
Impact Area
Tanzania, Uganda, Kenya, Zambia, Malawi
Dates
September 2024 – September 2026
CBTAs (Cross-Border Trade Associations) frequently struggle to get financial resources, technical assistance and capacity development support to improve their institutional capacity and representational effectiveness.
Moreover, CBTAs in East and Southern African (ESA) Countries face challenges such as complex and varied regulatory bottlenecks, lengthy customs procedures, trade restrictions and tariffs. There is also a lack of capacity of women and youth traders and SMEs, with limited access to information on the trade market, SOPs, regulation and incentives, and a general lack of capacity of CBTAs for better assistance delivery to small scale traders.
To address these issues, AGMARK is collaborating with Alliance for Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) and other regional organizations such as Trademark Africa, East Africa Grain Council (EAGC), East Africa Community (EAC), Common Market for East and Southern Africa (COMESA), Sauti Africa, governments and the private sector.

Focused Cross-Border Points

  • Busia-Busia (Kenya-Uganda)
  • Namanga-Namanga (Kenya-Tanzania)
  • Kasumulu-Songwe (Tanzania-Malawi)
  • Tunduma-Nakonde (Tanzania-Zambia)

Targeted Value Chains

  • Maize
  • Rice
  • Common Beans
  • Soybean
  • Groundnuts
Women interacting in an ESA market with grains and colorful attire, part of youth cross-border grain trade

Goal

To collaborate with CBTAs in ESA regions as anchor partners in implementing a well-coordinated and multi-stakeholder strategy to improve trade facilitation measures and support capacity building initiatives

Primary Outcomes

  • Improved enabling environment for inclusive markets and trade (especially for Agri entrepreneurship).
  • Enhanced market performance, especially value chains that engaged youth.
  • Diversified and increased work opportunities for youth.

Intermediate Outcomes

  • Predictable inclusive and harmonized market trade policies passed and implemented.
  • Strengthened delivery of job support and empowerment by mandated institutions.
  • Increased youth uptake of training and new technologies.

Activities

  • Strengthening CBTAs institutional capacity to deliver better services, and opportunities to women and young traders for increased cross-border trade and jobs in ESA regions.
  • Providing reliable trade market advisory and lasting market linkages among anchor buyers and traders in ESA regions.
  • Facilitating policy advocacy and lobbying for enabling better trading environment in ESA Regions.
  • Enhancing the understanding of small traders, with a focus on women and youth, regarding regional and national trade regulations.
  • Supporting CBTAs to be genuine advocacy forces for trade.

Key Achievements

8
CBTAs supported to strengthen their institutional and trade capacity and embrace reforms that enable market and trade to function
10,000 MT
Grains traded through market linkages between trader's smallholder farmers, service providers and market actors enhanced
800
Traders trained through CBTAs in structured grain trading systems
5,000
Jobs for women and youth in cross border grain trade
$2.5M
Value of agricultural commodities traded across the targeted border points
$1.7M
Total investment leveraged from new investments by private firms
$3.5M
New investments from assisted private sector firms through procurement of crops from farmer organizations
4,000
Smallholder farmers including aggregators and traders linked to anchor off-takers through CBTAs