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Every day in West Africa, thousands of women walk through border posts carrying produce like cassava, tomatoes, or maize to sell in neighbouring countries. They are unrecognized but vital parts of the region’s food systems and economies.
But many face harassment at checkpoints, along with demands for bribes. Border processes may not be in a language that they speak. The border crossings themselves have poor infrastructure. And women often have limited access to banking or other financial services.
Coordinated efforts are underway to tackle these challenges within the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). Forty regional officials met from 24 to 26 February 2025 in Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, to endorse a slate of solutions, including:
- establishing legal clinics at border posts
- providing gender-sensitivity training for customs and transport officials
- launching simplified declaration systems for small traders
- deploying visual, mobile-accessible tools to help women comply with trade procedures
- engaging men as allies
‘We need to ensure regional trade policy becomes a tool for inclusive growth, where women are not just participants, but empowered leaders,’ said Sandra Oulate, Director of the ECOWAS Gender Development Centre (EGDC).
The International Trade Centre (ITC) is working with ECOWAS and the main German development agency GIZ on the ECOWAS Agricultural Trade (EAT) programme. The goal is implement solutions like these to make cross-border trade safer, simpler, and more inclusive for women.
The workshop brought together representatives from ECOWAS, national gender and agriculture focal points, chambers of commerce, and development partners including ITC, Women in Law and Development in Africa (WILDAF), West Africa Association for Cross-Border Trade, in Agro-forestry-pastoral, fisheries products and Food (WACTAF), and the West African Food Systems Resilience Programme.
Salimata Thiam, an EGDC representative, said participants were encouraged to ‘identify concrete actions that could be implemented within the framework of the EAT project to boost the role of women in regional trade’.
ITC presented several tools under development: a new regional trade guide for women, a policy paper on women in agrifood trade, and findings from gender-sensitive border assessments to support informed policymaking.
Distributed by APO Group on behalf of International Trade Centre.