{"id":4537,"date":"2021-10-15T08:58:27","date_gmt":"2021-10-15T08:58:27","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders"},"modified":"2021-10-15T09:30:23","modified_gmt":"2021-10-15T09:30:23","slug":"spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders","title":{"rendered":"Spotlight on women cross border traders"},"content":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press<\/a> – Lesotho<\/a>. <\/strong><\/span>Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women cross border traders still face specific challenges that need to be addressed to allow for smooth operations.<\/p>\n

Female cross border traders face specific challenges such as Gender Based Violence (GBV) during their travel as well as limited access to finance due to the fact that they are a disadvantaged gender.<\/p>\n

This was revealed on Monday during the national consultations for formulation of the AfCFTA Protocol on Women and Trade organised by the UNDP, Ministry of Trade and other stakeholders.<\/p>\n

The overall objective of national consultations was to provide a platform for women to voice their needs and interests with regard to trade in the context of the AfCFTA and to facilitate access to regional trade platforms by validating the action plan for integrating the needs of the informal cross border traders to ease trade across Lesotho and South Africa borders.<\/p>\n

Among others, the consultations further aimed at identifying and interrogating the multiple challenges, tariff and non-tariff, that women face at various levels of the export and import process across African borders as producers of goods and services, investors, firm owners, formal and informal sector players.<\/p>\n

The UNDP had noted that in conducting the national consultations for formulation of the AfCFTA Protocol on Women and Trade, the informal cross border traders are a critical sector, based on their volume of trade and contribution to economic activities in the country, and as providers of goods to many micro and small businesses in Lesotho.<\/p>\n

Their issues and challenges overlap with those of the African women exporters at the micro-scale. Minister of Trade and Industry, Dr Thabiso Molapo, added in his own remarks on Monday that women\u2019s economic empowerment is an appropriate, smart investment which is indispensable.<\/p>\n

He said the protocol is another milestone that will provide Lesotho women owned businesses with the certainty they require to find and access new growth opportunities.<\/p>\n

\u201cTo all the women who are engaged in trade in one way or another, the country and region have gained so much from your efforts.<\/p>\n

We have to ensure that our economies continue to take full advantage of women power and the extensive reservoir of capabilities they represent. The success of the AfCFTA must be measured by the benefits that our businesses can derive from them,\u201d Molapo said.<\/p>\n

In her remarks and on behalf of the Ministry of Gender and Youth, Sports and Recreation, Dr \u2018Mamoeketsi Ntho emphasized that as Lesotho progresses with AfCFTA, there is a need to target the issues if informality with gender inclusive trade policy that will transform and formalise informal trade.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs Lesotho progresses with AfCFTA, we must continue to advocate for the equal representation of women in all aspects of the African Continental Free Trade Area, including the technical committees that will be responsible for monitoring the implementation of the agreement.<\/p>\n

There is an opportunity with the establishment of national AfCFTA committees to ensure that gender dimension is taken into account so as to ensure inclusive policy making where it matters most,\u201d Ntho said during the event.<\/p>\n

According to the study on the opportunities for women entrepreneurs in the context of the African Continental Free Trade Area released by UN Women in 2019, the agreement is likely to foster industrialisation and regional competitiveness through the creation of regional value chains and improved agro-processing. The success of such value chain will, however, depend on addressing identified key challenges to women\u2019s effective participation in them.<\/p>\n

The study revealed that it is therefore critical from the onset to establish what the agreement means for women in terms of their participation in cross-border trade, value chains and public procurement, the potential these hold for women and the contributions women can make in fostering the aim and objectives of the agreement.<\/p>\n

As of January 1, trade commenced in the world\u2019s largest free trade area in terms of the number of participating countries. With the AfCFTA, 54 of the 55 African Union Nations agreed to a continent-wide liberalised market for goods an d services.<\/p>\n

The agreement is a major opportunity to enhance competitiveness within the continent and in the global market, to stimulate growth and structural transformation, and to achieve sustainable and inclusive socioeconomic development.<\/p>\n

According to the World Bank, the AfCFTA, which connects 1.3 billion Africans, is expected to lift 30 million people out of extreme poverty, to boost the income of nearly 68 million others who live on less than US$5.50 (about M8) a day and to spur larger wage gains for women (10.5 percent) than that for men (9.9 percent).<\/p>\n

The agreement will open markets in critical sectors in which women are engaged such as agriculture, manufacturing (clothing and textile), and services, including tourism and other business services.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Africa-Press – Lesotho. Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women cross border traders still face specific challenges that need to be addressed to allow for smooth operations. Female cross border traders face specific challenges such as Gender Based Violence (GBV) during their travel as well […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":84,"featured_media":4536,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,5,8,16],"tags":[233,246,245,261],"class_list":["post-4537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-all-news","category-economy","category-homepage-english","category-twitter","tag-africa-press","tag-africa-press-lesotho","tag-lesotho","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nSpotlight on women cross border traders - Lesotho<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women ...\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Spotlight on women cross border traders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women ...\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Lesotho\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-10-15T08:58:27+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-10-15T09:30:23+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1024\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"588\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"cfeditoren\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"4 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"headline\":\"Spotlight on women cross border traders\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-15T08:58:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-15T09:30:23+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders\"},\"wordCount\":800,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg\",\"keywords\":[\"Africa Press\",\"Africa Press-Lesotho\",\"Lesotho\",\"Women\"],\"articleSection\":[\"all news\",\"economy\",\"homepage-english\",\"twitter\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders\",\"name\":\"Spotlight on women cross border traders - Lesotho\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-10-15T08:58:27+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-10-15T09:30:23+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\"},\"description\":\"Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women ...\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg\",\"width\":1024,\"height\":588,\"caption\":\"Spotlight on women cross border traders\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Spotlight on women cross border traders\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/\",\"name\":\"Lesotho\",\"description\":\"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb\",\"name\":\"cfeditoren\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"cfeditoren\"}}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Spotlight on women cross border traders - Lesotho","description":"Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women ...","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Spotlight on women cross border traders","og_description":"Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women ...","og_url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders","og_site_name":"Lesotho","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/AfricaPressTunisiaa","article_published_time":"2021-10-15T08:58:27+00:00","article_modified_time":"2021-10-15T09:30:23+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1024,"height":588,"url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"cfeditoren","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"cfeditoren","Est. reading time":"4 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders"},"author":{"name":"cfeditoren","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"headline":"Spotlight on women cross border traders","datePublished":"2021-10-15T08:58:27+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-15T09:30:23+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders"},"wordCount":800,"commentCount":0,"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg","keywords":["Africa Press","Africa Press-Lesotho","Lesotho","Women"],"articleSection":["all news","economy","homepage-english","twitter"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders","name":"Spotlight on women cross border traders - Lesotho","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg","datePublished":"2021-10-15T08:58:27+00:00","dateModified":"2021-10-15T09:30:23+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb"},"description":"Although Lesotho is among countries that have ratified the Africa Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA) agreement, women ...","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/static.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/sites\/62\/2021\/10\/img-61694a1291cfc.jpg","width":1024,"height":588,"caption":"Spotlight on women cross border traders"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/all-news\/spotlight-on-women-cross-border-traders#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Spotlight on women cross border traders"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/","name":"Lesotho","description":"Just another Africa News Agency Sites site","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/068c7ab4e9634ae78ec5d54ec46598bb","name":"cfeditoren","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7417380fa9e23b5c57fdbfdaf3fdf92ee478f759a084addda5faa3732853e74a?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"cfeditoren"}}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/84"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4537"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4537\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/4536"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4537"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4537"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.africa-press.net\/lesotho\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4537"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}