African Free trade: What’s in it for women?

Business Daily

BBC

News, Business

4.4 • 796 Ratings

🗓️ 12 February 2021

⏱️ 17 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

After years of planning and delays, Africa’s new trade bloc, the African Continental Free Trade Area, opened in January with the promise of transforming the continent’s economies. Amandla Ooko-Ombaka of McKinsey and Company in Nairobi explains the enormous poverty-reducing potential the bloc represents. But some are calling for the agreement’s terms to more directly benefit women, by helping facilitate trade in their wares across borders. Caroline Gethi of the Organisation of Women in International Trade and Gloria Atuheirwe of Trademark East Africa say the agreement hasn't gone far enough to promote gender equality, and that it as yet doesn’t even recognise the role of women in informal trade which is the backbone of Africa’s economies.

Producer: Frey Lindsay

(Image credit: Getty Images.)

Transcript

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0:00.0	Hello, I'm Tamerson Ford. Welcome to Business Daily from the BBC.
0:06.8	Forget Brexit. The biggest news on trade deals this year is not in Europe. It's in Africa.
0:13.1	The promise of the Africa Free Trade Continental Agreement is really inspirational.
0:17.9	It's supposed to be a single market of almost a billion people in over 50 countries
0:22.1	with a combined GDP of almost $3 trillion. Proponents say it has the power to transform Africa.
0:29.9	That's if it can recognize the crucial role women play in trade. So does it?
0:37.1	I think not enough. I think right now the agreement is general.
0:40.7	It has some general statements around promoting gender equality, which is good. But I think, as
0:45.9	always with gender, if you don't get into the detail up front, it's likely to fall off the work
0:51.0	one along the way. We take a look at how and why recognising gender
0:55.9	equality could determine the success of Africa's new free trade bloc. That's all in Business Daily from the BBC.
1:07.1	After years of planning and delays, Africa's new trade block, the African Continental Free Trade Area, opened in January with the promise of transforming the continent's economies.
1:21.2	54 out of 55 countries have signed up, only Eritrea opted out, and so far 34 countries have ratified it. Now, before we
1:31.4	take a look at how this mega free trade deal impacts women, let's look at the actual agreement
1:37.6	itself. Amanda La Uwoko-Bucca is an economist at the management consultancy firm McKinsey and Company in Nairobi, Kenya.
1:47.1	The promise of the Africa Free Trade Continental Agreement is really inspirational.
1:52.1	It's supposed to be a single market of almost a billion people in over 50 countries
1:56.3	with a combined GDP of almost $3 trillion.
2:00.6	And, you know, if all of the clauses of the terms are implemented, then we have the potential
2:08.3	to boost Africa's GDP by 7%.
2:10.8	That's almost $500 billion in the next 15 years or so by reducing import tariffs and eliminating non-tariff barriers.
2:20.3	This could mean, the World Bank has done some analysis, it could mean that we lift almost
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