What will SADC free trade mean for women ?

Another highlight of the Summit was the long-awaited signing of the SADC Protocol on Gender and Development. Among the 23 targets, which address such issues as HIV/ AIDS, gender violence, women in decision-making and economic justice, the Protocol commits states to adopting policies and enacting laws ensuring equal access, benefit and opportunities for women and men in trade and entrepreneurship by 2015.

 

Ratification and implementation of the Protocol could offer women like Florence Mutale, a Zambian trader who sells kapenta and buys shoes for resale from those who go outside the country, opportunities to grow their businesses and move beyond subsistence. “I would very much want to move to a higher level in my business but cannot due to financial constraints,” Mutale said.  

 

She added that her capital is not enough for her to go out of the country to buy commodities. “I depend on my business friends to loan me money. I cannot approach any financial lending institutions because I do not have assets or any valuables to use as collateral,” said Mutale

 

If women are to benefit from increased opportunities through the production and marketing of goods and provision of services, they need capital and advanced technical skills. Yet throughout the region, many countries continue to have policies and practices that make access to finance and control of productive resources a challenge for women.

 

However, the Gender Protocol commits member states to review all policies and laws determining access to, control of, and benefit from, productive resources by women in order to ensure that women have equal access and rights to credit, capital, mortgages, security and training, as well as modern, appropriate and affordable technology and support services.

 

The Free Trade Area (FTA) means that producers and consumers no longer pay import tariffs on about 85% of all trade in Community goods within the initial 12 countries. The other two SADC members, Angola and Democratic Republic of Congo would join the SADC FTA at a later stage.  Yet, regional integration will not end with the FTA, SADC plans a Customs Union in 2010, a Common Market in 2015, a Monetary Union in 2016, and a Single Currency in 2018.

 

This regional integration follows a global trend in which the integration of economies through trade, financial flows, the exchange of technology and information and the movement of people has changed the way that economies and people function.

 

Proponents of globalisation and freer trade argue that economic development will occur by exploiting comparative advantages and having greater access to markets. Yet some evidence suggests that trade liberalisation has contradictory impacts, which affect communities differently, and to understand the true impact of trade, one must look at how it affects men and women in their positions as workers, consumers, producers, and caregivers, as well as how it affects urban and rural people differently.

 

The picture of globalisation is often complex and contradictory. For example, women have benefited from trade liberalisation by increasing employment in such areas as the Economic Processing Zones (EPZs). It is true that women are entering the workforce more and more, forever changing the world of work.

 

Yet, at the same time, price adjustments disproportionately affect women. For example, trade liberalisation is characterised by increased casualisation of work, making today’s employment less secure and more likely to be under vulnerable or hazardous conditions.

 

Trade liberalisation also ushered in agricultural policies that promote cash crops for export over that of farming food staples, which has jeopardised the supply of basic foods and affected small-scale farming, mostly involving women. 

 

Moreover, import liberalisation also means decreasing tariffs, and so revenues, for national governments. This consequently leads to cuts in government spending. Such cuts disproportionately affect women in their roles as caregivers, particularly cuts in social services such as health care, provision of water, electricity and so forth.

 

A gender-analytical approach to trade liberalisation aims to assess these differences in terms of social and reproductive adjustment, employment, wage levels, poverty reduction, empowerment, and overall economic and social well-being, and propose strategies for maximising the potential for gender equality.

 

Globalisation is not only characterised by increases in flows of trade, capital, and information but also mobility of individuals across borders who travel from countries with limited economic opportunities to fill gaps in nations with a dwindling labour supply. Southern Africa has a long history of male migrant labour, but women are increasingly becoming part of the migrant labour force.

 

For women migrants, migration can open opportunities for greater independence, self-confidence and status. Yet it can also lead to vulnerable working conditions, and few opportunities to access the needed resources to move to more secure types of employment.

 

There is a need to recognise that women’ participation in international trade must be on terms that allow them the same choices as men, with the same opportunities for growth for their businesses and exports. Quick ratification and implementation of the SADC Gender Protocol could not only improve the economic situation of women in the region, but also contribute to regional competiveness by maximising the valuable human resource potential of both men and women.