“This Dialogue reflects our collective commitment to strengthening inclusive regional and continental integration and ensuring that the benefits of cross-border trade are accessible to all, particularly youth and women who are at the centre of small-scale and informal trade across our borders”.
This was said by Dr. Christopher Hugh Onyango during the opening of the Tripartite Youth and Women Trade Policy Dialogue Forum held in Nairobi, Kenya, from 20th to 21st May 2026 hosted by the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA), East African Community (EAC) and Southern African Development Community (SADC).
The Forum was held under the theme “From Participation to Prosperity: A Policy Dialogue on Youth and Women in Agribusiness and Cross-Border Trade”,
The overall objective of the Forum was to strengthen the participation of youth and women traders in Tripartite trade policy processes, while positioning their priorities and recommendations directly before the leadership of the Tripartite region.
The specific objectives were to sensitise youth and women traders on the Tripartite Free Trade Area (TFTA) and Tripartite Simplified Trade Regime (TSTR), build practical capacity for youth traders, particularly in agribusiness and cross-border trade, facilitate direct dialogue between youth traders and policy makers, enable youth-led identification of trade and policy constraints, opportunities, and reform priorities under the TFTA, and produce a Tripartite Youth and Women Trade Declaration, to be presented to the Tripartite Heads of State and Government Summit in July 2026.
Dr. Onyango underscored the Forum’s collective commitment to strengthening inclusive regional and continental integration and ensuring that the benefits of cross-border trade are accessible to all, particularly youth and women who are at the centre of small-scale and informal trade across our borders.
He said the focus must be on strengthening the implementation and accessibility of the Simplified Trade Regime across the Tripartite region by ensuring that policies are informed by the real experiences of traders themselves. Youth and women traders must have a voice in shaping the frameworks and programmes that directly affect their businesses and livelihoods, he concluded.
Dr. Dhunraj Kassee, Director of Industrial Development and Trade at the SADC Secretariat affirmed that the Forum serves as a fundamental shift from viewing youth as participants in trade to recognising them as drivers of trade, growth, and transformation.
He said many of the young traders are operating at the margins of formal trade systems seriously constrained by limited information, capacity gaps, high transaction costs, and persistent non-tariff barriers, hence the introduction of the Tripartite Simplified Trade Regime as a solution to address such challenges.
Ms. Annette Kenganzi, Coordinator of Tripartite at EAC, highlighted that TFTA, as a framework brings together three regional blocs of COMESA, the EAC, and SADC into one larger market and aims to reduce tariffs, cut red tape at borders, align standards, and improve transport and logistics, making it cheaper and faster to trade across member countries.
She encouraged youth and women to leverage on e-commerce, sell through e-commerce platforms that support cross-border trade in the region, and use digital payments that are interoperable across countries.
For his part, Mr. Echessah Protase, Senior Specialist, Food Trade Policy Regional Food Trade and Resilience Programme from the Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA) emphasised that youth and women are not merely beneficiaries of regional trade integration, but are critical drivers of Africa’s agrifood systems transformation, enterprise development, innovation, and intra-African trade. He highlighted that despite their critical contribution, many youth and women traders continue to face significant challenges, including cumbersome border procedures, limited access to market information, finance, trade documentation, standards compliance, and simplified trade procedures.
However, he noted that both TFTA and the TSTR provide a significant opportunity to lower trade barriers, formalise trade, improve market access, and create a more predictable and enabling trading environment for small traders and agribusiness entrepreneurs.
Mr. Protase reiterated AGRA’s commitment, through its support to the Tripartite STR Project, to strengthening regional food trade systems, promoting policy harmonisation, improving market access, and supporting inclusive participation of women and youth in regional value chains.
Despite constituting most small-scale cross border traders in the Tripartite region, youth and women continue to face persistent challenges, including limited awareness of the Tripartite Free Trade Area instruments, capacity gaps, compliance costs, non-tariff barriers, and constrained participation in policy dialogue processes.
The Tripartite Simplified Trade Regime Project, implemented by COMESA, EAC and SADC, seeks to address the challenges faced by youth and women by prioritising simplification, harmonisation, sensitisation, and policy engagement, with a particular focus on financially disadvantaged young women and men. The Project explicitly supports youth submissions to public policy forums, capacity building, and structured engagement with decision-makers.
