Cross-Border Trade (DRC)

Small-scale cross-border trade plays an important role in supporting communities in the Great Lakes region of Africa. This trade provides essential foodstuffs for communities and an income for some 45,000 traders and their families. Yet it faces considerable barriers.

In the context of an ongoing programme on Women’s Economic Empowerment, Alert co-organised a regional workshop with the Economic Community of the Great Lakes (CEPGL) and UN WOMEN on April 25th – 27th in Gisenyi, Rwanda.

The small-scale cross-border trade in agricultural products between DRC and Rwanda constitutes a survival economy sustaining thousands of people on both sides of the border. This report analyses this trade between the towns of Goma (DR Congo) and Gisenyi (Rwanda) and the relationship between Congolese and Rwandese women traders, in order to understand the impact that improving this trade would have on good neighborly relations, peace and security.

Full report