Market and Trade Information - Denmark

The Programme (BSPS IV) has three components with a total of 6 engagements:

• Agricultural Markets Development under which a Trust (AMDT) will engage in a number of value chains and thereby facilitate the equivalent of 100,000 full-time jobs and increase income for 300,000 farmers. The immediate objective is defined: The incomes and employment opportunities of poor women, men, and young people are increased in agricultural value chains in Tanzania. Contributors are DANIDA, SIDA, Irish Aid and Swiss SDC.

• Improved Business Climate has the immediate objective: (i) Improved business climate for the private sector, inducing businesses to grow and create employment opportunities; (ii) Local Investment Climate-focused on critical constraints to business growth and economic development at the district level by helping the local authorities and business communities to identify and prioritizes the constraints. Dodoma and Kigoma Regions are the focus areas; (iii) BEST-Dialogue will work with business organizations and government to improve business environment through regulatory reform, improved implementation and effective and efficient enforcement; and (iv) CTI/DI Twinning arrangement will strengthen the institutional capacity of CTI as a key private sector organization vis-à-vis the Government of Tanzania.

• Access to finance has the immediate objective: (i) Farmers, enterprises, and employees increase their access to quality financial services; (ii) Financial Sector Deepening Trust (FSDT) has since 2004 financed the development of pro-poor financial services and new financial products for MSMEs; and (iii) Private Agricultural Sector Support (PASS) operates on commercial terms offering a combination of credit guarantees and business development services to Tanzanian farmers and agribusinesses. The present upscaling of PASS businesses are based on new financial products with a significant potential for increasing the number of beneficiaries.

Danish Aid for Trade has supported several projects by TradeMark East Africa (TMEA) that promote cross-border and regional trade in East Africa. Development assistance from Denmark has co-funded TMEA since 2011 both on a regional basis across the whole EAC, and also bilaterally to Kenya and Uganda.

Denmark’s trade facilitation support through TMEA is multi-faceted. It covers a variety of complementary activities to make trade easier, more efficient, and less costly. This work is consistent with international efforts led by the WTO to facilitate trade, and hence to increase economic growth, job creation and household incomes in developing countries.

The TMEA programmes and projects specifically concern Denmark’s support for women cross-border traders; harmonization of product standards; one-stop border posts; automation to modernize trade procedures; and a new Trade Logistics Information Pipeline initiative carried out in partnership with the Danish shipping company, Maersk.

In the East African Community (EAC), most cross-border trade is conducted by women, who run informal, small scale businesses. This project, therefore, supports the establishment and strengthening of women cross-border traders’ associations at borders as well as at national and regional levels. TMEA also facilitate simplification, translation into the local language, and dissemination of the EAC Common Market Protocol, customs, and other trade information. TMEA facilitates dialogue between association representatives and border officials, ministries, and agencies to address the problems that traders face. TMEA partners have lobbied for representation of women traders in Joint Border Management Committees, which have presented and resolved cases of harassment.

TMEA has also supported the establishment of resource centers in 7 border cities, where women traders can access market and trading information, report cases of sexual harassment, or seek arbitration in cases of illegal confiscation of goods.

In Rwanda TMEA has helped women exporters to transition from informal to formal trade, organizing them into cooperatives and supporting them through the formation and registration processes. Support has also been given to build the capacity of women with regards to bookkeeping, business management, and customs procedures.

The project has increased the number of women trading through organized groups across borders. E.g. in Busia, on the border between Kenya and Uganda, membership grew from 44 in 2012 to the current level of 150 today. At the regional level, an association of women cross-border traders has been formed, representing all EAC partner states. The project has further increased cross-border women issues considered in EAC policies and bills.