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Africa Gender and Trade Network: Resources

Recent GENTA publications and resources, along with earlier works that make a significant contribution to today's dialogue on the gendered impact of trade liberalization, are listed below. Additional GENTA resources and those relevant to the African Region are accessible online in the IGTN Resource Library.

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WTO Agreement on Agriculture and Implications on Food Sovereignty/Security in Africa and the Developing World, February 2007, Elijah Wachira

When looking at food security, production and availability of food in the market is not complete without considering consumption levels and affordability. Availability is one thing while affordability of this food is another. Majority of small farmers who are displaced by commercial farming have no other means of livelihood and cannot afford the food that is now being sold to them at commercial prices. AoA (Agreement on Agriculture) is responsible for world-wide drop in food aid as food surplus in rich countries are flooded into the world market.

The Negative Impact that Agriculture Rules on Trade and Finance have on Women, Families and Communities, February 2007, Elijah Wachira

World trade rules have an important and specific role to play in helping developing countries like Kenya achieve food security and sustainable livelihoods for their farmers. However, the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), that governs world agricultural trade has resulted in a warped trading regime that allows rich countries to continue spending vast sums of money protecting the interests of their producers while placing immense pressure on developing countries to liberalize their agricultural markets. Developing country domestic markets are thus undermined, their import dependence increased and export opportunities denied.

Gender Review of the Economic Partnership Agreements, December 2006, Lebohang Pheko.

Paper presented to the European Commission in Brussels by Liepollo Lebohang Pheko from IGTN-Africa on the gender impacts of liberalization of Economic Partnership Agreements (EPA).

Speech at India Social Forum, November 2006, Lebohang Pheko

A speech by Lebohang Pheko from IGTN-Africa at the India Social Forum on the 13th of November 2006 on neo-liberal issues.

Response from Civil Society Organisations to the ESA region EPA, July 2006.

As an outcome of the Eastern and South African regional Civil Society Organisation's meeting, held in Nairobi July 2006, a response to the Economic Partnership Programme (EPA) was put together, an urge for Ministers to thoroughly review the proposed form of EPA and to seriously consider and propose alternatives to solve the problem of retaining preferential trading arrangements with the European Union (EU).

Collapse of WTO Talks Good for Africa Good for Women, July 2006, Mohau Pheko

Mohau writes about the collapse of the WTO negotiations and how it is an opportunity for Africa to move from the myth that the Doha Round was a "developmental round" and review the multilateral trading system as a whole, with a new approach to a global trading system to promote social and gender justice, women's empowerment and environmental sustainability.

Interlocking Features of Trade, Gender and Poverty, July 2006, Liepollo Lebohang Pheko

GENTA's presentation on Trade, Gender and Poverty at Oxfam's Intraregional workshop in Addis Ababa from the 21^st to 24^th of June 2006. The paper sets the context of trade, it's transition to the “free trade” and current trade agreements, as well as an assessment of poverty in the context of gender and trade with a gender analysis of trade policies and economic growth and its consequences on women and social development.

Outcomes and Outrage, May 2006, Liepollo Lebohang Pheko

A powerful article by Liepollo Lebohang Pheko in which she poses questions and reflections on the outcomes of the Jacob Zuma rape trial verdict. The matter has polarised the nation not only across gender lines but also across class, ethnic and political lines.

Key note addressed at the Banulacht International Women's Day Conference - Dublin , March 2006, by Liepollo Lebohang Pheko

A speech delivered by Liepollo Lebohang Pheko (from GENTA) at the Banulacht International Women's Day Conference in Dublin, March 2006. Pheko's story as a portrait of women’s daily lives in Africa and others who likewise resist, overcome and who refuse to turn away from their wildest dreams and most audacious expectations of life. A criticism of a neo-liberal world which dismisses and overlooks indigenous knowledge and the importance of women's tradition and power.

Friend or Foe - The EPAs Unmasked , November 2005, by Liepollo Lebohang Pheko

The Economic Partnership Agreements [EPA] are the latest in several free trade agreements being negotiated between Northern and Southern countries. The EPAs are purported to grant new market opportunities to African, Caribbean and Pacific [ACP] countries on the condition that access be reciprocal. In this paper, the author explores how the EPAs have not examined the cost of liberalisation on women in terms of physical resources, human resources and social capital needed to transfer resources, skills and control to women in order that they effectively manage liberalization.

Report on the Civil Society Capacity Building Workshop and Second Ordinary Session of of the African Union Ministers of Trade, Customs, and Immigration, June 2004, Compiled by Brenda Ndlovu

African Union Ministers of Trade met in Rwanda, Kigali, from the 24th – 29th May 2004, to discuss common positions on trade issues. This was a critical meeting to African government and their common position on multilateral trade negotiations. Africa Trade Network (ATN) organized a civil society capacity building and strategy meeting on the 24th -25th May 2004 with participants from civil society organizations from Rwanda, sub-regions and with representation from the rest of the continent.

Sign-On Letter: Stop EU-ACP Free Trade Agreements, May 2004

Since 2002, the European Union (EU) and countries of the Africa, the Caribbean and the Pacific Group (ACP) have been negotiating Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) as part of the Cotonou Agreement. EPAs as they are currently being set up and negotiated are essentially Free Trade Agreements. Signatories reject these “Economic Partnership Agreements” as currently en-visaged and call for an overhaul and review of the EU’s neo-liberal external trade policy, particularly with respect to developing countries.

Genta SC Meeting, Harare, 2007.