Eight Emerging Effects of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Small-Scale Cross-Border Trade in the Great Lakes Region
Small-scale cross-border trade (SSCBT) is a defining feature of the economies of the borderlands of the Great Lakes Region (GLR). It is an important source of income and a necessary channel to access goods and services that have enabled vulnerable...
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| Language: | English |
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World Bank, Washington, DC
2021
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| Online Access: | http://documents.worldbank.org/curated/en/751981613636069177/Eight-Emerging-Effects-of-the-COVID-19-Pandemic-on-Small-Scale-Cross-Border-Trade-in-the-Great-Lakes-Region http://hdl.handle.net/10986/35159 |
| Summary: | Small-scale cross-border trade (SSCBT)
is a defining feature of the economies of the borderlands of
the Great Lakes Region (GLR). It is an important source of
income and a necessary channel to access goods and services
that have enabled vulnerable households to increase their
resilience against outside shocks and escape extreme
poverty. SSCBT enhances food security and contributes to
improved stability in this conflict-afflicted region.
However, the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, which has
resulted in the restricted movement of people, goods, and
services across borders in the GLR since March 2020, has
greatly affected informal cross-border trade and traders.
Its persistence has also hindered the progress that
countries in this region have made toward improving the
trading environment. Evidence from the World Bank’s Great
Lakes Trade Facilitation Project (GLTFP), which has been
undergoing implementation in the Democratic Republic of
Congo (DRC), Rwanda, Uganda, and the Common Market for
Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) since 2015, highlights
to a greater extent how the pandemic has erased some of the
progress that countries in the region have made toward
improving the livelihoods of their citizens and the trading
environment. The objective of this note is to provide
evidence of some of the emerging effects of the Coronavirus
(COVID-19) pandemic on SSCBT in the GLR. Because the effects
of the pandemic are still evolving, this note summarizes
emerging patterns that can inform discussions on policy
response and the design of measures to lessen the effect of
the pandemic and help protect the future of small-scale
trade in the region. This note presents the emerging effects
of the pandemic in the region as evidenced by the GLTFP, and
is followed by recommendations on focus areas for policy makers. |
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