Why women’s economic development matters for peace

DAR ES SALAAM: FOR women in the Great Lakes Region, peace and development are reflected in safe journeys, reliable markets and the ability to rebuild a livelihood.

Across the Great Lakes Region, peace is often discussed in conference halls and diplomatic meetings in terms of armed forces, government policy and national interests. For many women, however, its meaning is immediate: Whether a business can open, goods can reach a market, a journey is safe, and a family can count on tomorrow’s income.

Regional peace and women’s economic development reinforce one another. Insecurity restricts the ability to earn a living; protecting women’s livelihoods and economic opportunities is therefore essential to making peace sustainable. For a trader, insecurity can mean losing a day’s sales or paying unofficial charges at a border.

For a farmer, it can mean being unable to cultivate land or transport produce. For a displaced family, it can mean rebuilding a livelihood after losing a home, tools, customers and community networks. These losses affect household incomes and local markets. They also show why peacebuilding and economic development need to advance together.

Research from the Great Lakes Region illustrates how closely women’s livelihoods are tied to safe cross border trade. The World Bank’s 2013 publication ‘Women and Trade in Africa: Realising the Potential’ presents findings from a 2011 survey of 628 small-scale traders in Goma and Bukavu, on the border between the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) and Rwanda. The study examined traders’ household circumstances and the barriers they faced, including harassment and corruption.

Women accounted for 90 per cent of those surveyed, while cross-border trading was the main source of family income for three in four respondents. Separately, in June 2022 the World Bank reported that women made up more than three quarters of traders using the crossing at Goma known as Petite Barrière (French for ‘small barrier’), on the DRC–Rwanda border. At the time, this border point handled more than 50,000 pedestrian crossings a day. These are findings from specific border locations and periods, not estimates of current trade patterns across the entire region.

An earlier World Bank assessment, published in June 2011, examined crossborder trade in agricultural goods between the DRC and neighbouring Burundi, Rwanda and Uganda. Drawing on interviews and focus groups conducted at four border crossings in 2010, involving 181 traders and 58 officials and other stakeholders, the report documented harassment, physical violence and unofficial payments, as well as inadequate infrastructure and cumbersome trade procedures. Such obstacles limit the income that women can earn from regional commerce. Safe crossings, predictable rules, accessible information and functioning channels for complaints are therefore matters of economic development as well as security.

This relationship between security and economic development is directly relevant to the Women Parliamentary Conference 2026, taking place in Dar es Salaam from 2 to 5 November. The Conference will bring together women parliamentarians from the 12 ICGLR Member States to discuss conflict prevention and mediation, inclusive security governance, socio-economic empowerment and regional partnerships.

The argument connecting these themes is straightforward: Women cannot fully benefit from economic opportunities while insecurity disrupts movement, trade and livelihoods, and lasting peace is harder to sustain where communities cannot rebuild their economic foundations.

Parliaments have a direct role in addressing this connection. Through legislation, budget scrutiny and government oversight, parliamenWhy women’s economic development matters for peace tarians can help make trade routes safer, border procedures more transparent and economic services more accessible. Their decisions affect women’s access to finance, property and inheritance rights, agricultural support, transport infrastructure and social protection.

Oversight can also establish whether public programmes reach displaced women, traders, farmers and entrepreneurs whose livelihoods have been damaged by conflict.

A regional research project published in July 2012 by International Alert and the Eastern Africa Sub Regional Support Initiative examined women’s political participation and economic empowerment in Burundi, Rwanda, the DRC and Uganda. Working with women’s organisations and academic partners, the researchers used four country case studies to ask whether greater representation of women in post-conflict decision-making had led to gender-equality policies and measurable improvements in women’s socio-economic position.

The findings highlighted persistent obstacles, including weaknesses in the implementation of political commitments and entrenched social norms. The wider lesson for the peace and development agenda is that greater representation must lead to funded policies, effective oversight and economic opportunities that women can actually access.

The same principle applies beyond Parliament. Banks can improve women’s access to capital; businesses can strengthen employment and supply chains; civil society organisations can identify barriers experienced by traders and displaced communities; and development partners can support recovery. Their efforts will be more effective when they address the practical risks that prevent women from working, trading or rebuilding businesses, and when women are involved in designing the solutions.

Because trade, displacement and insecurity cross national boundaries, individual reforms also need regional cooperation. Parliaments can compare what works in protecting traders, improving border management and expanding economic participation, then use their networks to encourage shared standards and follow-through. That cooperation can make economic development part of the region’s response to insecurity rather than a separate undertaking.

The measure of the November Conference will be whether its anticipated declaration and regional action plan help translate this link into parliamentary priorities. That could mean stronger scrutiny of border safety and unofficial charges, budgets that support conflict-affected women’s livelihoods, and legislative attention to women’s access to finance and markets. These are examples of the practical commitments that could give effect to the Conference’s aims, rather than outcomes already agreed.

Their value will depend on what delegates take forward in national legislation, budgets, oversight and regional cooperation.

Ultimately, peace must be visible beyond a declaration. It should be visible when a woman can cross a border without fear or arbitrary charges, when a farmer can take produce to market, when a displaced family can rebuild its livelihood and when women can obtain the finance and support needed to participate in their communities’ economic future. It should also be visible when those experiences inform decisions made in Parliament.

For the Great Lakes Region, advancing women’s economic development is an essential part of making peace durable and meaningful.