This report examines the experiences of informal cross-border traders and transport operators across selected West (Ghana-Togo and Benin-Nigeria) and East (Kenya-Uganda) African border corridors, with particular attention to border operations, payment systems, treatment of women and youth, institutional behaviour, and the role of informal networks. The study responds to persistent concerns about the mismatch between regional trade frameworks and the everyday realities faced by small-scale traders operating at border points.

The ILO’s Global Employment Trends for Youth 2026 is a timely warning for Africa. It reminds us that a low youth unemployment rate in sub-Saharan Africa must not be mistaken for success. Too many young people cannot afford to remain unemployed. They survive through informal, unstable and poorly paid work. The report shows that nearly 9 in 10 young workers in low- and lower-middle-income countries are in informal employment. This is not a demographic dividend. It is a profound decentwork deficit.

The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa www.ituc-africa.org) issues this statement following a high-level solidarity mission to Port Sudan from 12–16 January 2026, undertaken pursuant to a resolution adopted at the ITUC-Africa Peace and Security Meeting held in Kenya on 21-22 November 2025.

Zimbabwe is facing multiple crises: recovering from the Covid-19 pandemic, food shortages and the impacts of climate change. While an economic recovery programme and stimulus package were introduced to combat the pandemic’s impacts, trade unions and business representatives have criticised the lack of transparency on how the package was distributed and whom the stimulus measures benefited. Food security remains a challenge due to droughts and flooding. To address this, the government is working with the World Food Program to provide food to 2.7 million rural people. To mitigate the impact of climate change, Zimbabwe is focusing on climate smart agriculture solutions to strengthen agricultural value chains and markets; enhance early warning and climate-related disaster risk reduction systems; ensure climate resilient infrastructure designs and development; and develop resilient and sustainable water resources management. The country’s revised Nationally Defined Contribution Implementation Plan applies Just Transition principles to evaluate how green and climate policies affect job creation for women and youth, income distribution, skills development and economic growth.

The government of Uganda introduced stimulus packages and measures in response to the multiple crises to address environmental and structural issues and spur green, resilient, and inclusive growth. Agricultural and natural resource resilience have additionally been embraced as post-pandemic recovery measures. The government incentivises farmers and producers to adopt sustainable land management and climate-smart agriculture practices, which have been mainstreamed into national development plans. For example, community conservation initiatives, such as tree planting, have increased access to tree products for household use and income generation for communities.
Furthermore, a new multi-sectoral development strategy coordinating the actions of both state and non-state actors and using the parish as the focal point has been introduced. The Parish Development Model aims to create a socio-economic transformation by moving the 39 per cent of households currently in the subsistence economy into the money economy. It aims to do so by organising them into farmer or community groups and supporting them to set up viable enterprises and improving yields, quality, bulking, processing and marketing

Tanzania’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic was not initially strong. As existing social and health programming was predominantly oriented towards a rural population, it failed to reach the households in the informal urban economy which were most vulnerable to the virus. However, the government has since made significant efforts to ensure that the majority of the population was reached with its’ vaccination efforts. To tackle food insecurity and address vulnerability to unpredictable events, Tanzania has been working with the World Bank. A salary raise for public employees was introduced and the private sector minimum wage was increased in 2022. In addition, the Tanzania Social Action Fund’s Productive Social Safety Net program aims to increase income and consumption, improve the ability to cope with shocks, and enhance and protect the human capital of children among extremely poor populations. Tanzania has agreed a National Climate Change Response Strategy for 2021-2026, which aims to enhance national resilience to the adverse impacts of climate change. In 2022, the president unveiled a plan to invest US$18bn in renewable power generation

The South African government has implemented various programmes to address the ongoing multiple crises. In response to the Covid-19 pandemic, the government worked closely with trade unions and businesses to address occupational health and safety, provide subsidies compensating workers for lost wages and support businesses in retaining employees. To address the food crisis, the South African government has put in place a basic social security grant enabling nearly half of the population of the country, including 8 million unemployed persons, to buy food. However, by 2025, around half of the population is projected to be struggling from food insecurity and hunger, suggesting more long-term actions will be necessary. A Just Energy Transition Investment Plan is being put in place to enable the country to move from carbon intensive to cleaner forms of energy generation – initial efforts will focus on moving away from coal and supporting impacted coal workers, investments in new energy vehicles and green hydrogen. In October 2023, the National Assembly approved a Climate Change Bill, which if approved by the National Council of Provinces and the President, would legally bind the country to reduce its emissions.

The Nigerian government is responding to the multiple crises of food and energy prices, climate change and the impact of Covid-19, through its macroeconomic policies in the Economic Sustainability Plan (ESP) and National Development Plan 2021-25 (NDP). Nigeria’s Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) outlines how the country plans to achieve its climate commitments under the Paris Agreement. Prices for food and fuel remain high. To mitigate the rising cost of living, and in response to trade union demands, the government has been providing wage awards to public sector workers. Tripartite national minimum wage negotiations had not yet reached agreement in June 2024, however. Trade unions report that social dialogue on policies and their implementation is not working effectively. The National Labour Advisory Council (the statutory framework for discussing labour matters) does not meet regularly, and failure to respect agreements reached with workers on several labour matters often leads to strikes

To address the multiple crises, the government of Namibia has decided to intervene in key areas: employment creation, prioritising youth employment and entrepreneurship; expanding social protection coverage; and a national formalisation strategy. Trade unions have been actively involved in the implementation of these initiatives. This follows up on several stimulus and relief measures to directly support individuals, small and medium-sized enterprises and corporations, and safeguard jobs introduced in response to the COVID-19 crisis. At the time, employment retention measures were undertaken through the flexibilisation of labour regulations, oriented to avoid major retrenchments and closures of businesses. Trade unions note that these have not yielded the expected results, as many people have lost their jobs and salaries, and hours of work were cut unilaterally, with workers forced to go on unpaid leave. To combat the climate crisis, in 2021 Namibia pledged to cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 91 per cent compared to the business-as-usual scenario. The plan identifies key sectors such as energy, water resources, coastal resources, human settlements and urban planning, agriculture, and forestry, developing targeted strategies for each. In addition, the government foresees increasing the share of renewable energy use. However, the overall reduction is conditional on international financial support, without which the country can only guarantee a 14 per cent reduction