The Role of SADC’s Legal Infrastructure in Unlocking Women’s Economic Empowerment for the Advancement of Regional Trade and Development

This paper, presented at the 2nd SADC Community Law Seminar, critically examines the role of the Southern African Development Community (SADC) legal infrastructure in promoting women’s economic empowerment as a pathway to regional trade and development.
Despite SADC’s foundational commitments to inclusivity and development, the paper argues that women remain marginalized in trade due to socio-economic, cultural, and legal barriers. It highlights the gender-neutral nature of key SADC instruments—such as the SADC Treaty, Protocol on Trade in Goods, and Protocol on Trade in Services—which fail to address the unique challenges faced by women traders and entrepreneurs.
The paper provides a socio-economic overview of women in the region, identifies contributing factors to their exclusion (including gender inequality, legal discrimination, limited access to finance, and gender-based violence), and critiques the lack of gender-specific provisions in SADC’s trade frameworks.
It concludes that economic integration and development cannot be achieved without the full participation of women, and offers nine policy recommendations aimed at reforming legal, institutional, and financial systems to better support women’s inclusion in trade and regional development.