07/27/2026
Countries in Eastern and Southern Africa (ESA) exported €2.02 billion in goods to the European Union (EU). The EU, in turn, exported €1.82 billion back. This is the math behind the EU-ESA Economic Partnership Agreement (EPA).
However, upon closer analysis, the numbers don’t add up. Markets opened on both sides, but nearly a quarter of ESA exports to the EU are low-cost garments — made mostly by women, in precarious, low-paid jobs.
Furthermore, the volume of trade grew, but the tax revenue from this trade didn’t.
In Madagascar, for example, the result is a health system stretched to its limits:
➡️ only about 5% of the national budget is allocated to it;
➡️ there’s one doctor for every 11,000 people;
➡️ most of the population is living kilometers from the nearest clinic.
Women are the primary users of health services and the main providers of unpaid care work. When public systems are underfunded or privatized, they are the most affected.
This is what happens when trade deals are negotiated without a gender lens.
Read more about how the ESA-EU EPAs have benefitted the EU at the expense of African countries’ ability to pursue their own development priorities, particularly affecting women, in the Gender and Trade Coalition’s contribution to the OHCHR Call for Inputs on the Impact of Trade Agreements on Women’s Economic Empowerment — link in bio.
