Why do women trade across the border in the first place?

Welcome everyone, and thank you for joining this important discussion on women’s cross-border economic activity between Zimbabwe and South Africa. Before we explore trade models, finance, and opportunities, it is important to recognise a simple truth: women are already active economic participants in this corridor through trading, informal work, services, migration, and the continuous movement of goods, money, and skills across borders. You are not waiting to enter the economy—you are already inside it. Every transaction, every journey, every product bought and resold, and every household sustained through this work already forms part of a functioning regional economy. This forum is therefore not about starting from nothing, but about upgrading what already exists—moving from informal, fragmented, and individual activity into something more structured, collective, and scalable, where survival efforts are transformed into organised opportunities, participation becomes ownership, and individual effort is replaced by systems that work for you.