Informal cross-border trade is a notoriously difficult space to map. However, Sauti’s mobile technology, combined with gender-sensitive approaches gives us a survey capacity with unprecedented reach and scale in the informal cross-border environment. Additionally, our penetration in cross-border trade networks provides a powerful asset with which to implement USSD and SMS surveys and rapidly process results.
With these methods we have contributed significant data-driven insights to academic and policy-oriented audiences.