In this quarterly report, we have analysed user growth and interactions with the Sauti market and trade information platforms in Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania, and Rwanda. 2022 Q1 saw 6,474 new users access all our regional platforms. Our Kenyan platform saw the majority of growth with 5657 new users, followed by Tanzania with 410 new users. Since our Q3-Q4 2021 Report, trade within domestic markets has increased in Tanzania by 5 percentage points to 86% while the country’s cross-border trade has decreased by 5 percentage points up to 14%.

Despite the growth of smartphones among Africa’s urban populations, traders often operate with basic feature phones. This report details findings from Sauti East Africa’s surveys of smartphone access among Kenyan and Ugandan traders. 4,136 participants were surveyed in Kenya and 1,334 in Uganda. Participants were selected from users of Sauti’s market and trade information platform.

This COVID-19 bulletin aims to illustrate the changing state of trade in East Africa. Leveraging Sauti’s East Africa’s embeddedness with traders, we present the 2021 Q3/Q4 behavioural and user data from our regional network of trade and market information platforms. Reporting in this bulletin includes data on Kenyan, Rwandan, Tanzanian and Ugandan traders. With the exception of Kenya, we find that in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Uganda trade to cross-border destinations either remained low or decreased from last quarter. Comparing the same periods to last year, we find that cross-border trade in Kenya increased for the first time, reversing a year-long trend towards domestic trade destinations.

Sauti is pleased to announce the publication of results from our research in partnership with UK Aid Direct, Busara Center for Behavioral Economics, and Columbia Climate School under the Global Integrity Anti-Corruption Evidence (GI-ACE) programme. The project explored incentives for corruption and harassment reporting and the feasibility of crowd-sourced data and mobile technologies to support community monitoring of border management. The project was supported by Sauti Collect, where we provided an end-to-end USSD data collection and management system, to collect gender-disaggregated and product-disaggregated data on corruption and harassment at informal borders.

2021 Q4 saw 10,667 new users access all our regional platforms. Our Kenyan platform saw the majority of growth with 9,190 new users, followed by Uganda with 780 new users. Since our Q2-Q3 2021 Report, trade within domestic markets has decreased in Tanzania by 5 percentage points to 81% while the country’s cross-border trade has increased by 5 percentage points up to 19%

UNCTAD's recently launched Economic Development in Africa Report 2021 features Sauti’s activities providing Trade and Market Information Platforms throughout East Africa. We are excited to be featured in this assessment of how the region can inclusively benefit from the trade potential under the incoming African Continental Free Trade Area. The report draws on demographic, market, and trade insights from our TradeInsights Data Portal covering East Africa's cross-border trade context.

Uncertainty related to the COVID-19 pandemic continued to affect the trading activities of East African cross-border traders in 2021 Q2/Q3. Proportionally, domestic trade activity remains at an all-time high compared to previous years as East Africa’s traders continue to limit their cross border activities in all surveyed countries.

The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global economic recession which has resulted in a dramatic loss of livelihoods and income on a global scale. Given the outsized impact on food insecurity throughout Africa, the resulting drop in purchasing power among those who lost income has had a major impact especially for those populations that were already vulnerable. In particular, those in the informal economy are most affected.

In many parts of the developing countries around the world, community radio acts as a vehicle used to promote development at the grass-root level. Non-profit, civil societies, multinational companies, and citizens work with community radios on various social and economic issues ranging from poverty, agriculture, gender inequality, education, and marketing among others.