LocationsBy Kezia Agbenyegah - AfYWL UN fellow - UNDP Resilience Hub for Africa
Corridors of Opportunity: Advancing Regional Integration, Inclusive Growth, and Sustainable Peace in the Great Lakes Region
July 9, 2026
Participants take a group photo at the REST-GLR Lusaka Dialogue
©UNDP/Stanley Omambia
Before dawn each morning, women traders, fishermen, transporters, and small businesses might have crossed the borders across the Great Lakes Region once or twice. Their journeys rarely make headlines, yet together they keep local economies alive, connect markets across national boundaries and demonstrate that regional integration is already happening from the ground up. Across border communities, livelihoods are built not on political boundaries, but on shared markets, relationships and opportunity.
This reality shaped the discussions during the UNDP Cross-Border Stabilization and Ground-Truthing Community Dialogues convened under the Resilient Trade and Socio-Economic Integration as a Pathway to Peace in the Great Lakes Region (REST-GLR) Programme in Nairobi, Dar es Salaam and Lusaka. Bringing together governments, Regional Economic Communities, the private sector, civil society, development partners and border communities, the dialogues challenged the traditional narrative of borders as spaces of fragility. Instead, they presented a compelling vision of border regions as economic corridors where trade, investment, inclusion and cooperation can reinforce one another to build resilience and sustain peace.
At the heart of the REST-GLR Programme is a simple but transformative proposition: sustainable peace is not achieved through security interventions alone. It is strengthened when communities have access to livelihoods, markets, public services and institutions that enable them to participate fully in economic and social life.
Connecting People, Not Just Places
Participants exploring the corridors during the REST-GLR Nairobi Dialogue
©UNDP/Stanley Omambia
This Programme is built around interconnected economic corridors that link border communities to national, regional and global markets from the Indian Ocean ports of Mombasa and Dar es Salaam to the Atlantic through the Lobito Corridor. While these transport networks are essential, the community dialogues underscored an important lesson: corridors are far more than infrastructure. They are economic ecosystems where people, businesses and institutions interact to create opportunities for shared growth.
Across the programme's seven corridor clusters: Lake Tanganyika Blue Economy, Kivu Urban Trade, Northern Great Lakes Gateway, West Nile Triborder, Rwanda-Burundi Agroeconomy, Juba-Nimule-Mombasa, and Lobito Corridors, agriculture, fisheries, mining, tourism, logistics and trade already support millions of livelihoods. Smallholder farmers, traders, transporters, processors, and local enterprises are the driving force behind these economies. Ensuring that they can access markets, finance, infrastructure and regional value chains will determine whether increased connectivity translates into inclusive development that reaches the communities living along the corridors.
Building Inclusive Border Economies
One of the clearest messages from the dialogues was that informal cross-border trade is not a peripheral activity; it is a cornerstone of the regional economy. For millions of people, particularly women, it provides income, food security and employment. Yet these traders continue to face barriers ranging from cumbersome border procedures and inconsistent regulations to limited access to finance, information and protection and so this begs the question, “How do we truly transform cross trade in the Great Lakes region?"
A great starting point would be to strengthen cross-border trade systems that respond to the realities of how people already conduct business. This channels our attention towards simplified customs procedures, digital border services, accessible financial products and harmonised trade policies that will reduce transaction costs while creating incentives for greater participation in the formal economy. Equally important is ensuring that women, young people, displaced populations and other vulnerable groups are able to participate fully in regional markets. Their inclusion is essential for stronger, more resilient economies.
©UNDP/Stanley Omambia