本文评议东非和南部非洲妇女的贫困及其参与非正规部门贸易等诸多问题。贫困在这一地区是普遍现象,约半数人口每天生活费不到1美元。妇女的情况更加糟糕,在一些地方,超过半数的家庭由妇女当家,这种状况的影响就更为严重。妇女的被剥夺是多方面的,横跨经济、社会和政治领域。很多妇女参与了非正规部门的边境贸易。这些活动通常收入菲薄,费时而不稳定,且仅能维持生存,非常简单,以出售廉价、易坏的商品为主。现在这类贸易已发展到在艾滋病肆虐地区出售生物和森林资源。 This article assesses the poverty of women in East and southern Africa and their involvement in many issues such as trade in the informal sector. Poverty is a common phenomenon in this area and about half of the population live on less than one dollar a day. Women’s situation is even worse, and in some places more than half of the families are headed by women, and the situation is even more so. The deprivation of women is multifaceted and spans economic, social and political fields. Many women are involved in border trade in the informal sector. Often these activities are poorly paid, time-consuming and unstable, and can only survive, they are very simple and sell cheap, fragile goods. Such trade has now evolved to sell biological and forest resources in areas where AIDS is prevalent.