Rethinking Borders and Trade from the Inside Out
For Shiphrah Sande, a PhD candidate with the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies at Charles Sturt University, the decision to pursue doctoral research was more than an academic milestone—it was a return to the questions that first sparked her fascination with borders and trade.
“I’ve always been intrigued by how borders shape societies—politically, economically, and culturally,” she reflects. That curiosity deepened through years of professional experience at firms like Grant Thornton, KPMG, and PwC, where she worked closely with businesses and revenue authorities. “I saw firsthand how thoughtful policy can facilitate legitimate trade and boost economic growth while safeguarding communities.”
Her PhD offers a chance to step back from the operational grind and ask bigger, systemic questions. At the heart of her research lies a deceptively simple inquiry: How do Rules of Origin (ROO) and associated administrative requirements influence the utilisation of Free Trade Agreements (FTAs) by Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the Textile and Agro-Processing sectors within the Common Market for Eastern and Southern Africa (COMESA) trading bloc?
The implications are far-reaching. By identifying the barriers SMEs face in navigating complex ROO procedures, Shiphrah hopes to unlock access to regional and global markets for thousands of small businesses. The ripple effects—job creation, especially for women and youth, poverty reduction, and economic diversification—are central to her vision for inclusive growth.
Her work also contributes to the broader goals of the African Continental Free Trade Area (AfCFTA), aiming to reduce intra-African trade barriers and foster regional industrialisation. “Trade policy shouldn’t be top-down,” she asserts. “It needs to be grounded in the lived realities of small businesses.”
Academically, Shiphrah’s research fills a critical gap in the literature: the lack of disaggregated, sector-specific, and firm-level data on FTA utilisation by SMEs. Her mixed-methods approach—combining quantitative analysis with qualitative interviews—offers a replicable framework for future researchers and a valuable resource for trade economists, policy analysts, and regional trade bodies.
She also tackles the “noodle bowl” effect of overlapping FTAs, shedding light on how ROO complexity influences trade behavior and compliance costs. Her findings will inform policy reforms, capacity-building programs, and digital trade facilitation tools across COMESA and other Regional Economic Communities.
But the journey has not been linear. “Progress rarely comes in neat, incremental steps,” she admits. “It’s more like bursts of clarity punctuated by long stretches of uncertainty.” Recognising that this ebb and flow is normal would have saved her considerable anxiety in the early months.
Her advice to prospective PhD candidates is both practical and heartfelt: “Find a question that genuinely keeps you up at night. Passion will carry you through setbacks far better than titles or career prospects alone.” She also encourages mapping out financial and personal support systems—and if the spark remains, take the leap.
For Shiphrah, that leap is already yielding insights with the potential to reshape trade policy and empower small businesses across Africa. And for the CCES alumni community, her story is a powerful reminder of how intellectual curiosity, grounded in lived experience, can drive meaningful change.
Shiphrah Sande is currently studying her doctoral thesis with the Centre for Customs and Excise Studies at Charles Sturt University.