In Somaliland and Ethiopia’s Somali Regional State, small-scale informal trading far exceeds formal trade. However, most recent writing on trade in this region has disproportionately focused on formal trade thus neglecting a key area of economic activity.

In contrast, Regularly Irregular: Varieties of informal trading in the Ethiopia-Somaliland borderlands, focuses on the Gaashamo corridor—a series of small border crossings between Ethiopia and Somaliland—to analyze the everyday governance of four small trade routes. Their comparison provides valuable insights into cross-border trading and taxation, which often have little do with federal and regional policies and laws.

This report is a product of the FCDO’s Cross-Border Conflict Evidence, Policy and  and Trends (XCEPT) programme, funded by UK aid from the UK government.