Despite high prices, poor quality and inconvenience, Kenya’s urban poor continued to buy water from private vendors because it’s still their best option.
After trying to remove street vendors from its cities for years, China is supporting them to help jump-start its economy. An urban scholar explains why other cities should do the same.
Millions of South Africans exchange billions of rands annually but disputes involving these transactions hardly ever appear before the country’s courts.
The current lockdown in Zimbabwe is going to provide a stern test for its informal economy, which is the country’s dominant economy and employs 90% of people.
Danielle Resnick, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
By better understanding the politics and governance of African cities and variations across cities, we can identify feasible opportunities to improve informal traders’ livelihoods.
Domestic workers in Argentina are essentially women employed in the informal economy which can enable forms of mistreatment. Today they’re fighting to formalise their status.
Cecilia Poggi, Agence française de développement (AFD); Anda David, Agence française de développement (AFD), and Claire Zanuso, Agence française de développement (AFD)
The informal economy is often perceived negatively, yet recent research from developing and emerging countries indicate that the preconceptions that surround it are myths.
Street vendors are the most visible of the people who work in the informal sector – up to half the urban workforce in cities like Manila – but whose needs and rights receive no official recognition.
India’s recent move toward a cash-free society helped reveal just how important physical currency is to the informal economies that the poorest families depend upon.
Danielle Resnick, International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI)
The harassment of informal food vendors by national and municipal governments remains a major impediment to improving the resilience of the urban poor in African cities.
Senior Lecturer, School of Archaeology and Anthropology; Director, Australian National Centre for Latin American Studies, Australian National University