Informality and rural transition – urbanisation, food economy and changing rural livelihoods

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Philipp Heinrigsphilipp.heinrigs@oecd.orgwww.oecd.org/swac

The biggest ‘private sector’: What place for the informal economy in green and inclusive growth?

Session 2. Informality and rural transition –Urbanisation, food economy and changing rural livelihoods London, 25 February 2016

West Africa - a peopling region Sub-Saharan Africa x15

300 million

Sub-Saharan Africa x3

540 million36% in Sub-Saharan Africa

The West African urban network in 1950

A reshaped human, social and economic geography

Rural and urban populations are moving closer together

Urbanisation, rural transformation and the food economy economy

The food economy – the biggest informal economy

Uganda - 40% of rural householdsoperate non-farm informal enterprises

Peru – 99% of rural enterprises informal(agriculture, trade, transport, etc.)

The success of meeting growing food demand is largely down to informal domestic and regional trade

East Africa: ~3 million tonnes of food staples traded informally in 2013

Regional maize flows

The informal economy – inclusiveness and green growth