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The Informal Sector in Subsaharan Africa
An Annotated Bibliography 1980-ISBO
Guy Gran
October 1988
Resources for Development and Democracy17119 Old Baltimore Road Olney MD 20832 (301) 774-4669
Introduction
This bibliography on the African informal sector is designedto assist donor agency personnel and other interested readers toexplore recent field research and debates to improve developmentpolicy and practice Like its unannotated July 1988 predecessorthis guide must be considered a working document The seventy-twosources that follow are the tip of a very large iceberg Selectingthe most recent (1984-1988) meant slighting an enormous previousliterature traceable through Penouil MLachaud J-P (1985)and special issue 9 of INSEE (1985) Bulletin BibliopqraDhiQChoosing shorter more accessible pieces served to limit coverageof a wealth of unpublished French dissertations much important ILOmaterial is also not in Washington most ratably C Maldondn etal (1987) Petits yroducteurs urbains dAfrirue francophone (apublished book) Seeking to balance the coverage by region genderand subsector highlights the major limitations of Washington arealibraries even some key journals in English and French are out oimmediate reach
What is at hand however is a very rich and stimulatinq bodyof case and theory material The single most exciting essay is thecase study on Kigali (Lecomte et al 1986) development successand an operational guide thereto Among several theoreticaloverviews Trager (1987) and Hugon (1988) are most useful The bestcase studies reflected wonderfully sophisticated interdisciplinarysystems analysis inrl several examples are reported fromC Coquery-Vidrovitch et al eds (1983) Many ongoing researchprojects and fugitive documents are referred to in these sourcesTo axpand this effort the next logical step would be a researchtrip to Paris Bordeaux and Geneva
1 Multiregional Comparative and Theoretical Works 2 I West Africa 10 III Central Africa 21
IV East Africa and the Horn 26 V Southern Africa 33
1
Z Multiregional Comparative and Theoretical Works Bromley Ray and Gerry Chris eds (1979) Casual Work and
Poverty in Third World Cities New York John Wiley This is still the best book in the literature on urbandevelopment worldwide challenged of late perhaps by Lisa Peattie(1987) PlanningjRtiinCi Guyana The essays put citiesand the poor in both historical and systemic frameworks Casestudies show that the informal sector exists not in isolation fromthe modern but as a necessary adjunct to provide cheap laborservices and food Petty entrepreneurs compete in a global systemthat ensures permanent subordination Gerrys portrait of smallmanufacturers in Dakar shows how dependence on backward linkageslike raw materials repair and maintenance can limit growth asmuch as uncertain markets Petty producers here are not ahomogeneous group some are a kind of proletariat for large firmsothers get more secure private or government contracts Here andin other parts of the collection one finds both the linking ofmacro and micro analysis and the merging of grand theory historyand contextual field research that together are the most essentialfoundations of effective project plannin
Charmes Jacques (1987) Debat actuel lesur secteurinformel Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 112 Oct-Dec 855-875
This recent essay is one of the few Africa-focussedmethodological critiques Charmes shows how definitions of termsand research hypotheses lead directly to or contribute tounderestimating the size shape and impact of the informal sectorHe begins with intellectual history The 1971 ILO report on Kenyaapplied the term to both marginal street actors andmicroenterprise Subsequent reports including IEDES syntheses in1977 and 1980 also move between multi-criteria definitions of thesector and functional ones Definitions affect data collectingMulti-criteria precludes simple measures Pfact- adoption ofindirect indicators to suit macro-economists have createdsubstantial bias typically underestimation In employment censusfigures for the economically active underestimate women Thepolitics of job definition varies Biases are also built into theaccounting of production salaries and revenue Theories topredict average salary levels come up against ambiguous evidenceThis is enough to ponder the survey data to date
2
Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherile and Forest Alain eds (1941)poundntreDrises et entrepreneurs en Afriaue (XIXe et XXe sibclesf 2volumes Paris LHarmattan
The literature on capitalism in Africa public and privateis large and compelling Spatial class and gender inequalitieshave grown in most times and places The 38 papers and c 1150pages in this collection from a 1981 conference form the largestbody of comparative case material in the history and costs ofentrepreneurial activity in modern Africa Four major sectionsillustrate range of coverage indigenous 19th-century activityimperial ventures public powerprivate sector growth in thecolonial era and enterprises and entrepreneurs in the postcolonialera Microenterprise is considered in every era and samples fromthe last will be covered in latter sections here A few papers dealwith research methods and general themes like the combination oftension and cooperation between public and private in the colonialera and the progressive privatization of the state in the postshycolonial era In both the state is a terrain of struggle amongunequal competitors with inevitable unequal results preventing thecreation of democratic mass-based development and thus theconsumers that the industrial west needs Such historical studythus prefaces development of more effective policy making
Eades Jeremy ed (1987) Migrants Workers and the SocialOdr London TavistockNY Routledge Chapman amp Hall
These fifteen essays anfrom April 1986 anthropologyconference at the University of Kent are a convenient way to enter a large body of research on migration and its links to the informalsector rural and urban The focus is on the political ecoiiomy ofmigration and the resulting structures of social relationsespecially changes in the nature of ethnicity gender and classrelations and in strategies of survival and accumulation Of the7 chapters on Africa perhaps the most relevant for the urbaninformal arena are on the Yoruba exodus from Ghana and on migranthousing in Nairobi Eades shows how the Yoruba used chain migrationto expand their rural marketing network through formal and informalsector activities and then with their community ties couldorchestrate a mass departure to accomodate political winds in late1969 The study on Nairobi looks at changing entitlement relationsrom the commercialization of unauthorized housing and theresulting decline in an individuals housing situation Note goodchapter bibliographies
3
Hugon Philippe (1988) Les strategies de vie et de surviedans lam villes africaines et les pauvres en activite ParisOECD Development Centre meeting September 7-9
In a very recent study a senior French scholar of the Africaninformal sector provides amostly readable review of literature andpolicy debates with his own synthesis of appropriate analyticapproaches and practical alternatives The literature veview notesthe themes of the 1970s (heterogeneity dynamism) and theconsensus of the 1980s that microenterprise thei3 cheapdevelopmental solution in an era of financial crisis Policy andmethodological debates are found based on a literary universe withkey limitations studies covered only the most structuredactivities just the heads of such activities and just the unitsof production not linkages His alternative is a holistic viewrecognizing gradients subsistence transitional and capitalistA formula for assessing linkages is developed based on fourfactors He then studies opposing theses the sector is marginaland on balance parasitical or it is exploited Such an analysismust merge political economy economic anthropology and historyCogent micro and macro policy concludes making this a basic current source
illiffe John (1987) The African Poor A Histor CambridgeCambridge UP
Historical grounding is essential to work on the problems ofthe poor so with finite time this major new contribution seemsreasonable for brief study Illiffe pursues many kinds of evidenceto show the diversity of the ordinarily poor and very poor in bothiresource-rich and resource-poor societies The evolution from landshyrich to land-poor is a key indicator Structural poverty isdistinguished from conjunctural in precolonial colonial andpostcolonial settings Care of the structural poor has changedlittle over these historic watersheds for the conjunctural poorconditions have changed graphically Of most import to work in theurban informal sector is the assault on the moral economy Mostinstructive was the 1981-83 violence in northern Nigeria Acombination of affronts to poor youth especially neglect by oilshyrich townsmen created support for a fundamentalist attack on allsigns of affluence In brief cultural legitimacy is part ofdevelopmental effectiveness in urban as well as rural settings
4
International Labour Organisation - IASPA (1985) 1LQampJLSector in Africa Addis Ababa ILO-Jobs and Skill Programme for Africa
The ILO has done more research on the informal sector inAfrica than any other institution This synthesizes 52 studiesproduced between 1972 and 1983 there have been 25-35 more sinceThG first 50 pages summarize macro and micro characteristics of thesector formal-informal ties the role of government constraintsand employment potential The latter part provides tastes ofreports on 22 countries with some effort in 3-5 pages toquantify aspects of the sector Frequently there are briefrecommendations Given the size of most informal sectors and thegeneral industrial stagnation of the 1980s most of the informalsectors now appear less consistently connected to the formal TheILO expects continued sectoral growth but it is not sanguine aboutthe development potential A less punitive more nuanced governmentrole is urged including selective training programs No realsolution is possible without rebalancing rural-urban gaps in liequality and employment potential Local institution-building isnot however a visible topic without it the informal sectorremains a sea socialof and political splinters limited andvulnerable to other forces
Lachaud JP (1988) Le mecteur informel urbain et le march6du travail en Afrique du Sud du Sahara Geneva IIES
In the last decade Lachaud has probably done more fieldresearch on this topic than anyone else Ivory Coast CameroonRwanda RCA Togo Zaire and Benin Using this material veryrecent unpublished dissertations and much else he here exploresgains and limitations in research methodology and suggestsalternatives There remains a wide gap between theoreticallyrigorous definitions and the pragmatism of field praxis Only atthe subsector level in some instances is the formalinformal modeluseful There is much agreement and much data on five keylimitations for the sector but much uncertainty on linkage issuesExternal policies remain preoccupied with promoting smallenterprise at the upper end of the sector while government planslack implementation strategies and resources to match theirrhetoric Lachaud wants a far better knowledge base with researchrefocussed households rather than enteprises the structure andpotential of linkages a detailed grasp the andof naturetrajectory of stratification and a far better definition of policygoals for if poverty reduction is the key microenterprisepromotion is not sufficient
5
Lemarchand Rene (1988) The State the Parallel Economy andthe Changing Structure of Patronage Systems pp 149-170 in DRothchild and N Chazan eds The Precarious Balance $ ampSociety in Africa Boulder Westview
From one of the best senior Africanists in North America comesan exceptional theoretical analysis theof creation andperpetuation of the parallel economy in Africa Systematicbureaucratic corruption and an ensuing parallel economy havabeengenerated by the decline of traditional patronage especially inrural areas and the uncertainty of external links adding to state pressures on rural producers Foreigners have provided role modelsskills contacts and political help as well as aid for thepredators The informal economy grew as a survival strategy againstpressure from above and below People avoided state predation via new local clientage or by working out a modus vivendi with thepredators Class formation is taking place outside the state Theprebendal state and parallel economy as brief case materials showhave in turn created conditions of profound and permanentinequalities in African societies Alternative practical policymust thus be built on a far more systemic rather than sectoralbasis
de Miras Claude (1984) De la formation de capital priv6 il6conomie populaire spontan6e Itinfraire dune recherche enmilieu urbain africaine Politique Afrcaine 1492-109
Much of this article recounts the theoretical pilgrimage ofthe author during a decade of research on small industry in theIvory Coast It became obviouo first that many small producersand sellers were not in the process of accumulating privatecapital But the term subsistence did not do justice to theevident dynamism creativity and flux Most interesting is theconcluding section where de Miras links this social reality togenerations comparable stretching back centuries as noted byhistorians like Braudel Roche and Engels Denizens of theinformal sector reflect a permanency by their resistance orinertia before capitalist absorption their autonomy oforganization and its operation their evasion in the face of statecoercion their fluidity before capitalist repression their owncapacity for exploitation the capitalist and non-capitalist causesof their extensionA challenge has been laid to both capitalistand Marxist myths of progress What then is the basis ofdevelopment and its goals
6
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Introduction
This bibliography on the African informal sector is designedto assist donor agency personnel and other interested readers toexplore recent field research and debates to improve developmentpolicy and practice Like its unannotated July 1988 predecessorthis guide must be considered a working document The seventy-twosources that follow are the tip of a very large iceberg Selectingthe most recent (1984-1988) meant slighting an enormous previousliterature traceable through Penouil MLachaud J-P (1985)and special issue 9 of INSEE (1985) Bulletin BibliopqraDhiQChoosing shorter more accessible pieces served to limit coverageof a wealth of unpublished French dissertations much important ILOmaterial is also not in Washington most ratably C Maldondn etal (1987) Petits yroducteurs urbains dAfrirue francophone (apublished book) Seeking to balance the coverage by region genderand subsector highlights the major limitations of Washington arealibraries even some key journals in English and French are out oimmediate reach
What is at hand however is a very rich and stimulatinq bodyof case and theory material The single most exciting essay is thecase study on Kigali (Lecomte et al 1986) development successand an operational guide thereto Among several theoreticaloverviews Trager (1987) and Hugon (1988) are most useful The bestcase studies reflected wonderfully sophisticated interdisciplinarysystems analysis inrl several examples are reported fromC Coquery-Vidrovitch et al eds (1983) Many ongoing researchprojects and fugitive documents are referred to in these sourcesTo axpand this effort the next logical step would be a researchtrip to Paris Bordeaux and Geneva
1 Multiregional Comparative and Theoretical Works 2 I West Africa 10 III Central Africa 21
IV East Africa and the Horn 26 V Southern Africa 33
1
Z Multiregional Comparative and Theoretical Works Bromley Ray and Gerry Chris eds (1979) Casual Work and
Poverty in Third World Cities New York John Wiley This is still the best book in the literature on urbandevelopment worldwide challenged of late perhaps by Lisa Peattie(1987) PlanningjRtiinCi Guyana The essays put citiesand the poor in both historical and systemic frameworks Casestudies show that the informal sector exists not in isolation fromthe modern but as a necessary adjunct to provide cheap laborservices and food Petty entrepreneurs compete in a global systemthat ensures permanent subordination Gerrys portrait of smallmanufacturers in Dakar shows how dependence on backward linkageslike raw materials repair and maintenance can limit growth asmuch as uncertain markets Petty producers here are not ahomogeneous group some are a kind of proletariat for large firmsothers get more secure private or government contracts Here andin other parts of the collection one finds both the linking ofmacro and micro analysis and the merging of grand theory historyand contextual field research that together are the most essentialfoundations of effective project plannin
Charmes Jacques (1987) Debat actuel lesur secteurinformel Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 112 Oct-Dec 855-875
This recent essay is one of the few Africa-focussedmethodological critiques Charmes shows how definitions of termsand research hypotheses lead directly to or contribute tounderestimating the size shape and impact of the informal sectorHe begins with intellectual history The 1971 ILO report on Kenyaapplied the term to both marginal street actors andmicroenterprise Subsequent reports including IEDES syntheses in1977 and 1980 also move between multi-criteria definitions of thesector and functional ones Definitions affect data collectingMulti-criteria precludes simple measures Pfact- adoption ofindirect indicators to suit macro-economists have createdsubstantial bias typically underestimation In employment censusfigures for the economically active underestimate women Thepolitics of job definition varies Biases are also built into theaccounting of production salaries and revenue Theories topredict average salary levels come up against ambiguous evidenceThis is enough to ponder the survey data to date
2
Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherile and Forest Alain eds (1941)poundntreDrises et entrepreneurs en Afriaue (XIXe et XXe sibclesf 2volumes Paris LHarmattan
The literature on capitalism in Africa public and privateis large and compelling Spatial class and gender inequalitieshave grown in most times and places The 38 papers and c 1150pages in this collection from a 1981 conference form the largestbody of comparative case material in the history and costs ofentrepreneurial activity in modern Africa Four major sectionsillustrate range of coverage indigenous 19th-century activityimperial ventures public powerprivate sector growth in thecolonial era and enterprises and entrepreneurs in the postcolonialera Microenterprise is considered in every era and samples fromthe last will be covered in latter sections here A few papers dealwith research methods and general themes like the combination oftension and cooperation between public and private in the colonialera and the progressive privatization of the state in the postshycolonial era In both the state is a terrain of struggle amongunequal competitors with inevitable unequal results preventing thecreation of democratic mass-based development and thus theconsumers that the industrial west needs Such historical studythus prefaces development of more effective policy making
Eades Jeremy ed (1987) Migrants Workers and the SocialOdr London TavistockNY Routledge Chapman amp Hall
These fifteen essays anfrom April 1986 anthropologyconference at the University of Kent are a convenient way to enter a large body of research on migration and its links to the informalsector rural and urban The focus is on the political ecoiiomy ofmigration and the resulting structures of social relationsespecially changes in the nature of ethnicity gender and classrelations and in strategies of survival and accumulation Of the7 chapters on Africa perhaps the most relevant for the urbaninformal arena are on the Yoruba exodus from Ghana and on migranthousing in Nairobi Eades shows how the Yoruba used chain migrationto expand their rural marketing network through formal and informalsector activities and then with their community ties couldorchestrate a mass departure to accomodate political winds in late1969 The study on Nairobi looks at changing entitlement relationsrom the commercialization of unauthorized housing and theresulting decline in an individuals housing situation Note goodchapter bibliographies
3
Hugon Philippe (1988) Les strategies de vie et de surviedans lam villes africaines et les pauvres en activite ParisOECD Development Centre meeting September 7-9
In a very recent study a senior French scholar of the Africaninformal sector provides amostly readable review of literature andpolicy debates with his own synthesis of appropriate analyticapproaches and practical alternatives The literature veview notesthe themes of the 1970s (heterogeneity dynamism) and theconsensus of the 1980s that microenterprise thei3 cheapdevelopmental solution in an era of financial crisis Policy andmethodological debates are found based on a literary universe withkey limitations studies covered only the most structuredactivities just the heads of such activities and just the unitsof production not linkages His alternative is a holistic viewrecognizing gradients subsistence transitional and capitalistA formula for assessing linkages is developed based on fourfactors He then studies opposing theses the sector is marginaland on balance parasitical or it is exploited Such an analysismust merge political economy economic anthropology and historyCogent micro and macro policy concludes making this a basic current source
illiffe John (1987) The African Poor A Histor CambridgeCambridge UP
Historical grounding is essential to work on the problems ofthe poor so with finite time this major new contribution seemsreasonable for brief study Illiffe pursues many kinds of evidenceto show the diversity of the ordinarily poor and very poor in bothiresource-rich and resource-poor societies The evolution from landshyrich to land-poor is a key indicator Structural poverty isdistinguished from conjunctural in precolonial colonial andpostcolonial settings Care of the structural poor has changedlittle over these historic watersheds for the conjunctural poorconditions have changed graphically Of most import to work in theurban informal sector is the assault on the moral economy Mostinstructive was the 1981-83 violence in northern Nigeria Acombination of affronts to poor youth especially neglect by oilshyrich townsmen created support for a fundamentalist attack on allsigns of affluence In brief cultural legitimacy is part ofdevelopmental effectiveness in urban as well as rural settings
4
International Labour Organisation - IASPA (1985) 1LQampJLSector in Africa Addis Ababa ILO-Jobs and Skill Programme for Africa
The ILO has done more research on the informal sector inAfrica than any other institution This synthesizes 52 studiesproduced between 1972 and 1983 there have been 25-35 more sinceThG first 50 pages summarize macro and micro characteristics of thesector formal-informal ties the role of government constraintsand employment potential The latter part provides tastes ofreports on 22 countries with some effort in 3-5 pages toquantify aspects of the sector Frequently there are briefrecommendations Given the size of most informal sectors and thegeneral industrial stagnation of the 1980s most of the informalsectors now appear less consistently connected to the formal TheILO expects continued sectoral growth but it is not sanguine aboutthe development potential A less punitive more nuanced governmentrole is urged including selective training programs No realsolution is possible without rebalancing rural-urban gaps in liequality and employment potential Local institution-building isnot however a visible topic without it the informal sectorremains a sea socialof and political splinters limited andvulnerable to other forces
Lachaud JP (1988) Le mecteur informel urbain et le march6du travail en Afrique du Sud du Sahara Geneva IIES
In the last decade Lachaud has probably done more fieldresearch on this topic than anyone else Ivory Coast CameroonRwanda RCA Togo Zaire and Benin Using this material veryrecent unpublished dissertations and much else he here exploresgains and limitations in research methodology and suggestsalternatives There remains a wide gap between theoreticallyrigorous definitions and the pragmatism of field praxis Only atthe subsector level in some instances is the formalinformal modeluseful There is much agreement and much data on five keylimitations for the sector but much uncertainty on linkage issuesExternal policies remain preoccupied with promoting smallenterprise at the upper end of the sector while government planslack implementation strategies and resources to match theirrhetoric Lachaud wants a far better knowledge base with researchrefocussed households rather than enteprises the structure andpotential of linkages a detailed grasp the andof naturetrajectory of stratification and a far better definition of policygoals for if poverty reduction is the key microenterprisepromotion is not sufficient
5
Lemarchand Rene (1988) The State the Parallel Economy andthe Changing Structure of Patronage Systems pp 149-170 in DRothchild and N Chazan eds The Precarious Balance $ ampSociety in Africa Boulder Westview
From one of the best senior Africanists in North America comesan exceptional theoretical analysis theof creation andperpetuation of the parallel economy in Africa Systematicbureaucratic corruption and an ensuing parallel economy havabeengenerated by the decline of traditional patronage especially inrural areas and the uncertainty of external links adding to state pressures on rural producers Foreigners have provided role modelsskills contacts and political help as well as aid for thepredators The informal economy grew as a survival strategy againstpressure from above and below People avoided state predation via new local clientage or by working out a modus vivendi with thepredators Class formation is taking place outside the state Theprebendal state and parallel economy as brief case materials showhave in turn created conditions of profound and permanentinequalities in African societies Alternative practical policymust thus be built on a far more systemic rather than sectoralbasis
de Miras Claude (1984) De la formation de capital priv6 il6conomie populaire spontan6e Itinfraire dune recherche enmilieu urbain africaine Politique Afrcaine 1492-109
Much of this article recounts the theoretical pilgrimage ofthe author during a decade of research on small industry in theIvory Coast It became obviouo first that many small producersand sellers were not in the process of accumulating privatecapital But the term subsistence did not do justice to theevident dynamism creativity and flux Most interesting is theconcluding section where de Miras links this social reality togenerations comparable stretching back centuries as noted byhistorians like Braudel Roche and Engels Denizens of theinformal sector reflect a permanency by their resistance orinertia before capitalist absorption their autonomy oforganization and its operation their evasion in the face of statecoercion their fluidity before capitalist repression their owncapacity for exploitation the capitalist and non-capitalist causesof their extensionA challenge has been laid to both capitalistand Marxist myths of progress What then is the basis ofdevelopment and its goals
6
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Z Multiregional Comparative and Theoretical Works Bromley Ray and Gerry Chris eds (1979) Casual Work and
Poverty in Third World Cities New York John Wiley This is still the best book in the literature on urbandevelopment worldwide challenged of late perhaps by Lisa Peattie(1987) PlanningjRtiinCi Guyana The essays put citiesand the poor in both historical and systemic frameworks Casestudies show that the informal sector exists not in isolation fromthe modern but as a necessary adjunct to provide cheap laborservices and food Petty entrepreneurs compete in a global systemthat ensures permanent subordination Gerrys portrait of smallmanufacturers in Dakar shows how dependence on backward linkageslike raw materials repair and maintenance can limit growth asmuch as uncertain markets Petty producers here are not ahomogeneous group some are a kind of proletariat for large firmsothers get more secure private or government contracts Here andin other parts of the collection one finds both the linking ofmacro and micro analysis and the merging of grand theory historyand contextual field research that together are the most essentialfoundations of effective project plannin
Charmes Jacques (1987) Debat actuel lesur secteurinformel Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 112 Oct-Dec 855-875
This recent essay is one of the few Africa-focussedmethodological critiques Charmes shows how definitions of termsand research hypotheses lead directly to or contribute tounderestimating the size shape and impact of the informal sectorHe begins with intellectual history The 1971 ILO report on Kenyaapplied the term to both marginal street actors andmicroenterprise Subsequent reports including IEDES syntheses in1977 and 1980 also move between multi-criteria definitions of thesector and functional ones Definitions affect data collectingMulti-criteria precludes simple measures Pfact- adoption ofindirect indicators to suit macro-economists have createdsubstantial bias typically underestimation In employment censusfigures for the economically active underestimate women Thepolitics of job definition varies Biases are also built into theaccounting of production salaries and revenue Theories topredict average salary levels come up against ambiguous evidenceThis is enough to ponder the survey data to date
2
Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherile and Forest Alain eds (1941)poundntreDrises et entrepreneurs en Afriaue (XIXe et XXe sibclesf 2volumes Paris LHarmattan
The literature on capitalism in Africa public and privateis large and compelling Spatial class and gender inequalitieshave grown in most times and places The 38 papers and c 1150pages in this collection from a 1981 conference form the largestbody of comparative case material in the history and costs ofentrepreneurial activity in modern Africa Four major sectionsillustrate range of coverage indigenous 19th-century activityimperial ventures public powerprivate sector growth in thecolonial era and enterprises and entrepreneurs in the postcolonialera Microenterprise is considered in every era and samples fromthe last will be covered in latter sections here A few papers dealwith research methods and general themes like the combination oftension and cooperation between public and private in the colonialera and the progressive privatization of the state in the postshycolonial era In both the state is a terrain of struggle amongunequal competitors with inevitable unequal results preventing thecreation of democratic mass-based development and thus theconsumers that the industrial west needs Such historical studythus prefaces development of more effective policy making
Eades Jeremy ed (1987) Migrants Workers and the SocialOdr London TavistockNY Routledge Chapman amp Hall
These fifteen essays anfrom April 1986 anthropologyconference at the University of Kent are a convenient way to enter a large body of research on migration and its links to the informalsector rural and urban The focus is on the political ecoiiomy ofmigration and the resulting structures of social relationsespecially changes in the nature of ethnicity gender and classrelations and in strategies of survival and accumulation Of the7 chapters on Africa perhaps the most relevant for the urbaninformal arena are on the Yoruba exodus from Ghana and on migranthousing in Nairobi Eades shows how the Yoruba used chain migrationto expand their rural marketing network through formal and informalsector activities and then with their community ties couldorchestrate a mass departure to accomodate political winds in late1969 The study on Nairobi looks at changing entitlement relationsrom the commercialization of unauthorized housing and theresulting decline in an individuals housing situation Note goodchapter bibliographies
3
Hugon Philippe (1988) Les strategies de vie et de surviedans lam villes africaines et les pauvres en activite ParisOECD Development Centre meeting September 7-9
In a very recent study a senior French scholar of the Africaninformal sector provides amostly readable review of literature andpolicy debates with his own synthesis of appropriate analyticapproaches and practical alternatives The literature veview notesthe themes of the 1970s (heterogeneity dynamism) and theconsensus of the 1980s that microenterprise thei3 cheapdevelopmental solution in an era of financial crisis Policy andmethodological debates are found based on a literary universe withkey limitations studies covered only the most structuredactivities just the heads of such activities and just the unitsof production not linkages His alternative is a holistic viewrecognizing gradients subsistence transitional and capitalistA formula for assessing linkages is developed based on fourfactors He then studies opposing theses the sector is marginaland on balance parasitical or it is exploited Such an analysismust merge political economy economic anthropology and historyCogent micro and macro policy concludes making this a basic current source
illiffe John (1987) The African Poor A Histor CambridgeCambridge UP
Historical grounding is essential to work on the problems ofthe poor so with finite time this major new contribution seemsreasonable for brief study Illiffe pursues many kinds of evidenceto show the diversity of the ordinarily poor and very poor in bothiresource-rich and resource-poor societies The evolution from landshyrich to land-poor is a key indicator Structural poverty isdistinguished from conjunctural in precolonial colonial andpostcolonial settings Care of the structural poor has changedlittle over these historic watersheds for the conjunctural poorconditions have changed graphically Of most import to work in theurban informal sector is the assault on the moral economy Mostinstructive was the 1981-83 violence in northern Nigeria Acombination of affronts to poor youth especially neglect by oilshyrich townsmen created support for a fundamentalist attack on allsigns of affluence In brief cultural legitimacy is part ofdevelopmental effectiveness in urban as well as rural settings
4
International Labour Organisation - IASPA (1985) 1LQampJLSector in Africa Addis Ababa ILO-Jobs and Skill Programme for Africa
The ILO has done more research on the informal sector inAfrica than any other institution This synthesizes 52 studiesproduced between 1972 and 1983 there have been 25-35 more sinceThG first 50 pages summarize macro and micro characteristics of thesector formal-informal ties the role of government constraintsand employment potential The latter part provides tastes ofreports on 22 countries with some effort in 3-5 pages toquantify aspects of the sector Frequently there are briefrecommendations Given the size of most informal sectors and thegeneral industrial stagnation of the 1980s most of the informalsectors now appear less consistently connected to the formal TheILO expects continued sectoral growth but it is not sanguine aboutthe development potential A less punitive more nuanced governmentrole is urged including selective training programs No realsolution is possible without rebalancing rural-urban gaps in liequality and employment potential Local institution-building isnot however a visible topic without it the informal sectorremains a sea socialof and political splinters limited andvulnerable to other forces
Lachaud JP (1988) Le mecteur informel urbain et le march6du travail en Afrique du Sud du Sahara Geneva IIES
In the last decade Lachaud has probably done more fieldresearch on this topic than anyone else Ivory Coast CameroonRwanda RCA Togo Zaire and Benin Using this material veryrecent unpublished dissertations and much else he here exploresgains and limitations in research methodology and suggestsalternatives There remains a wide gap between theoreticallyrigorous definitions and the pragmatism of field praxis Only atthe subsector level in some instances is the formalinformal modeluseful There is much agreement and much data on five keylimitations for the sector but much uncertainty on linkage issuesExternal policies remain preoccupied with promoting smallenterprise at the upper end of the sector while government planslack implementation strategies and resources to match theirrhetoric Lachaud wants a far better knowledge base with researchrefocussed households rather than enteprises the structure andpotential of linkages a detailed grasp the andof naturetrajectory of stratification and a far better definition of policygoals for if poverty reduction is the key microenterprisepromotion is not sufficient
5
Lemarchand Rene (1988) The State the Parallel Economy andthe Changing Structure of Patronage Systems pp 149-170 in DRothchild and N Chazan eds The Precarious Balance $ ampSociety in Africa Boulder Westview
From one of the best senior Africanists in North America comesan exceptional theoretical analysis theof creation andperpetuation of the parallel economy in Africa Systematicbureaucratic corruption and an ensuing parallel economy havabeengenerated by the decline of traditional patronage especially inrural areas and the uncertainty of external links adding to state pressures on rural producers Foreigners have provided role modelsskills contacts and political help as well as aid for thepredators The informal economy grew as a survival strategy againstpressure from above and below People avoided state predation via new local clientage or by working out a modus vivendi with thepredators Class formation is taking place outside the state Theprebendal state and parallel economy as brief case materials showhave in turn created conditions of profound and permanentinequalities in African societies Alternative practical policymust thus be built on a far more systemic rather than sectoralbasis
de Miras Claude (1984) De la formation de capital priv6 il6conomie populaire spontan6e Itinfraire dune recherche enmilieu urbain africaine Politique Afrcaine 1492-109
Much of this article recounts the theoretical pilgrimage ofthe author during a decade of research on small industry in theIvory Coast It became obviouo first that many small producersand sellers were not in the process of accumulating privatecapital But the term subsistence did not do justice to theevident dynamism creativity and flux Most interesting is theconcluding section where de Miras links this social reality togenerations comparable stretching back centuries as noted byhistorians like Braudel Roche and Engels Denizens of theinformal sector reflect a permanency by their resistance orinertia before capitalist absorption their autonomy oforganization and its operation their evasion in the face of statecoercion their fluidity before capitalist repression their owncapacity for exploitation the capitalist and non-capitalist causesof their extensionA challenge has been laid to both capitalistand Marxist myths of progress What then is the basis ofdevelopment and its goals
6
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherile and Forest Alain eds (1941)poundntreDrises et entrepreneurs en Afriaue (XIXe et XXe sibclesf 2volumes Paris LHarmattan
The literature on capitalism in Africa public and privateis large and compelling Spatial class and gender inequalitieshave grown in most times and places The 38 papers and c 1150pages in this collection from a 1981 conference form the largestbody of comparative case material in the history and costs ofentrepreneurial activity in modern Africa Four major sectionsillustrate range of coverage indigenous 19th-century activityimperial ventures public powerprivate sector growth in thecolonial era and enterprises and entrepreneurs in the postcolonialera Microenterprise is considered in every era and samples fromthe last will be covered in latter sections here A few papers dealwith research methods and general themes like the combination oftension and cooperation between public and private in the colonialera and the progressive privatization of the state in the postshycolonial era In both the state is a terrain of struggle amongunequal competitors with inevitable unequal results preventing thecreation of democratic mass-based development and thus theconsumers that the industrial west needs Such historical studythus prefaces development of more effective policy making
Eades Jeremy ed (1987) Migrants Workers and the SocialOdr London TavistockNY Routledge Chapman amp Hall
These fifteen essays anfrom April 1986 anthropologyconference at the University of Kent are a convenient way to enter a large body of research on migration and its links to the informalsector rural and urban The focus is on the political ecoiiomy ofmigration and the resulting structures of social relationsespecially changes in the nature of ethnicity gender and classrelations and in strategies of survival and accumulation Of the7 chapters on Africa perhaps the most relevant for the urbaninformal arena are on the Yoruba exodus from Ghana and on migranthousing in Nairobi Eades shows how the Yoruba used chain migrationto expand their rural marketing network through formal and informalsector activities and then with their community ties couldorchestrate a mass departure to accomodate political winds in late1969 The study on Nairobi looks at changing entitlement relationsrom the commercialization of unauthorized housing and theresulting decline in an individuals housing situation Note goodchapter bibliographies
3
Hugon Philippe (1988) Les strategies de vie et de surviedans lam villes africaines et les pauvres en activite ParisOECD Development Centre meeting September 7-9
In a very recent study a senior French scholar of the Africaninformal sector provides amostly readable review of literature andpolicy debates with his own synthesis of appropriate analyticapproaches and practical alternatives The literature veview notesthe themes of the 1970s (heterogeneity dynamism) and theconsensus of the 1980s that microenterprise thei3 cheapdevelopmental solution in an era of financial crisis Policy andmethodological debates are found based on a literary universe withkey limitations studies covered only the most structuredactivities just the heads of such activities and just the unitsof production not linkages His alternative is a holistic viewrecognizing gradients subsistence transitional and capitalistA formula for assessing linkages is developed based on fourfactors He then studies opposing theses the sector is marginaland on balance parasitical or it is exploited Such an analysismust merge political economy economic anthropology and historyCogent micro and macro policy concludes making this a basic current source
illiffe John (1987) The African Poor A Histor CambridgeCambridge UP
Historical grounding is essential to work on the problems ofthe poor so with finite time this major new contribution seemsreasonable for brief study Illiffe pursues many kinds of evidenceto show the diversity of the ordinarily poor and very poor in bothiresource-rich and resource-poor societies The evolution from landshyrich to land-poor is a key indicator Structural poverty isdistinguished from conjunctural in precolonial colonial andpostcolonial settings Care of the structural poor has changedlittle over these historic watersheds for the conjunctural poorconditions have changed graphically Of most import to work in theurban informal sector is the assault on the moral economy Mostinstructive was the 1981-83 violence in northern Nigeria Acombination of affronts to poor youth especially neglect by oilshyrich townsmen created support for a fundamentalist attack on allsigns of affluence In brief cultural legitimacy is part ofdevelopmental effectiveness in urban as well as rural settings
4
International Labour Organisation - IASPA (1985) 1LQampJLSector in Africa Addis Ababa ILO-Jobs and Skill Programme for Africa
The ILO has done more research on the informal sector inAfrica than any other institution This synthesizes 52 studiesproduced between 1972 and 1983 there have been 25-35 more sinceThG first 50 pages summarize macro and micro characteristics of thesector formal-informal ties the role of government constraintsand employment potential The latter part provides tastes ofreports on 22 countries with some effort in 3-5 pages toquantify aspects of the sector Frequently there are briefrecommendations Given the size of most informal sectors and thegeneral industrial stagnation of the 1980s most of the informalsectors now appear less consistently connected to the formal TheILO expects continued sectoral growth but it is not sanguine aboutthe development potential A less punitive more nuanced governmentrole is urged including selective training programs No realsolution is possible without rebalancing rural-urban gaps in liequality and employment potential Local institution-building isnot however a visible topic without it the informal sectorremains a sea socialof and political splinters limited andvulnerable to other forces
Lachaud JP (1988) Le mecteur informel urbain et le march6du travail en Afrique du Sud du Sahara Geneva IIES
In the last decade Lachaud has probably done more fieldresearch on this topic than anyone else Ivory Coast CameroonRwanda RCA Togo Zaire and Benin Using this material veryrecent unpublished dissertations and much else he here exploresgains and limitations in research methodology and suggestsalternatives There remains a wide gap between theoreticallyrigorous definitions and the pragmatism of field praxis Only atthe subsector level in some instances is the formalinformal modeluseful There is much agreement and much data on five keylimitations for the sector but much uncertainty on linkage issuesExternal policies remain preoccupied with promoting smallenterprise at the upper end of the sector while government planslack implementation strategies and resources to match theirrhetoric Lachaud wants a far better knowledge base with researchrefocussed households rather than enteprises the structure andpotential of linkages a detailed grasp the andof naturetrajectory of stratification and a far better definition of policygoals for if poverty reduction is the key microenterprisepromotion is not sufficient
5
Lemarchand Rene (1988) The State the Parallel Economy andthe Changing Structure of Patronage Systems pp 149-170 in DRothchild and N Chazan eds The Precarious Balance $ ampSociety in Africa Boulder Westview
From one of the best senior Africanists in North America comesan exceptional theoretical analysis theof creation andperpetuation of the parallel economy in Africa Systematicbureaucratic corruption and an ensuing parallel economy havabeengenerated by the decline of traditional patronage especially inrural areas and the uncertainty of external links adding to state pressures on rural producers Foreigners have provided role modelsskills contacts and political help as well as aid for thepredators The informal economy grew as a survival strategy againstpressure from above and below People avoided state predation via new local clientage or by working out a modus vivendi with thepredators Class formation is taking place outside the state Theprebendal state and parallel economy as brief case materials showhave in turn created conditions of profound and permanentinequalities in African societies Alternative practical policymust thus be built on a far more systemic rather than sectoralbasis
de Miras Claude (1984) De la formation de capital priv6 il6conomie populaire spontan6e Itinfraire dune recherche enmilieu urbain africaine Politique Afrcaine 1492-109
Much of this article recounts the theoretical pilgrimage ofthe author during a decade of research on small industry in theIvory Coast It became obviouo first that many small producersand sellers were not in the process of accumulating privatecapital But the term subsistence did not do justice to theevident dynamism creativity and flux Most interesting is theconcluding section where de Miras links this social reality togenerations comparable stretching back centuries as noted byhistorians like Braudel Roche and Engels Denizens of theinformal sector reflect a permanency by their resistance orinertia before capitalist absorption their autonomy oforganization and its operation their evasion in the face of statecoercion their fluidity before capitalist repression their owncapacity for exploitation the capitalist and non-capitalist causesof their extensionA challenge has been laid to both capitalistand Marxist myths of progress What then is the basis ofdevelopment and its goals
6
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Hugon Philippe (1988) Les strategies de vie et de surviedans lam villes africaines et les pauvres en activite ParisOECD Development Centre meeting September 7-9
In a very recent study a senior French scholar of the Africaninformal sector provides amostly readable review of literature andpolicy debates with his own synthesis of appropriate analyticapproaches and practical alternatives The literature veview notesthe themes of the 1970s (heterogeneity dynamism) and theconsensus of the 1980s that microenterprise thei3 cheapdevelopmental solution in an era of financial crisis Policy andmethodological debates are found based on a literary universe withkey limitations studies covered only the most structuredactivities just the heads of such activities and just the unitsof production not linkages His alternative is a holistic viewrecognizing gradients subsistence transitional and capitalistA formula for assessing linkages is developed based on fourfactors He then studies opposing theses the sector is marginaland on balance parasitical or it is exploited Such an analysismust merge political economy economic anthropology and historyCogent micro and macro policy concludes making this a basic current source
illiffe John (1987) The African Poor A Histor CambridgeCambridge UP
Historical grounding is essential to work on the problems ofthe poor so with finite time this major new contribution seemsreasonable for brief study Illiffe pursues many kinds of evidenceto show the diversity of the ordinarily poor and very poor in bothiresource-rich and resource-poor societies The evolution from landshyrich to land-poor is a key indicator Structural poverty isdistinguished from conjunctural in precolonial colonial andpostcolonial settings Care of the structural poor has changedlittle over these historic watersheds for the conjunctural poorconditions have changed graphically Of most import to work in theurban informal sector is the assault on the moral economy Mostinstructive was the 1981-83 violence in northern Nigeria Acombination of affronts to poor youth especially neglect by oilshyrich townsmen created support for a fundamentalist attack on allsigns of affluence In brief cultural legitimacy is part ofdevelopmental effectiveness in urban as well as rural settings
4
International Labour Organisation - IASPA (1985) 1LQampJLSector in Africa Addis Ababa ILO-Jobs and Skill Programme for Africa
The ILO has done more research on the informal sector inAfrica than any other institution This synthesizes 52 studiesproduced between 1972 and 1983 there have been 25-35 more sinceThG first 50 pages summarize macro and micro characteristics of thesector formal-informal ties the role of government constraintsand employment potential The latter part provides tastes ofreports on 22 countries with some effort in 3-5 pages toquantify aspects of the sector Frequently there are briefrecommendations Given the size of most informal sectors and thegeneral industrial stagnation of the 1980s most of the informalsectors now appear less consistently connected to the formal TheILO expects continued sectoral growth but it is not sanguine aboutthe development potential A less punitive more nuanced governmentrole is urged including selective training programs No realsolution is possible without rebalancing rural-urban gaps in liequality and employment potential Local institution-building isnot however a visible topic without it the informal sectorremains a sea socialof and political splinters limited andvulnerable to other forces
Lachaud JP (1988) Le mecteur informel urbain et le march6du travail en Afrique du Sud du Sahara Geneva IIES
In the last decade Lachaud has probably done more fieldresearch on this topic than anyone else Ivory Coast CameroonRwanda RCA Togo Zaire and Benin Using this material veryrecent unpublished dissertations and much else he here exploresgains and limitations in research methodology and suggestsalternatives There remains a wide gap between theoreticallyrigorous definitions and the pragmatism of field praxis Only atthe subsector level in some instances is the formalinformal modeluseful There is much agreement and much data on five keylimitations for the sector but much uncertainty on linkage issuesExternal policies remain preoccupied with promoting smallenterprise at the upper end of the sector while government planslack implementation strategies and resources to match theirrhetoric Lachaud wants a far better knowledge base with researchrefocussed households rather than enteprises the structure andpotential of linkages a detailed grasp the andof naturetrajectory of stratification and a far better definition of policygoals for if poverty reduction is the key microenterprisepromotion is not sufficient
5
Lemarchand Rene (1988) The State the Parallel Economy andthe Changing Structure of Patronage Systems pp 149-170 in DRothchild and N Chazan eds The Precarious Balance $ ampSociety in Africa Boulder Westview
From one of the best senior Africanists in North America comesan exceptional theoretical analysis theof creation andperpetuation of the parallel economy in Africa Systematicbureaucratic corruption and an ensuing parallel economy havabeengenerated by the decline of traditional patronage especially inrural areas and the uncertainty of external links adding to state pressures on rural producers Foreigners have provided role modelsskills contacts and political help as well as aid for thepredators The informal economy grew as a survival strategy againstpressure from above and below People avoided state predation via new local clientage or by working out a modus vivendi with thepredators Class formation is taking place outside the state Theprebendal state and parallel economy as brief case materials showhave in turn created conditions of profound and permanentinequalities in African societies Alternative practical policymust thus be built on a far more systemic rather than sectoralbasis
de Miras Claude (1984) De la formation de capital priv6 il6conomie populaire spontan6e Itinfraire dune recherche enmilieu urbain africaine Politique Afrcaine 1492-109
Much of this article recounts the theoretical pilgrimage ofthe author during a decade of research on small industry in theIvory Coast It became obviouo first that many small producersand sellers were not in the process of accumulating privatecapital But the term subsistence did not do justice to theevident dynamism creativity and flux Most interesting is theconcluding section where de Miras links this social reality togenerations comparable stretching back centuries as noted byhistorians like Braudel Roche and Engels Denizens of theinformal sector reflect a permanency by their resistance orinertia before capitalist absorption their autonomy oforganization and its operation their evasion in the face of statecoercion their fluidity before capitalist repression their owncapacity for exploitation the capitalist and non-capitalist causesof their extensionA challenge has been laid to both capitalistand Marxist myths of progress What then is the basis ofdevelopment and its goals
6
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
International Labour Organisation - IASPA (1985) 1LQampJLSector in Africa Addis Ababa ILO-Jobs and Skill Programme for Africa
The ILO has done more research on the informal sector inAfrica than any other institution This synthesizes 52 studiesproduced between 1972 and 1983 there have been 25-35 more sinceThG first 50 pages summarize macro and micro characteristics of thesector formal-informal ties the role of government constraintsand employment potential The latter part provides tastes ofreports on 22 countries with some effort in 3-5 pages toquantify aspects of the sector Frequently there are briefrecommendations Given the size of most informal sectors and thegeneral industrial stagnation of the 1980s most of the informalsectors now appear less consistently connected to the formal TheILO expects continued sectoral growth but it is not sanguine aboutthe development potential A less punitive more nuanced governmentrole is urged including selective training programs No realsolution is possible without rebalancing rural-urban gaps in liequality and employment potential Local institution-building isnot however a visible topic without it the informal sectorremains a sea socialof and political splinters limited andvulnerable to other forces
Lachaud JP (1988) Le mecteur informel urbain et le march6du travail en Afrique du Sud du Sahara Geneva IIES
In the last decade Lachaud has probably done more fieldresearch on this topic than anyone else Ivory Coast CameroonRwanda RCA Togo Zaire and Benin Using this material veryrecent unpublished dissertations and much else he here exploresgains and limitations in research methodology and suggestsalternatives There remains a wide gap between theoreticallyrigorous definitions and the pragmatism of field praxis Only atthe subsector level in some instances is the formalinformal modeluseful There is much agreement and much data on five keylimitations for the sector but much uncertainty on linkage issuesExternal policies remain preoccupied with promoting smallenterprise at the upper end of the sector while government planslack implementation strategies and resources to match theirrhetoric Lachaud wants a far better knowledge base with researchrefocussed households rather than enteprises the structure andpotential of linkages a detailed grasp the andof naturetrajectory of stratification and a far better definition of policygoals for if poverty reduction is the key microenterprisepromotion is not sufficient
5
Lemarchand Rene (1988) The State the Parallel Economy andthe Changing Structure of Patronage Systems pp 149-170 in DRothchild and N Chazan eds The Precarious Balance $ ampSociety in Africa Boulder Westview
From one of the best senior Africanists in North America comesan exceptional theoretical analysis theof creation andperpetuation of the parallel economy in Africa Systematicbureaucratic corruption and an ensuing parallel economy havabeengenerated by the decline of traditional patronage especially inrural areas and the uncertainty of external links adding to state pressures on rural producers Foreigners have provided role modelsskills contacts and political help as well as aid for thepredators The informal economy grew as a survival strategy againstpressure from above and below People avoided state predation via new local clientage or by working out a modus vivendi with thepredators Class formation is taking place outside the state Theprebendal state and parallel economy as brief case materials showhave in turn created conditions of profound and permanentinequalities in African societies Alternative practical policymust thus be built on a far more systemic rather than sectoralbasis
de Miras Claude (1984) De la formation de capital priv6 il6conomie populaire spontan6e Itinfraire dune recherche enmilieu urbain africaine Politique Afrcaine 1492-109
Much of this article recounts the theoretical pilgrimage ofthe author during a decade of research on small industry in theIvory Coast It became obviouo first that many small producersand sellers were not in the process of accumulating privatecapital But the term subsistence did not do justice to theevident dynamism creativity and flux Most interesting is theconcluding section where de Miras links this social reality togenerations comparable stretching back centuries as noted byhistorians like Braudel Roche and Engels Denizens of theinformal sector reflect a permanency by their resistance orinertia before capitalist absorption their autonomy oforganization and its operation their evasion in the face of statecoercion their fluidity before capitalist repression their owncapacity for exploitation the capitalist and non-capitalist causesof their extensionA challenge has been laid to both capitalistand Marxist myths of progress What then is the basis ofdevelopment and its goals
6
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Lemarchand Rene (1988) The State the Parallel Economy andthe Changing Structure of Patronage Systems pp 149-170 in DRothchild and N Chazan eds The Precarious Balance $ ampSociety in Africa Boulder Westview
From one of the best senior Africanists in North America comesan exceptional theoretical analysis theof creation andperpetuation of the parallel economy in Africa Systematicbureaucratic corruption and an ensuing parallel economy havabeengenerated by the decline of traditional patronage especially inrural areas and the uncertainty of external links adding to state pressures on rural producers Foreigners have provided role modelsskills contacts and political help as well as aid for thepredators The informal economy grew as a survival strategy againstpressure from above and below People avoided state predation via new local clientage or by working out a modus vivendi with thepredators Class formation is taking place outside the state Theprebendal state and parallel economy as brief case materials showhave in turn created conditions of profound and permanentinequalities in African societies Alternative practical policymust thus be built on a far more systemic rather than sectoralbasis
de Miras Claude (1984) De la formation de capital priv6 il6conomie populaire spontan6e Itinfraire dune recherche enmilieu urbain africaine Politique Afrcaine 1492-109
Much of this article recounts the theoretical pilgrimage ofthe author during a decade of research on small industry in theIvory Coast It became obviouo first that many small producersand sellers were not in the process of accumulating privatecapital But the term subsistence did not do justice to theevident dynamism creativity and flux Most interesting is theconcluding section where de Miras links this social reality togenerations comparable stretching back centuries as noted byhistorians like Braudel Roche and Engels Denizens of theinformal sector reflect a permanency by their resistance orinertia before capitalist absorption their autonomy oforganization and its operation their evasion in the face of statecoercion their fluidity before capitalist repression their owncapacity for exploitation the capitalist and non-capitalist causesof their extensionA challenge has been laid to both capitalistand Marxist myths of progress What then is the basis ofdevelopment and its goals
6
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Morice Alain (1985) A propos de lconomie populairespontan6e Pour une vision socio-politique de la reproductionurbaine Politiaue Africaine 18 114-124
Morice here offers an extensive constructive critique of theeaasy by de Miras (noted above) despite finding it valuable andinnovative Morice first notes that it is difficult to account forthe emergence of the petty trade sector purely within its ownlogic The spontaneous popular economy hints of a rebirth of thatdualism de Miras has just refuted The focus on enterprise slightsthe role of political actors and the state The issue of controlof spontaneity cannot be glossed over as patrons of smallbusinesses control the surplus and social relations Poptilardenotes more harmony than ongoing gender and class stratificationwould suggest To say there is no collective social structure tothe informal sector is not to downplay many kinds of locallinkages The state is not the unified block often picturedmultiplicity of actors accounts for ambivalence toward the sectorState policy is not static but alternates potential and actualrepression and antipopulist policies like structural adjustmentFinally Morice questions the identity of historic andpermanent We have here thus a useful debate seeking to sharpenassumptions and theory for public policy
Moser Caroline (1984) The Informal Sector ReworkedViability and Vulnerability in Urban Development gionalPxnmyel DialoMie 52135-178
This intellectual history and analysis of the informal sectordebate ismore detailed but less clear or satisfying than the morerecent essa by Trager (1987) In a review of the conceptualdebate ioser seeks evidence for explanations of why the sectorpersists and what capacity it has to generate growth andemployment At the policy level the idea of a discrete sector isuseful as one can help the poor without disturbing the richconversely the focus on linkages as in the classic study ofgarbage pickers ir Cali (Colombia) shows a continuum from thestable wage worker to the true self-employed with someevolutionary arid some involutionary growth She sees limitedworldwide research to back up speculations about constraints on theinformal sector and few longitudinal studies to document trendsone on Bogota in the 1970s shows incredible complexity within aninvolutionary trend Studies defined by spatial terms or by sectorsor firms all have limits Only by combining bottom-up and top-downresearch can one hope to build systems understanding and begin tounravel linkages of external and internal factors
7
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Muntemba Shumwaayi eds (1985) Rural DeveloDment and WomenLessons from the Field 2 volumes Geneva ILO
Most of what women do in Africa falls into one category oranother of the informal sector One of the best collectionsillustrates struggles for subsistence in town and village via smallactivities in trade and production This joint DanishILO projectuses these 25 cases from Asia and Africa to illustrate quality oflocal research and vision ata of least partial developmentsucciss These cases also demonstrate two basic conclusions fromrecent participatory development research success is more likelywhen women gain control over resources and labor and the key tosustainability is democratic well-managed local crganizations Butthere are limits to gains unless women share actively at all levelsin defining the cultural political and economic discourse andpraxis of social change efforts The collection thus speaksdirectly to both the processes by which outside donors seek tolearn about women and to the quality and nature of localorganizational strategy that a project should develop
Nafziger E Wayrne (1988) IneUality in Africa Politicalelites proletariat peasants and tCambridge CambridgeUP
The larger contexts of inequality in nearly all Africansocieties significantly hamper the implementation of effectivedevelopment policy for the informal sector as for any other sectorThis new 175-page essay is probably the easiest introduction to thetopic c-ombining theoretical historical and contemporarymaterial His thesis is that both capitalist and statist approacheshave perpetuated if not expanded pre-existent stratification andthus also great economic inefficiency Mass-based developmentrequires far more democratic politics and economics Elites atEvery level have other agendas and use state and market power topursue them Analysis ranges from global comparison to processesmaintaining regional ethnic class educational and urban biasA developmental alternative is too briefly raised based on acoalition of rural and urban interests to change the compositionof the ruling class Eritrea would have provided the mostcompelling example
8
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Penouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre eds (1985) Ld6veloyRement sDontan6 Les activit6s informelles en AfriaugParis Ed A Pedone
The most recent published book on the African informal sectoris based on a ten-year effort by a team from the Univers4ty ofBordeaux working largely in conjunction with the ILO Penouil etal argue that the informal sector represents an indigenousspontaneous alternative to the model of modernization brought fromthe West The nine chapters cover research methodology theoreticalconflict urban activities traditional artisanry intersectorallinks the rural informal sector and the lessons of experienceAn important bibliography concludes the work Lachauds policylessons highlitht a crucial dilemma try to help the poorest butinvolutionary segments or those better off in the evolutionarysubsectors with potential for job expansion and accumulation Hisprescriptions begin with indirect initiatives decentralizedevelopment and stabilize the pace of rural migration via non-farmdevelopment and reduced regional disparities Projects cannot justseek to expand goods and services without expanding demand and thusagricultural development Specifics of more effective interventions follow
Sandbrook Richard (1982) The Politics of Basic Needs UrbanAspects of Assaulting Poverty in Africa Toronto University of Toronto
For some years now this has been the basic introductory texton urban development in Africa Chapters treat the poverty debatethe genesis of underdevelopment and urban poverty the state andcapital accumulation urban class formation the urban poor indetail methods of social control and types of urban struggle andthe path ahead There is much to consider here about the politicaland organizational obstacles to development the limitations ofdependent industrialization for jobs productivity and equity andthe many division- of the marginalized laboring poor which workagainst collective effort Sandbrook looks to participatorydevelopment as the optimal solution Bcth problems and it ishoped openings are visible As other studies argue the informalsector has boen produced and reproduced in a dynamic fashion toprovide varying amounts of cheap food labor and services as theformal and state sectors demand Change will demand politicalreorganization
9
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
ILL West Africa
Arnould Eric (1984) Process and Social Formation PettyCommodity Producers in Zinder Niger Canadian Journal of AfricanS 163501-522
Traditional craft and petty commodity production has typicallybeen subordinated and often destroyed by the penetration ofcapitalism Arnould shows however that the fate of particularcrafts is not predetermined His cases an urban tannery and avillage clay pot producer have found market niches that allowprecapitalist social formation to exist Both industries uselocal materials for local markets which have not baen attacked byimports or new technology or modern-sector capitalist firms Theymaintain their positions by flexibility in productionresponsiveness to market conditions and low capital input Suchpetty commodity producers are not the bases for future industrialdevelopment because they produce little or no accumulation norhave potential for capital investment nor technologicalimprovement At the moment such industries permit a few personsto survive in not quite abject poverty No quick fixes aresuggested But mass-based participatory development would improvetheir larger contexts and growth potential
Baumann Eveline (1985) Activit6s informelles en milieu ruralet transformations socio-6conomiques Reflexions a partir duneetude de cas pp 224-248 in N Penouil and J-P Lachaud edsLe d6veloDpement sDontan6 (see Part I)
Based on her 1984 3e cycle dissertation for the University ofBordeaux Baumann presents an introductory study of the ruralinformal sector in West Africa focussed on the rural center of Saain south central Cameroun An initial section provides specificson 158 microenterprises in non-trading sedentary activities A mixof single-household and patron-client forms is described some oflocal origin some not with about 25 also pursuing agricultureCapital is a basic constraint and mutual associations theinstitutional response Polarization grows as the consumer goodsof some make evident A key weakness is the poor integration ofthe sector with agriculture an urban orientation combined withlack of rural purchasing power Technical aspects of policysuggestions make some aresense fruits open to small-scaleprocessing as are peanuts But the call for educational effortsrethinking economic relations and more appropriate technologyomits the necessary new institutional vision of local andintermediate organizations to raise mass purchasing power bydemocratizing politics and economics
10
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Berry Sara (1983) From peasant to artisan motor mechanics in aNigerian town pp 421-449 in Coquery-Vidrovitch C et al TII EntreDrises et Entrepreneurs gn Afrigue (see Section I)
If microenterprise in the urban informal sector is to he the cornerstone of a development solution it must maintain comparativeefficiency In Nigeria a debate has arisen because such firms appear to become less efficient as they grow Berry explores cases among motor mechanics in Ife to see what factors in career pathsand work processes bear on efficiency and expansion It becameclear that culture was far less significant than limitations in thestrategies small-scale entrepreneurs use to increase theirclientele and to reduce risk Apprentices are widely used asinexpensive labor yet they are often not inefficient Mechanicscontrol financial matters and oversee work they must be in theshop not necessarily the most efficient place to cultivate goodpersonal relations with customers and suppliers In sum thehierarchical conflictual internal work culture combines with thecompetitive larger environment to create large obstacles toexpansion for most of these petty entrepreneurs This would suggestthat alternative institutional forms and work processes should be sought
Chauvet Jacques (1987) Evolution de la famille vt croissancedes villes moyennes Sarh (Tchad) et Toumodi (C~te dIvoire) LsCahiers dOutre-Mer 40 No 158 (avril-juin) 173-203
Treating the African urban household as an independenteconomic decision-maker in a market reality seriously misrepresentsthe impact of social connections This study illustrates not justthe different sizes and shapes of the family entity but also thediverse and flexible ways being used to facilitate the transitionfrom village to town The urban family does not replicate eitherthe rural model or the European but instead adapts to multipleneeds Swapping consumer goods within the family is one commonmechanism Chauvet looks at the history of settlement in Sarhusing 1970 and 1983 household data One can chart typical patternsand activities in specific zones Much of the article explores theurban family budget to show how the modern world is having tangibleeffects on social ties depending on the level of urban successSharing with village relatives levels some of the disparitiesEvery informal sector project should include study of arepresentative number of domestic budgets to see the varieties ofnetworking taking place and their implications for any specificproject
11
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Courlet Claude and Tiberghien Raphael (1986) Led6veloppement decentralise des petites entreprises industrielles au Cameroun Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 107 juillet-sept607-616
This is a shorter version of a December 1985 report on thescale origins and dynamism of small enterprise especiallyaspects of success One recent survey had estimated 227 firms inthe modern sector and c 40000 in the informal here 16studies of success are
case examined cases from the intermediate
sector One group was spurred on by modern-sector entrepreneursother businessmen or the technically trained seeking new venuesothers arose from the expansion of village artisanry In this smallsample there was a great range in technological complexitydiversity of activity and very great participation by expatriatesMore typicalof the general sector are more indigenous efforts withtwo key characteristics Tontines are used as a group creditmechanism and support network to encourage savings and helpplanning tontines however need homogeneous and compatiblemembers Bamileke seem to dominate at most inlevels mostsubsectors in part because of a supportive social system and aninheritance to firstborns forcing others to strike out anew Thisis another case where unpublished research like that of Mulumba(1984) and Keou (1985) would add much more depth a1d thus providemuch better basis for policy
Dettwyler Steven (1985) Senoufo Migrants in Bamako ChangingAgricultural Production Strategies and Household Organization in an Urban Environment unpub PhD diss Indiana University
Dettwyler has pursued an unusual Dart of the urban informal economy local food production efforts His 1982-83 fieldwork inMali looked particularly at the techniques of urban agricultureincluding marketing strategies and at how traditional aspects ofSenoufo households were affected by migration He interviewed morethan 200 farmers and studied 52 farms in some detail and 6 moreexhaustively Migrants used social networks to gain access to resources and so diverse social obligations are highlightedProduction is affected by ecology and economics for a city market as well so a most interdisciplinary analysis is necessary to assess household and market development Dettwyler does not ignorethe sociological impacts of the urban milieu on household divisionof labor and rewards A more general comparative study of urbanfood markets is J Guyer ed (1987) FeedinQ African Cities
12
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
90
van Dijk Meine Pieter (1986) Burkina-Faso Le secteurinformel de Ougaduou Paris LHarmattan
In this work and a companion volume on the informal sector inDakar one can sample some of the most recent efforts by thisprolific Dutch economist Some 73 of the population of Ouagadougouis part of the informal sector so the detailed data herein eventhough a bit dated are of great import Much of this works first pages is devoted to theoretical debates on informal sectordefinitions dualism the behavior of entrepreneurs in the sectorand questions of research methodology The last 100 pages providesubstantial data and analysis on types and scales of activitiesproblems and blockages and intersectoral relations The conclusiondoes focus on practical suggestions the prerequisite politicalconditions and policy foundations at a general level the specificactivities which seem to have more (and less) potential and somerelated capacity-building suggestions The companion work coversthe same material on Dakar and one can also see a list of his 54previous studies on these problems
Diouf Made (1983) Migration artisanale et solidarit6villageoise le docas Kanen Njob au Senegal pp 469-478 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al (see Section I)
Western economic models are built on an entrepreneur as themythical free creative spirit West African artisans as in theWolof society in Senegal are generally part of a caste systemwherein those who transform material into economically usefulobjects are socially scorned For the buyer to have direct contactwith the producer is considered dangerous Even technical knowledgealone is enough for ostracism Artisans must marry strictlyendogamously Peasants and pastoralists shun their activities Butwhat happens when both seek to migrate Two groups are organizedThe artisans go to the city first set up and produce enough tosell the migrant peasants come to be the sales force The caseoutlines village structure and the work processes in Dakar Villagesolidarity is transplanted assuring work for both groups andbreaking down the untouchability myth The young are more free toexpress opinions and open their social horizons Artisans also havemore creative freedom Such a case study should give one pauseabout the intellectual frameworks most relevant to localdevelopment work in Africa
13
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Fassin Didier (1985) Du clandestin B lofficieux Les reseaux de vente illicite des m6dicaments au Sen~gal ChjampdEtudes Africaines 252 (98)161-177
Fassin undertook to determine why medicines are illegally sold on African markets and why there is such widespread tolerance bypublic officials His 1984-85 field study took place in Pikine asuburb of Dakar and investigated both the official medicaldispensaries and approximately 100 small businesses sellingmedicines in 13 markets Interviews were conducted with vendorsAs in other societies the formal system was unable (did not find it profitable) to assure economic access to medicine for the urban poor Thus grew illegal outlets where drugs are retailed in smallerquantities and at lower prices Portraits of vendors provide someflavor Religion and clientalism are key to the supply network and are controlled by the Mourides an Islamic brotherhood which hasgood political connections and thus can hinder official reprisalPublic policy in spite of its rhetoric thus alternates passivetoleration and casual repression It is a nice sample of the utter necessity of political-economy analysis if alternative publicpolicy is to be effective
Geest Sjak van der (1985) The Intertwining of Formal and Informal Medicine Distribution in South Cameroon Canadian Journal of African Studies 193569-587
Studies of the informal medical sector are rare because mostanthropologists deal withexclusively traditional or modernmedicine This case study of the Division of Ntem illustrates thearticulation of different modes of production The stronger formal sector finds it useful to maintain a larger subordinate informal sector Geest begins with the difficulties of such investigativeresearch The formal and informal structures are then sketched The area has one pharmacy for 140000 people Little wonder that there are five categories of informal sellers who both buy from theformal system and smuggle from Nigeria The informal processes have limits in terms of quality of service but have diverse advantagesto consumers small affordable quantities timely and localservice and a socially appropriate process The consumer practices a hierarchy of resort the pharmacist has a profitable system ofintermediaries To better the system Geest focuses on limiting thenumber of drugs and improving the quality of education with each AID could work with WHO on this
14
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Johnny Michael (1985) Informal Credit for Intearat uralDevelopment in Sierra Leone Hamburg Verlag Weltarchiv GmbH
Part of a substantial series of German studies many on SierraLeone and Malawi is this one documenting the comparativeefficiency of informal credit mechanisms It is based on 1982 fieldwork in two villages of the southern region Household data showseasonal needs credit bothfor for cultural and subsistence purposes between April and September Small farmers were shown tobe savers but of unequal ability Both formal and informal creditchannels are used The informal loans charge less interest and havea far higher rate of repayment Informal loans involved smallamounts short terms close knowledge of and contact withborrowers and simple and flexible procedures and were easy toget Farmers had many complaints with the formal se-tor proceduresinsensitivity and loan restrictions but the formal sector had farmore money to lend A new rural banking system is proposed withparticipatory procedures so the farmers are partners not passiveobjects local savings groups should continue in tandem Moreresearch avenues are sketched The Grameen Bank model would do well here
Laval Bernard (1985) Les relations entre les marches dutravail moderns et informel Le cas de Yaound6 pp 179-194 inPenouil Marc and Lachaud Jean-Pierre Le develoopement spontan2(see Section I)
This short study uses a March 1983 field survey in Yaounde toexplore issues of worker mobility within and between comparablesegments of the formal and informal sectors such as repair placesgarages a4rJ wood and metal factories Are there visible jobstrategies or much possibility of Horatio Alger stories There areindicators of the informal as labor reserve 75 of the informalworkers are less than 25 years old compared to 18 of the formalfotmal workers are about twice as likely to be long-term residentsYet upon examination the formal sector hires first among friendsand young graduates Overall only of formal29 the workerssurveyed had informal-sector experience those in wood factorieshad the highest percentage A comparison of salary ranges andeducational achievement deepens the picture of relatively segmentedsectors a range of salary overlap does however let someapprentices afford to choose independtnce For most in the informalsector poor education and skill trining are basic hindrancesPrevailing school systems alone cannot suffice
15
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Le Boterf Guy (1984) Les apprentis dans le projet dappuiau secteur non-structure urbain de Bamako (Elements dune rechercheparticipative et propositions pour laction) Ggneve-Afriaue221 71-90
Participatovy research is the basic learning process toeffective development practice in the field This is the bestrecent article thereon using an African informal-sector case asthe model ILO research on Malis informal sector noted thetraditional forms of African apprenticeship its research led toa request to improve that education The stages and methodologiesare laid out in detail In brief apprentices and craftsmenarticulate and refine their own need3 for more training and withcatalytic support work out their own solutions for theireducational and technical problems Such a participatory processadds immeasurably to both the quality and the legitimacy of theactivity as well as to the potential of effective subsequentimplementation Ups and downs of process learning are made clearin a practical guide The conclusion develops a half-dozen basicpropositions to orient successive stages of institutionaldevelopment An appendix adds a cogent synopsis of a four-stageparticipatory research process
Lecaillon Francoise (1985) La petite entreprise induite parles installations industrielles --un facteur de developpement enTiers-monde (lexemple ee la Cote dIvoire) 3e cycle UrbanismeAix-Marseille III
Lecaillons work is included here not so much for itstheoretical originality as for its wealth of detail over 460 pageson the Ivory Coast The introduction sets the stage noting poorsalaries in the modern sector and the influx of migrants fromsurrounding countries Many informal sector activities are thenreviewed with the survey limited to those that reveal thestrongest links between recovery of primary materials andproduction of a finished product and to those that seem bestorganized to sit on the edge of the official econciy Galvanizediron for example is worked into better cookware than what can beimported it and other products move through a network ofintermediaries Perhaps most spectacularly organized is the processto recover and use aluminum waste not just locally but fromabroad The concluding parts look at larger social and economiccontexts such as comparative costs the political climate for thesector and some evolutionary remedies In sum useful backgroundto be compared to work on more involutionary segments of the informal sector
16
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Lecarme Mireille (1985) Marchandes de poissons en guartierflottant (S~n6gal) Division par genre et differentiationssociales dans un contexte urbain de s6gregation spatiale pp 557shy572 in Bisilliat J et al Femmes et Politiaues Alimentaires Paris ORSTOM
This 725-page collection from a 1985 ORSTOM conference is oneof the more important current contributions on women indevelopment esnecially of case material Lecarme studies a groupof fishmonge- to show how female subordination is reproduced in an urban environment despite the new ethnic melting pot context andchanging structure of activity One must surmount both malehegemony in social science discourse and the tendency to stereotypean African woman Multiple cultural and economic factors generateand sustain hierarchy The most important is access to disposablecapital this creates a continuum from wholesaler to regularretailer to occasional seller Also serving to stratify placesof preferential sale and ethnicity - clientele to counter wildlyfluctuating prices and their own maiginality women form two typesof rotating mutual credit groups one for day-to-day and one forsocial ceremony If this kind of detailed sociologicalinvestigation had been done CIDA might not have ventured with itsproject to help just the male fisherman at the expense of others
Morice Alain (1983) Les petites entreprises du travail dumetal et caste des forgerons a Kaolek (Senegal) pp 479-492 inCoquery-Vidrovitch C et al eds T II (see section I)
From his 350-page 3e-cycle effort for EHESS in ParisMorice here offers insights on a complex subsector of the informal sector Kaolek is a commercial and artisan center one of Senegalslargest but it has little industry The metalworking sector hasbasic weaknesses low prices and income a young work force notpaid enough to reproduce itself the impossibility of capitalaccumulation for most and ambiguous public policy moving betweenliberalism and persecution On the surface the sector dividesbetween those in caste the traditional smiths who also hire incaste and metal craftsmen with electric solders and a diversifiedwork force Reality in the field is much less predictable withmicroenterprises in positions along a continuum from meetinguncertain genftral demands to holding a specialized protectedmarket niche In nearly all cases apprentices remain especiallydisadvantaged A policy option to rationalize and promote thesectcr would be likely to create a parallel system even moremarginal Learning before acting is in order
17
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Ndione Emmanuel S (1987) Dynamiue -urbainedune soci6ti enaraoDe un cas Dakar Dakar ENDA -- Environnement Africain
In an important contribution to urban development praxisNdione reports on a long-term experiment in the suburb of Dakarcalled Grand Yoff Since 1975 a team sponsored by ENDA and othershas funded health sanitation and employment projects usinganimation methods to try to produce egalitarian base organizationsand thence communities Candid commentary analyzes uneven resultsin expanding democratic values adapting an initial model to localsocial realities Sadly prcjects were frequently stymied by localvested interests who adapted projects to their ends One learns notonly a great deal about the practice of action-research but alsothe importance of social contexts and power relations in small groups In this experiment the choices seem only compromise ordesist in other models like the Grameen Bank local organizationsdeal with intermediate organizations which buffer them from local power The detail of analysis found here is rare and there is much to learn from even partial success
Saint-Vil Jean (1987) La revente au d6tail de leau aAbidjan Cahiers dOutre-Mer 40(158) avril-juin 149-172
The illegal retailing of water has been an important activityof Abidjans informal sector for some years By the early 1980ssuch a system was supplying an estimated 500000 people for anannual income of perhaps 3-4 billion CFA francs Profitability hasbeen in decline since 1980 not just because of the growingcompetition among a larger number of sellers but also becauseSODECI the official water agency has counterattacked It hasraised the official price thus lowering its competitors profitsand also installed paying fountains at 40 of the usual retailersprice Saint-Vil looks at the actors and operations over timeestimating magnitudes and profits as best he can The sector showed an appreciable decline from 1983 Theoretically SODECI couldexpand the paying fountains and continue curtailing the informalsellers but cost disparities may diminish and Abidjan willcertainly continue to grow given public policies of unevenexport-led growth rather than real development Its a goodillustration of informal sector vulnerability to the formal sector
18
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Saul Mahir (1987) The Organization of a West African GrainMarket American Anthropologist 89174-95
In one of the best recent articles in West African studiesSaul shows why the private sector in Africa does not and cannot beexpected to run efficient open or competitive grain markets Inhis case Bobo-Dioulasso Burkina Faso a powerful oligopoly holdscontrol with price-fixing common Smaller traders local brewersprepared-food hawkers and cooperatives offer some competition Thelevel of internal demand for grain can also affect merchantcontrol Generally farmers must sell at fixed prices often theymust repurchase at higher prices soon after Patronclient tiesbetween buyer and seller effectively discourage collectiveopposition to this monopoly Lack of cash forces farmers to sellIt also prevents smaller traders from offering a serious challengeto the status quo Saul found that government efforts to buy anddistribute grain were not a significant factor With this commondegree of market imperfection it is clear as this studyillustrates that the ideologically constructed debate aboutgovernmental control versus free market is an irrelevant mythology
Trager Lillian (1987) A Re-Examination of the Urban InformalSector in West Africa Canadian Journal of African StudiesXXI2238-253
Nominated for early consideration is this important reviewarticle Trager focuses on heterogeneity in the sector linkagesto other sectors and effects of government policy Her critiquesof previous area research especially ILO and IBRD papers arecogent that literature tends to focus on large cities menindustry (not trade or services) one time period and ahomogeneous sector Classification efforts are found less helpfulthan detailed studies of specific types of activitiesTechnological change in the formal sector is not necessarily eitherbenign or exploitative as various cases show But governmenthostility to street vendors etc street-cleaning campaigns forexample seem to fail consistently Prescriptions for the wholesector aLe inapropos so one must know more of specific domainsmore about linkages smaller cities experiences and the dynamicsof specific activities over time Besides this research agendaTrager addresses a few obvious macro policy concerns
19
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Watts Susan (1984) Rural Women as Food Processors andTraders ko Making in the Ilorin Area of Nigeria The Journal ofDeveloDina Area 19171-82
In this short effective case study Watts illustrates womensroles as petty producers and traders and how the mode ofproduction creates stratification and relative social immobilityThe real potential for devel1pment is in people even in societiesfascinated with capital-intenaive solutions An analyticalframework and base data are essential building blocks AroundIlorin a four-level hierarchy is in evidence ranging from theinternal household activities to trading in markets or frompermanent shops with the more profitable at the latter endthe maize meal snack is a lower-scale activity Much detail
= is
provided on production sale and profitability One can see whyupward social mobility is so limited for eko producers It is notjust market competition Womens incomes are drained by householdneeds such as a childs education Men control more profitablelevels of trade such as that of imports Culture history and lackof alternatives all oppress The answers lie in education capitaland alternative institution-building none now in sight
Yacoob May (1986) Atmadiyya and Urbanization Easing theIntegration of Rural Women in Abidjan Asian and African Studies201125-140
The economistic focus of much informal sector literature payslittle mind to the cultural transformations underway especiallyfor the migrant and how such changes contribute or fail tocontribute to healthy foundations for the urban poor Abidjanwith more than half its population foreigners or recent settlersis a city whose public resources are overwhelmed A West AfricanMuslim community has played an important development role since the1970s for many hundreds of men and especially women migrantsAImadiyya fights illiteracy and disease via social services Itsschool mosque and clinic foster community a sense of kinship andidentity The emir and his wife run networks also to link migrantsto influential men who can be patrons for employment In many other ways cultural social practical and psychological needs are metThe development focus on womens empowerment is most unusual butthe basic message is that human needs and matters of legitimacy andsustainability must encompass far more than economics
20
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
M Central Africa
Gozo MK (1985) Le secteur non-structur6 de KinshasaCaract6ristiMues des entreDrises et a main-doeuvre PotentialitdemDloi et de distribution de revenu Addis Ababa ILOIASPA
ILO has been doing such surveys since the 1970s recentreports include those of MK Gozo on Antananarivo Djibouti andKinshasa and by AA Aboagye on Lilongwe three Kenyan cities andDar-es-Salaam In a forty-page text with an additional 25-30 pagesof statistics Gozo here reports on a team survey in Kinshasainvolving 610 enterprises Data were gathered on four subjectsenterprise activities and finances the social demographics ofemployees constraints and problems reported and types of aidthought desirable Recommendations from this report include helpon the production side via technical assistance and thence a creditfund and professional group Prescriptions for demand developmentand cooperative institution-building follow along with researchneeds While there are limits to this kind of rapid urbanappraisal such surveys are one basic part of a literary universeprefacing any project development (There is currently no remotelyadequate or complete library of ILO material in Washington)
Lachaud J-P (1984) Les activit6s informelles et lemploia Bangui (Republique Centrafricaine) analyse et strategie dedveloppement Canadian Journal of African Studies 182291-317
The only recent easily accessible essay on the informalsector in the CAR combines a neoclassical economic approach witha detailed census and policy prescriptions Lachaud faults mostprevious theoretical arguments on the sector for the lack of depthand breadth of their field work His inquiry located 5867enterprises in some 40000 households nearly 34 were in commercec 22 in production the rest in services But he could count onlyvisible activities so some categories were underestimated Asurvey of production revenue and salary data indicated that onlyabout 15 show signs of employment potential and growth His policypackage rests on participatory principles adapt the design of theprogram to the preferences of those most involved decentralize theinstitutional operation via local support centers Dont try to doeverything at once Involutionary and evolutionary subsectors meritdifferent approaches Overall there is a general optimism here notfound in many other case reports
21
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Lecomte Bernard et al (1986) La promotion du secteur nonshystructure Le cas de Kigali Revue Tiers-Monde XXVII No 106avril-juin 439-455
Close to the best if not the best case study of developmentsuccess in Africas informal sector comes from this effort ofparticipatory development encouraged by the Rwandan ngo JOC-Kigali with support by the ILO and the Swiss Key operationalaspects of institutional development and democratic process are very clear Street workers in the late 1970s faced arbitrary andhumiliating state power communal authorities were besieged by theneed to keep order and also to help local citizens An ILO teamsupported a local ngo to be the catalyst in the organization ofsupport groups based on different trades A local federation ofpopular banks was mobilized The groups worked together tonegotiate legal changes work permits credit and finally staterecognition of permanent market locations Strategic lessons ofsuccess are drawn One sees the crucial role of group promotiongroup savings and credit permanent consciuosness-raising by JOC-Kigali and other elements working toward self-sustainment inleadership finances self-education and self-evaluation In sumESSENTIAL
Lokota Ekote Panga (1987) Les activites informelles Kinshasa La survie des elimin6s du ddveloppement Les NouvellesRationalits Africaines v 2 no 8 juillet679-708
This recent survey has several useful features to compensatofor aspects and areas of unoriginality Lokotas generally positiveorientation leads to a very neat seven-point summary of thecontributions of the sector employment the modern sector cannotcreate a higher living standard new openings to the modernsector elimination of diseconooies of scale expansion of economicindigenization lessening of state financial responsibilities anddevelopment of individual self-reliance and autonomy Hisanalytical and statistical portrait of the sector in Kinshasareaches these conclusions the sector far from disappearing isgrowing and has the majority of employed it provides essentialgoods and services and a living standard often comparable to andoccasionally better than the modern sector the dynamism of thesector affords a certain survival despite the larger crises andthe growth of diverse local cooperative efforts advance3 economic welfare
22
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
MacGaffey Janet (1987) E~ntrereneurs and parasites Thestruggle for indigenous caoitalism in Zairg Cambridge CambridgeUP
The most detailed and sophisticated case study of a specificinformal sector in the published literaturG on Africa is also aquite accessible work MacGaffey describes the growth of anindigenous capitalist class and the role of capital accumulationfrom second economy activities in Kisangani and among Nandetraders in North Kivu Her focus combines state class andindividuals so one sees in specific life histories the interplayof individual initiative gender ethnicity and class Chapter fiveadds reflections on state data as the basis of effective publicpolicy there are other frameworks from which to consider ways thesecond economy contributes to growth if not developmentResearchers will find valuable notes on an anthropological fieldmethod for the informal sector Like most academic efforts thevolume does not provide practical policy alternatives It doeshowever paint in very useful fashion the incentive environmentmotivations and limitations of different actors key material for effective project design
Nzongola-Ntalaja ed (1986) The Crisis in Zaire Myths and e Trenton African World Press
The informal sector is a logical product of nondemocraticpolitics and economics in a situation of scarcity Zaire is one ofthe most extreme and indefensible examples as articulate butfruitless Western scholarship has repeatedly shown MG Schatzberg(1988) The Dialectics of ODDression in Zaire most recently 2haCrisis in Zaire is useful as a most convenient sampling of recentstudies on the survival strategies of ordinary people rural andurban Five chapters in particular focus on these themesMacGaffeys work has just been noted so here there will be justbrief mention of Cathy Newburys comments on rural strategies Shedescribes a spectrum of responses to state oppression livelihoodvia suffer-manage activities like petty commerce illegal andquasi-legal efforts including withdrawal and escape such as theproduction of banana beer and distilled alcohol along withsmuggling of all kinds and independent cultural and developmentactivities at the local level and rolitical attacks on market andtax abuses and diverse group efforts This rich diversity of ruralinitiatives needs far more study for here are most of the fewlessons of success that could be built on
23
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Pain Marc (1984) Kinshasa la ville et la citi Paris ORSTON
Marc Pain was a professor in Kinshasa from 1971 to 1981coedited the huge (1975) Atlaa de Kinshasa and supervisedsuccessive groups of students in detailed field research on theurban poor This work led to a thesis and the present studyThe first part shows how the inhabitants confront ecologicalcrisis urban decay personal tensions ant social cleavages Themiddle part explores problems of work income housing etc withrich quantitative data At the top of the social pyramid appearsome substantial petty entrepreneurs and traders These disparitiespale when in the last part the social hierarchy of the city asa whole is considered certain residential zones have mastershyservant ties to nearby areas Pain is sensitive to the socialpsychological and spatial changes and tensions wrought by theuneven growth and stagnation since the 1970s but has not developedoperational alternatives Nevertheless this is thesubstantial study of Kinshasas informal most
sector per se in recent years (See also sections of Rene de Maximy (1984] Kinshasa ville en susoens same publisher)
Schwarz Alf (1983) Les dupes de la modernisationD6velorement urbain et sous-d6velogoement en Afriue Montreal Ed Nouvelies Optique
In a difficult but rewarding study a Canadian sociologist andlongtime student of urban Zaire has organized a number of his pastessays and some new work into a substantial demonstration of twosad realities which are the psychological genesis of the informalsectors marginality (1) Technical-industrial modernization hasculturally attacked and captured large segments of the Africanpopulation without providing the promised rewards (2) Thepredictable pains of modernization arrived in a social realitypoorly equipped to cope Sophisticated social-science theory ismixed with field inquiry into the worlds of citizen villagerunemployed women and men workers and bureaucrats as they seeknew psychological accommodations Much of the fieldwork is quitedated especially on urban unemployment but there is so littleliterature outside of novels on the cultural and psychologicalbasis of modernization that this Zaire study has implicationsacross the continent for consideration of group relationslegitimacy and much else
24
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Turner Margaret (1985) Housing in Zaire How the SystemWorks and How the People Cope unpub PhD diss University ofWt-consin-Madison
Few case studies explore all actors and activities in asubsector of the life of the urban poor to illustrate both formal links and covert realities Turner has added another installment on the corruption of the Mobutu regime by her analysis of bothaspects of the socio-political realities of housing for the poorin Lubumbashi She surveyed 400 families in five disparateneighborhoods and interviewed both officials and clients of theofficial housing agencies The one agency geared to lower-costhousing was financially strangled while international projectfunds were hijacked for elite housing Meantime at the StateReal Estate Agency officials at all levels dispensed residencylots to those who established appropriate connections eitherethnic and occupational (ie personal) or monetary (ie bribes)While there were also examples of extra-legal squatting manypeople solved their housing needs by the above informal approachesto local administrators or the state agency Such multiple levelsof analysis matter to project effectiveness
Vwakyanakazi Mukhoya (1982) African Traders in ButemboEastern Zaire (1960-1980) A Case Study of InformalEntrepreneurship in a Cultural Context of Central Africa unpubPhD diss University of Wisconsin-Madison
The rural black market in Africa has received far lessattention than its urban counterpart This major study is based onfifteen months of fieldwork Its thesis is that macro socioshyeconomic conditions have rendered farming and wage employmentinsufficient for many families in the region A trading sectordeveloped as a combination of survival strategy accumulationdrives and political protest In a highly fluid situationZairians have become demonstrably creative entrepreneurs makinguse of and readapting informal mechanisms in smuggling the blackmarket and related trade The author finds most activities far fromparasitical as some macrotheorists have suggested Naturally morelegitimate public policies will reduce the scope and need for thisinformal entrepreneurship But its existence among people withsubsistence-agriculture backgrounds suggests rethinking theoriesof entrepreneurship and its social construction
25
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
IV East Africa and the Horn
Boesen Tannik et al eds (1986) Tanzania crisis andstruale for survival Uppsala SIAS
Several chapters in this Nordic research collection touch onthe informal sector comments here are restricted to KJHavneviks essay on crafts and small-scale industries (pp 269shy292) Out of reach is B Kiyenzes 1985 book-length study on thistopic (in the Finnish journal IJpemo 61) but Kavnevik providesan introductory survey and opens up the literary universe Some ofthe institutional and political changes are sketched subsectors are defined and then growth trends are assessed Recent surveysshow a very high percentage of seasonal craft workers and very low average earnings The economic crisis and ensuing shortages havespirred more self-reliant rural trade Government agencies andforeign aid projects have had few resources or ideas to offerCottage industry and small-scale manufacturing have also beenforced to innovate to deal with the effects of crisis Havnevik suggests improving sectoral linkages as the best route to growthremove monopoly purchasing rights decentralize industrialprocessing and reorient SIDOs efforts toward rural needs
Haflett Marie-Esther (1987) SectorAn Informal IndustryStudy The Case of jikos in Kenya unpub PhD diss Universityof Notre Dame
Most studies of the African informal sector focus on the sector as a whole or a three-sector division (trade servicesproduction) This author went to the effort of a detailed 150 pageson the production and sale of one basic-needs wage-good the jikowhich is a charcoal-burning stove Six urban centers were exploredto assess market conditions mobility and related issues Haflettfound the sector to exhibit the structural conditions of perfectcompetition many knowledgeable buyers and sellers perfectsubstitutability among them and ease of entry and similar factormarkets About 75 of the enterprises produced income at least ashigh as the lower-end legal wages in the formal sector Demandconditions look long-term and steady Diverse backward and forwardlinkages appeared Multiple policy suggestions emerged promotionof site and service manufacturing schemes uniform licensingregulations and fees a new licensing structure training inrecord-keeping and diverse formal-sector industrial involvement
26
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
House William (1984) Nairobis Informal Sector DynamicEntrepreneurs or Surplus Labor Economic Develonment and Culture Chanae 322277-302
House sets out to question theoretical positions developed inthe previous decade especially polar notions of an entirely benignor entirely parasitic intersectoral linkage A 1977 survey of 577heads of enterprises is used to develop the argument thatformalinformal is an inappropriate framework to describe a socialcontinuum wherein the informal arena contains both an intermediate sector and a community of the poor The former have committedthemselves to a particular activity as a permanent livelihood and are investing and accumulating The latter are seeking the folmalshysector slot taking temporary work in the meantime and notinvesting The survey explored attitudes found sector entry moredifficult than suspected tabulated wide variations in income andfound 28 below a national poverty level (rural figure is 39)Education and economic variables were used to indicate atransitional group as well House has advanced the debate butleaves serious policy dilemmas requiring far more local Nairobi studies than are visible here
House William (1985) The State of Human ResourcesConditions of Employment and neterminants of Incomes and Povertyin Southern Sudan Evidence from the Urban Juba Informal EconomyILO WEP 2-21WP 149
This 1982-83 survey found 2451 small enterprises and sampled536 or 22 to explore issues of labor absorptive capacity thekinds of job training and income opportunities available and thekinds of alternative development policies that might be mosteffective Little skill or skill-building was reported Only a tinypercentage were involved in co-ops despite great problems with rawmaterials tools and access to capital Much excess was noted inmanufacturing and services many traders were seeking alternatives The sector is dominated by men who were born outside Juba Incomes range substantially Proprietors other than traders do better thanthey would on the government payroll Age and education are the most important income factors In the household survey 14 do not meet poverty-level income for total consumption needs Ten cogentpolicy recommendations conclude addressing both the sector and thelarger policy environment in a very helpful manner (Also a much shorter published paper 1987)
27
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Howard William S (1987) Social strategies in pettyproduction Three small scale industries in urban Sudan unpubPhD diss flichigan State University
A recent field study in Khartoum and Omdurman selects three skilled trades -- tailoring carpentry and metalworking -- forcomparative analysis Howard sought to test whether any or allforms of production are the result of dependent development or a possible basis of self-sustaining industrialization He combinedparticipant-observation with survey and documentary work butfocussed on qualitative issues and degrees of differentiation Allthree subsectors are being invaded by wage labor With more wageemployment there are fewer chances for apprentices and fewer workshops overall If employment growth is a goal much more ofthis kind of detailed subsector study will be needed If many such subsectors are overwhelmed by ready-made production the societywill remain unable to build a mass-based political economy and thussufficient consumers a generic Third World dilemma
Hugon Philippe (1983) Le developpement des petitesentreprises dAntananarivo lexemple dun processus involutif pp 401-420 in Coquery-Vidrovitch Catherine et al T II (seeSection I)
The Malagasy capital has seen great urban expansion since the60s spurred by economic decline especially since 1972 With asophisticated interdisciplinary framework Hugon explores the heterogeneity of the small enterprise sector first withstatistical comparisons of the artisan and industrial subsectorsand then a case study of transport workers The fallacy of the formalinformal model is demonstrated by a systems analysis of acontinuum with diverse links as the mixed effects of a recession reveal Small-enterprise dynamics are also integrally linked toforms of social organization and labor stratification Economic laws are modified by family social logic With the level ofproduction and demand number of workers and revenue all fluctuating value added estimates are speculative and use ofhomogenized questionnaires inadequate In the transport case he seeks to combine family ruralurban macro-system and publicpolicy issues to account for progress of subsector change Analysisis guilded also by historical and organizational contexts As in many subsectors low capital intensity and growing subdivision oftasks result in involutionary not developmental change It is anelegant example of interdisciplinary social-science methods
28
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Livingstone Ian (1986) Rural Development Emplovment and Incomes in Kenya Brookfield VT Gower
This is the published version af the 1981 ILO JASPA missionrevisiting the terrain of their fa~mous 1972 report It is a majorsource of material on the rural economy at the beginning of thedecade with much on the informal sector notably chapter 5 TheILO found that the rural areas had absorbed far more of thepopulition growth of the 1970s than anticipeted and that several processes were reducing the quantity and quality of land available per household Improving off-farm income is essential The ILOfound the rural informal sectur to be much like the urban a largeproportion of firms in trading and services only 15 inproduction Most were 2- to 3-person activities not the basis ofdynamic industrial growth but an excellent source of jobs andappropriate goods and services While a Rural IndustrialDevelopment Program tried to assist government policy in Nairobifor the same sector was one of periodic repression Existing ruralactivities markets and knowledge thereof are all quiteinsufficient for the visible and growing needs (AID and the ILOmight consider organizing a world academic conference on this to raise consciousness and new ideas)
McCormick Dorothy (1988) Small Manufacturing Enterprise inNairobi Golden Opportunity or Dead End unpub PhD diss The Johns Hopkins University
Probably the best of the more accessible recent dissertationsis this 1985-86 field study of 248 owners of small-scale manufacturing businesses in Nairobi McCormick found two patternsof success most such firms were small and flexible consciouslymaintaining such a size and structure a few were more formalizedand geared to the accumulation of capital as orthodox theory wouldhold Profitable firms were found all along a formaity continuumWomen were however excluded from most manufacturing subsectorsand relatively fewerwomen were successful A logical extrapolationis further involutionary growth An agenda for further researchincludes how risk is measured rural-urban linkages and flows atthe household level and the cumulative effects of ciass issuesHer policy conclusion the small entrepreneur should continue thesmallflexible strategy Governments and aid agencies should findthis an inexpensive way to expand employment and thus addressexpressed needs for working capital loans better work places andbetter procurement channels (Another arena for a Grameen Bank approach)
29
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Miles Nicholas and Norcliffe Glen (1984) An economictypology of small-scale rural enterprises in Central ProvinceKenya Institute of British GeograDhers Transactions 92211shy229
Using a sample of 852 enterprises located in Central Provincethe authors create an economic typology of rural non-farmenterprises Multivariate methods reduce 19 variables to 5 majorcomponents size capital intensity profitability growth ofcapital and profit margin of an activity Using these fiveindices the authors can divide their sample into five types whichthey define as the succeasful intermediate the profitably smallones unprofitable small ones large static enterprises and amall ones with high profit margins Most functional categories fell intoseveral types The policy conclusion is that different typescontribute to development (or growth) differently and the sector cannot be treated as homogeneous Current programs (loanstraining extension marketing infrastructure) have differentutilities and appeal to different types and thus need redesign andretargetting (So might another survey to redefine small and locate less visible activities)
Miti Katabaro (1985) LOpfration Nguvu Kazi A Dar es SalaamArdeur au travail et contro1e de lespace urbain 9EitgjgeAfricineL 1788-104
Government repression of the urban informal sector is oftenmentioned in the literature but this is the only recent publishedarticle to develop a case study in detail AND to offer astimulating analytic orientation Tanzanias economic crisisin the early 1980s the failure of agriculture and attendant urbanmigration led to reflections on a path to more productivity Theurban poor were seen as an economic drain and political threat sothe idea was to put them back on the farm That ope should producea social surplus became the basis of a political campaign in spring1983 then a law then attempts at voluntary r-gistration andfinally more draconian steps On September 19 licensing was mademandatory and on October 17 there was a first mass arrest of5724 Initial protests were unavailing Roundups became regularin November but abuses futility and protests combined to wearthe campaign down and out On problems of employment poverty andsocial control there was little change There was also littleeducation on the essential roles of the informal sector the manycosts and inefficiencies of formalization or the need to matchgoals with Implementation strategy Moving people per se is not a development strategy
30
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Obbo Christine (1980) African Women Their StruQale forEcgnomic Independence London Zed Press
An enduring classic by one of the first professional African women anthropologists is one of the most stimulating reports on howand why patriarchy continues to impede development among the ruraland urban poor From field research in Kenya and Uganda Obbo showsthat the male drive and consensus is to control personal moralityin his household based on the self-serving conclusion that thehousehold is the only political or economic domain left throughwhich African men can retain a sense of cultural and psychologicalauthenticity To counterattack the economic political and culturaltactics of men women try hard work (many informal-sectoractivities included) migration spirit possession and themanipulation of motherhood and respectability Uneven growth inEast Africa as elsewhere has thus created debilitating Culturalconflict as well as mass poverty An effective developmentalresponse must be aware of such underlying cultural dilemmas and thelogic of individual responses if such a response is to becomelegitimate effective and sustainable
Swantz Marja-Liisa (1985) Women in Development A CreativeRole Denied The Case of Tanzania New York St Martins
A modern classic in the global study of women in developmentpresents sobering conclusions from one who has spent more thanthirty years in academic and participatory research in the townsand villampges of Tanzania She shows how as land was monetized inthis century women lost their equal access with thisdisempowerment they became another means of production in the eyesof men Womens labor was used as though the sharing economy stillexisted but women lacked the power to insist on a share of newbenefits Their strategies of recent times indicate two badchoices continued subordination or a power game under male rulesThey do the farming get blamed for agricultural stagnation andyet are denied cultural ampnd political power over the food systemTheir forays into informal-sector activities and political actionin Mushi District and Dar es Salaam are explored along withcoiitinued poverty single parenting or prostitution of many Thechanges needed go far beyond the prevailing market or stateshysocialist paradigms Some individual chronicles of struggle have hopeful lessons
31
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Vitta Paul (1985) The Informal Sector in East AfricaSelected Policy-Related Issues Africa DeveloDment X459-71
A short stimulating contribution to a February 1985 seminarin Addis Ababa by an IDRC staff member develops a good topicaloverview on the informal sector in six countries with a number ofuseful comparisons and policy ideas The informal sector is theemployer of last resort such workers are held in low esteem asphrases in area languages reveal In contrast to West Africaworkers are mostly male relatively young and lacking in formaleducation Some have recently suffered downward mobility frommacro-economic malaise There is an increasing use of proxiespeople running small Lisinesses owned by formal-sector businessmen or government figures There is great job fluidity Yet manysubsectors are not supplementary to the economy but have taken over after the collapse of formal-sector production andor importsAs elsewhere public policy has remained ambivalent is the sector part of the solution or of the problem One indication -- thefluctuating budgets of the smal2-industry service institutions Onekey to effective long-term solutions rural development
32
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
V Southern Africa
Bardouville Raj (1984) The Sexual Division of Labour in theUrban Informal Sector A Case Study of Lusaka pp 161-182 in KWoldring ed Beyond Political Indevendence Zamblas DevelopmentPredicament in the 1980s Berlin Mouton
A working paper for a larger ongoing project at theUniversity of on economicZambia womens contribution to theinformal sector this essay reports on recent surveys on womensroles constraints and potential Gender is found to be a criticalvariable in differential work opportunities and rewards An initialbackground section outlines the development of the urban informalsector and the continuity in class and sectoral relations Thesurvey here reports on data from four communities and 1730interviews 53 of the women were over thirty years of age andmost had modest formal education but no training About 85 of the women were in petty trading related to food the rest in otherservices types and locations of trading were detailed Lackingcapital technical education or the potential for capitalaccumulation women especially alone could not hope for socialmobility In contrast young men entered manufacturing or pettytrade as a career stepping stone and a few old men use petty tradeas a final career No prescriptions are offered so it would beimportant to look at all the project data and for alternativedevelopment success stories for ideas
Brand Veronica (1986) One Dollar Workplaces A Study ofInformal Sector Activities in Magaba Harare Journal of SocialDevelopment in Africa 1253-74
From a brief fieldwork exercise in 1981-82 limited to 184people (78 women) with identifiable workplaces a member of theSchool of Social Work in Harare presents base data on which furtherresearch for projects could build She found the typicalheterogeneous sector with internal stratification linked to tenureof workplace and type of activity suggesting the need for nuancedpublic policy A surprising number of people had prior formalshysector experience Many wee committed to small enterprise notlooking at it as a job of last resort Few learned skills in formalschooling 20 said such skills could not be learned another 50credited friends and associates People worked alone withtrepidation and limited knowledge of cooperative potentialProblems were reported with weather shelter economic demandfinancing rents slow payment theft transport sanitation andhealth Incomes averaged between minimum industrial wages and those for agricultural labor
33
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Ettema Wim (1984) Small-Scale Industry in Malawi TheJournal of Modern African Studies 223487-510
Ettema reports on the findings of an April-June 1983 surveysampling both rural and urban locations He covered productionassembly and service activities up to K425000 in assets (smallto middle informal and formal) By omitting those in trade andpersonal services as well as those without licenses one suspectsthat much of the informal sector was in fact missedBut the 1816 entrepreneurs studied shed some light on many issuesOne is gender bias only 12 were women limited mostly to beershybrewing and pottery with a few in bakeries and maize millsComparative sectoral stability is evident nearly half had been inbusiness for five years and a high but varying percentagesupplemented income by subsistence agriculture Average reportedincome compared well to other sectors the more educated morevocationally trained in cities and trading centers did betterConstraints were predictable infrastructure education andfinancing Direct linkage to the modern sector was minimal and tothe subsistence sector limited Fledgling development initiativesconclude A new more inclusive evaluation can build on this survey
Giliomee Hermann and Schlemmer Lawrence eds (1985) U2Against the Fences Poverty Passes and Privilege in South Africa New York St Martins
The informal sector in South Africa needs to be analyzed inthe context of rural-urban migration dynamics and large-scale laborcontrol efforts by the state These articles provide detailed accounts of the push factors in the black homelands and theelaborate legal structures created to control the influx of laborinto urban areas Pass laws and housing policies are felt in all aspects of the informal sector Schlemmer and Hollers study forexample indicates some important differences between migrantsresident in legal hostels and those in the informal squatterssettlements In both locations they endure severe stress anddemoralization but squatters seem to cope better They live withtheir families relatively well off and less connected to the rural areas Contrary to conventional wisdom squatters have little or no rural resources and no other option As many chapters show theinformal sector is there to stay The saga continues in RTomlinsonM Addleson eds (1987) Regional Restructuring Under A (distr Ohio University Press)
34
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Mkandawire Thandika (1986) The Informal Sector in the LabourReserve Economies of Southern Africa with Special Reference toZimbabwe Africa Development XI161-81
A largely theoretical contribution to an ILO-SATEP researchproject is of interest both for an analysis of intellectual historyand for raising basic policy questions avoided by much conventional literature It begins with a critical examination of the socialorigins and purpose of research on the informal sector why thesector was discovered in the 1960s and how the benign andsubordination approaches contested thehave since 1970s Thedistinct characteristics of the ampouthern African informal sectordevelopment are then keyed to the specifics of the regions pastand present as a labor reserve The Rhodesian government sought todeny informal-sector development Its successor pledged supportbut had much legal residue to overcome and many policies toclarify Can one expand petty production AN social responsibilityHow can one end exploitation within the sector and between sectorsWhat is the definition of long-term success for the individual andfor the sector It is a most useful set of questions
Morice Alain (1985) Commerce parallle et troc Luanda Politigue Africaine 17105-120
It is hard to generalize on this specific case given thecombination of a dismal colonial inheritance uninterrupted warthe piracy of its trading partners the limits of etatist policiesas a weak state in a capitalist sea etc With large-scale urbanmigration the formal sector in Angolas capital was overwhelmeda popular parallel market is now hampered by corruption in several sectors and by the illegal efforts of Zairian immigrants Inflationis artificially contained Government salaries circulate moneydespite lack of real production this produces de facto devaluationregularly A class of speculators has emerged just buying andselling Salaries are unrelated to market prices Payment in kindand a growing preference for barter result Telling pricecomparisons are presented showing the implications of ones sourceof money or goods State policy is complex and ambiguous but the state provides de factosupport of the parallel economy in severalways salary overpayment the state store operations facilitiesfor oil personnel and foreigners etc The parallel market thus serves redistributive needs but it has set up a polarizationbetween those who sell for their needs and those who speculate Nosavings or investment strategy looks possible Peace is imperative
35
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Scott Earl (1985) Lusakas Informal Sector in NationalEconomic Development The Journal of DeveloRinQ Areas 20(October)71-100
While not a very theoretically creative piece this doesprovide a substantial amount of recent material on the difficultiesof pursuing parts of a socialist agenda -- employment equity andaffordable food prices -- in a mixed economy Scott begins with theurban and population growth the formal market structure sponsoredby the City Council in wealthier areas and the unauthorizedmarkets of the urban periphery The national party UNIP sought tofoster cooperatives to create a more equitable food system balancethe roles of the sexes and curb profiteering New parastatalsprovided goods competitively and employment and equity progressedin areas of the periphery But fish sellers mishanna and othersopposed the uneven effects of fees taxes rents and licenses asinstruments of social reform So did expatriates and others sellingto middle- and upper-class markets Specific conflicts culminatedin 1979-80 with a modus vivendi reached by social and privateforces with the latter having the bulk of the market share valueScott wants a decentralized private sector of community activitiesbut his evidence indicates the lack of effective community in much of the city
Simon David (1984) Urban Poverty Informal Sector Activityand Inter-Sectoral Linkages Evidence from Windhoek NamibiaDevelopment and Change 154551-576
Drawing on his 1983 Oxford dissertation and other surveys ofurban life under apartheid Simon presents a general portrait ofthe informal suctor and the conditions that sponsor and expand itHis 1981 sampling of the formal sector showed self-servingarguments for low wages especially for women and migrants thewhiteblack salary gap was 41 with the median worse Conditionsdeteriorated since the mid-1970s the 1978-80 boom didnt trickledown the end of influx control in 1977 accelerated urbanizationand social problems Before police harassment Simon interviewed25 informal-sector entrepreneurs They claimed independence the s however bought white mans liquor and some hawkers wereactually working for grccers With low irrecular relativelyinsecure income participants appeared to be involved in mostactivities as a survival strategy along involutionary subsistenceshyoriented lines Involutionary growth and pauperization is not asnoted limited to apartheid societies
36
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Thimm Heinz-Ulrich et al (1986) Establishtng Rural Serviceand Growth Centres With Seven Case Studies from Malawi HamburgVerlag Weltarchiv GmbH
While there is much lip service paid to integrating farm andnon-farm rural development policy few governments or donoragencies have developed the detailed model of decentralizeddevelopment praxis evident in this German case The seven caseseach 40 to 60 pages form the bulk of the work One gets a detailedlook at the mixture of public and private initiatives that buildbroad-based rural-biased development Problem areas are notglossed over and many recommendations are offered most locationshyspecific The RGC is not an end in itself but a catalyticoperation an intermediate organization with a wide range oftechnical economic social and educational operations The limitsof the RGC to this reviewer are in its lack of vision ofalternative local organization and Grameen Bank-model local funding(now being remedied via IFAD) in its current form the linkage tostate agencies creates organizational dynamics inconducive to locallegitimacy control and thus sustainability
Tomaselli Ruth (1985) On the Peripheries of the DefendedSpace Hawkers in Johannesburg pp 131-182 in R HainesG Buijseds The StruQale for Social and Economic Space Urbanization inTwentieth Century South Africa Durban University of Durbaninstitute for Social and Economic Research
Hawkers in Johannesburg have been squeezed slowly out of thecity for several decades by the 1970slate there were a fewsanctioned Indian fruit and flower sellers and a small number ofblack hawkers challenging the state and its policy of structuralunemployment State hostility is expressed through charges ofeconomic competition nuisance danger and folk devil class andracial biases serve as foundation Four legislative mechanisms andprocesses of law enforcement then preface discussion of a 1979survey of 70 black hawkers Their resistance is a most arduous oneinvolving lack of facilities long hours uncertain pay and legalcoercion Contrasts are then drawn with the Indians who have legalstanding and who have adapted by clinging to whatever shreds ofsuch standing the state deigns to leave them Such case materialis useful to help study legal agendas for change agents in othersocieties where the state response to informalthe sector iscoercion alone
37
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
Wellings Paul and Sutcliffe Michael (1984) Developingthe Urban Informal Sector in South Africa The Reformist Paradigmand its Fallacies Development and Change 154517-550
Up to the late 1970s the informal sector was seen as a socialevil to be eradicated A reformist camp then grew suggestingseveral uses for the sector and its potential for developmentWellings and Sutcliffe join some of the critics of this reformismwith a general hypothesis that the informal sector will endure asit works to excuse the state from sponsoring adequate socialservices and jobs Reform proposals to relax zoning and licensingand to provide capital training and work places rest on weaktheory and data They overestimate job growth potential averageincome formal credit institutions willingness to serve and thesize of potential markets The sector has poor prospects on its own or in greater conjunction with the formal sector The veneer of programs may be politically useful but the likely results will be more akin to involution than to a prospering black middle classallied to white power It is amp sobering case with conclusions not limited to apartheid societies
38
