INTERNATIONAL LABOUR ORGANIZATION
	" Poverty anywhere is a threat to prosperity everywhere "

Training Modules for Municipal Officers on the Urban Informal Sector
 

The informal sector has always been associated with poverty, low incomes, low productivity, poor working conditions and lack of social protection. It has been over 25 years since the informal sector was formally recognized, but it was assumed to be a transient phenomenon in developing countries that would gradually disappear as the modern sector grew and absorbed more labour. For that reason, scant attention was paid by policy-makers to the increasing number of workers involved in the sector. In addition to other factors leading to the development of the informal sector in the past few decades, the fast rate of urbanization in many developing countries, globalization, structural adjustment in transition economies, and the recent economic and monetary crisis faced by a number of Asian countries are expected to further informalize the urban labour market. This poses new challenges to governments and, in particular to the local authorities who have the closest and most direct contact with informal sector producers, traders and service providers. Local governments are now in a position to address these problems through targeted investment policies, forming local level alliances in favour of job creation, and establishing enabling policies and regulations relating to the informal sector. At the same time they are empowered to do so by the decentralization process being carried out by many central governments to increase the political and economic power of local bodies.

In order to assist local government officials to build their capacities to deal with the urban informal sector in a positive way, the ILO is developing a training package with a two-fold purpose:

1. to highlight informal sector issues and their relevance to the distinct functions of municipalities within the overall governance matrix, and
2. to form a basis for coordination and synchronization of policies and programmes to complement individual technical training programmes through use of common concepts, issues and understanding of the problems of the informal sector.

The training materials focuses on issues related to:

• common concepts and understanding of the informal sector;
• how to assist the informal sector and integrate it into the mainstream of economic and social life;
• how to establish at least a minimal regulation of the sector;
• how to involve the local community itself and the other non-governmental groups;
• and how to coordinate the efforts of various departments and non-governmental organizations.

The training modules are presented on four themes, including:

1. understanding and analysing the informal sector (concept and diagnosis, nature and causes);
2. helping and assisting the informal sector (productivity and earnings enhancement, living and working conditions improvement);
3. regulating the informal sector (registration, planning, how to make regulations and procedures informal sector friendly, voluntary compliance, self regulation and collective responsibility, public purchasing, franchising);
4. and involving the community (participation, open style of urban governance, the building of community voice into urban governance, occupational self-help groups, dealing with employers' and workers' organizations).

Each module is divided into specific topics presented as learning elements which can be considered as the basic units in the modular structure. The package presents the learning material in a generic and flexible way so that it can be adapted to the particular training needs and national/local circumstances. The training package is expected to be available for distribution in early 1999.

The Labour Standard of particular relevance is: Recommendation No. 189, (1998) concerning General Conditions to Stimulate Job Creation in Small and Medium-sized Enterprises.

 
For further information, please contact the Development Policies Department (POLDEV)
at Tel: +41.22.799.6436, Fax: +41.22.799.6867, or E-Mail: poldev@ilo.org