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The enormous expansion the informal sector has undergone, particularly in developing and transition countries, is undoubtedly one of the subjects that receives most attention, both in the field of studies and research in the labour area and social policies and programmes to combat poverty.

Despite the fact that there is no absolute consensus among researchers and analysts about a conceptual and operational definition of the informal sector, some characteristics clearly emerge that are undoubtedly shared by those employed in that economy. Perhaps the lack of security of informal employers and workers in many labour dimensions is one of them (job market security, occupational safety, employment stability, income security, etc.), and in consequence the highly vulnerable situation in which those persons find themselves. Within the ILO, the topic is reflected in the Office's approach to the matter in terms of a shortage of decent work.

In this issue of its Technical Bulletin, Cinterfor/ILO endeavours to contribute to the systematisation of knowledge on, and exchange of experiences in support strategies to the workers and micro-enterprises of the informal sector, fundamentally in connection with training. Several of the papers included here were prepared for the Informal Economy series of the ILO InFocus Programme on Skills, Knowledge and Employability.

The first article, written by Victor Tokman, begins by describing the diagnoses and interpretations that have been made of the informal sector, since the first appearance of the term in an ILO report, more than 30 years ago, and shows how different conceptual approaches have resulted in different lines of action and policies. He then refers to the "formalisation" of informal activities, and to the existing barriers to legality. In a third part, the author analyses strategies for the incorporation of informal workers and enterprises into the process of modernisation. He underlines that all actions should facilitate the participation of the actors involved (persons and institutions) and promote the attainment of economic citizenship and enjoyment of both the labour and individual benefits and entitlements of formalisation.

In the second paper, María Antonia Gallart selects and analyses bibliographic material issued in Latin America since the early nineties to date, on training for workers of the informal sector. She also describes and analyses concrete training experiences for those workers and employers, identifies the methodologies applied, actors involved etc. In some cases she also evaluates the results of such training interventions.

The contribution by Jaime Ramírez Guerrero is a general review of occupational training policies and programmes for workers and enterprises of the informal sector that have been implemented in Colombia in recent years. The implicit substitution of the idea of micro enterprises for the concept of informal sector has led to various occupational training experiences that the author analyses critically, on the basis of the most significant Colombian examples.

In Informal sector training in Jamaica. An assessment, Andrea M. Miller Stennett presents the main Jamaican policies and models for skills development in the informal sector, and reflects on the factors conditioning the replication and success of such experiences. She focuses on a HEART Trust/NTA programme that has been backed by the ILO.

The three articles that follow are summarised versions of Country Studies on training for the informal sector, published in the above-mentioned series of the ILO InFocus Programme on Skills, Knowledge and Employability.

The first one of them, Training for Work in the Informal Sector: New evidence from Kenya, Tanzania and Uganda, by Hans Christian Hans, shows that the large development of the informal economy in Sub-Saharian Africa calls for a detailed analysis of the possibilities of upgrading workers' skills through adequate and relevant training. The results and limitations have to be gauged of the great number of training experiences implemented in the public and private sectors.

The second one, Training and Skill Formation for Decent Work in the Informal Sector:
Case Studies from South India, by Amit Mitra, offers a description of training interventions in that sector that reveals the nature of informal work in the country, as well as the possibilities and/or difficulties of developing a capacity for empowerment in those workers and their respective communities.

The article Skills training in the informal sector in China, the third one in this series of summarised country studies included in this issue of the Bulletin, shows that the growth of the Chinese informal sector has made it possible to relieve stresses and make adjustments in the labour market; training of these workers has become a problem requiring immediate Government action. A description and analysis of some of the measures adopted shows the kinds of problems that existed and the way of correcting them.

Finally, the contribution by Sara Silveira and Anaclara Matosas underlines that the flexibility, instability and inequity of the Latin American labour market call for training interventions buttressing up gender employability and equity, through the development of autonomy and qualities such as individual and collective skills. Given that contextual frame, the authors propose possibilities for action in the field.

The publication concludes with the review of a document entitled Decent work and the Informal Economy, published by the International Labour Office as a basis for a general discussion of the subject of Decent Work and the Informal Economy at the 90th Meeting of the International Labour Conference, held in June 2002.

In the manner of a backdrop, the report tries to describe what the informal economy is and who are included in it, and explain why it is growing.. At the same time, it emphasises its shortfalls in decent work and proposes elements for a global, integral strategy to deal with the causes underlying it, as well as the external manifestations of informal activities and the process of informalisation, to promote decent work throughout the continuum that goes from the formal to the informal extreme of the economy.

 

 

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