Equality in the urban informal sector. Designing a balanced strategy

Women suffer some of the most acute and the most intractable forms of "informalization" in economic life. Their options are typically the most narrow, and their contributions to society the least valued. Especially when they are poor, they are left the economic crumbs which no one else wants; and, as they must work, they have no choice but the informal sector. While struggling to turn these crumbs into incomes, they are hamstrung with the many legal and administrative handicaps which informal work entrains.

Direct intervention to help specific groups of poor women certainly has its value, but the underlying issues in the social, cultural, economic and political environment which caused these women to become poor and marginalized in the first place, must be addressed. This is the true challenge, and it requires action at a number of levels. Each effort must interact with and strengthen action at other levels, even when they appear unrelated to either gender or the informal sector. This synergy is critical. Development is about social, economic and political change, not just economic growth. In fact, a development effort which does not lead to these deeper social, economic and political changes reinforces the status quo.

What is needed, then, is a development model which keeps these deeper issues in clear focus. It should also draw the many actors working at these various levels into conscious step with one another. What is needed, in other words, is easily understood strategic goals around which various programmes and projects can be orchestrated, plus flexible basic mechanisms to identify how any proposal will impact women in the informal sector.

This can be achieved through a two-layered process: a) three "meta-tests" against which all projects are screened, and b) four "strategic cornerstones" around which specific activities aimed specifically at poor women in the informal sector focus their energies.

It is crucial that those in authority "see" the linkages between their decisions and the informal sector, as well as the subtle gender biases and stereotypes woven into their own work. For these linkages exist. So, in addition to its own technical integrity, every development proposal should also meet the following three "meta-tests".

Three meta-tests

Visibility
"Invisibility" is one of the most important causes of both informal sector work and women's poverty. The proposal must explicitly analyze its impact on the poor, especially poor women, and this should be a separate and central element in the justification for the proposal

Voice
The participation of people in decisions which affect them, through organizations of their own choosing, is a basic human right. They should be consulted both about the need for the project on the one hand, and about the efficacy of the proposed remedy on the other

Subsidiarity
This is the principle that a higher authority should perform only those tasks which cannot be performed effectively at a more immediate or local level. The proponents of the proposal should demonstrate effectively that the local people affected by it cannot do it themselves, or at least a large portion of it. The issue should not be just that they currently do not do it, or not as well as the higher authority thinks it can do it for them.

A strategic response to the challenge of increasingly feminized poverty will normally include project "interventions" aimed at resolving the specific issues of particular target groups. The following four "cornerstones" of effective project design are points of reference around which to identify and design these various projects as the specific needs require. At the same time they ensure that individual interventions have the desired cumulative effect on rooting out the underlying causes of the "feminization" of poverty.

Four cornerstones

I. Integration

There is only one economy (and increasingly a global one) in two parts, one functioning "formally" and enjoying the benefit of social, political and legal protections, and a second shadowy or "informal" part which slips through this underlying regulatory infrastructure. These parts interact with each other and are interdependent. It is crucial for informal sector projects to recognize this wholeness and to strengthen integration and a sense of common interest, rather than separateness and conflicting or independent interests.

II. Regulation

A minimum basic regulatory system is necessary to protect not just fundamental human rights but also various essential business or economic "rights", such as the legal protections of property and contracts. Informal sector operators, especially female operators, need this protection of their economic rights as well as of their human rights.

III. Coordination

Lasting results on cross-cutting issues like gender or the informal sector are achieved when the behaviour of many institutions and organizations with a variety of distinct technical mandates changes, and when these changes reinforce each other. This means a substantial investment of time and energy into coordination, orchestration and dialogue, even at the cost of immediate or short-term impact.

IV. Participation

Participation is linked to the voice "meta-test". It means the active, timely, and substantive involvement in the design and implementation of any programme by those whose behaviour is expected to be changed by it. To the extent that the underlying causes of the informal sector lie in the formal sector, it follows that most of the changes needed to improve conditions in the informal sector need to occur in the formal sector. Likewise for gender. Most of the changes needed to ensure gender equality need to be made by men, not women. So, paradoxically, it is men (especially in positions of authority and influence in the public sector) who must be convinced to become involved in gender equality and in solving specific problems of the informal sector.

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Equality in the urban informal sector
Designing a balanced strategy

Gender! A Partnership of Equals Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Equality in the urban informal sector Designing a balanced strategy

Gender! A Partnership of Equals
Geneve: International Labour Office, 2000. 115 p.

Equality in the urban informal sector
Designing a balanced strategy