All publications: informal employment + informal enterprises + informal economy

Migrant workers

The invisible workers: Bangladeshi women in Oman

The purpose of this ethnography is to follow the lives of working women from Bangladesh and document and analyse the diversity of their individual and collective experiences. The findings reveal a reality that contrasts from the usual...

Migration and gender in Bangladesh: An irregular landscape

This survey is part of a series of studies commissioned by the Work in Freedom Programme of the ILO in order to document the motives and trajectories of migrant women workers. The survey explores the local and regional gendered specificities of...

Methodological note

Diagnosis of informality

Report

A framework to support small firms in developing countries navigate crises and build resilience

This wide-ranging report addresses head-on some of the key challenges that shocks pose to small firms in developing countries and outlines a range of policy options that can help support small firms during such conditions. It also presents concrete...

La formalisation des micro et petites entreprises

Report

A diagnostic of the informal economy in Iraq

A joint partnership between UN agencies, development partners and the Government was launched to conduct a diagnostic on informality in the Iraqi labour market.

Productivity

Trends in productivity and structural changes: A comparative analysis of four emerging-market economies

This study undertaken by the Bureau for Employers' Activities of the ILO (ACT/EMP) is part of a research project to analyse the barriers to productivity growth, diversification and structural change in four selected emerging market economies...

Diagnosis on informality in targeted intervention areas of the PROSPECTS programme in Uganda

In 2020, the ILO commissioned a study on the informal economy in the forced displacement context in Uganda. The aim of the study was to assess drivers of informality in refugee settlements and host communities in targeted regions of the PROSPECTS...

E-formalization regional report

Renewing the social contract through e-formalization in the world of work

100 Years of Public Works in the ILO

This book chronicles the breadth and depth of ILO’s engagement in Public Works Programmes (PWPs) over the last century. It describes the journey, the ideas and the innovations that have emerged in a shifting global economic, social and political...

ILO Working paper 41

Supporting decent work and the transition towards formalization through technology-enhanced labour inspection

The development and expansion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) has had far-reaching consequences for governance and the world of work, including how labour administrations and inspectorates manage and deliver services.

Informal economy

Angola: Study on the migration from the informal for formal economy

This report produced by the Bureaux for Employers’ Activities (ACT/EMP) of the ILO with the Angolan Chamber of Commerce and Industry (CCIA) is seeking to contribute to design a strategy to enable the gradual transition from the informal to the...

E-formalization regional report

E-formalization in Europe

Theory of Change: Enterprise formalization for decent work

The Informal Economy in Kenya

Impact on labour supply due to COVID-19 containment measures in India: An informal employment analysis

This study looks at the employment situation in India, laying particular emphasis on informal employment.

ILO Working paper 39

Welfare Effects of Unemployment Benefits when Informality is High

We analyze for the first time how the high incidence of informal employment affects the welfare effects of unemployment benefits (UBs) outside of developed economies, exploiting matched administrative and survey data from the UB scheme of Mauritius.

Occupational safety and health handbook for herders (in Mongolian)

Informality and the Potential for South-South Cooperation between BRICS

This publication aims to promote South-South cooperation between the BRICS countries on the transition to formality from informality.

Case Study: Update on improving apprenticeship in the informal economy in Niger

The education system in Niger has poor internal efficiency, with one of the lowest enrolment rates in Africa. The majority of young people outside the education system learn trades in enterprises in the craft sector, which in Niger has at least...