The effects of the global economic crisis on women in the informal economy: research findings from WIEGO and the Inclusive Cities partners

Abstract

Findings from a recent study on the impact of the economic crisis on informal workers in Asia, Latin America and sub-Saharan Africa reveal that transmission of the crisis to the informal economy is hitting poor women hard. Women constitute the majority of the informal workforce in most developing countries, and predominate its poorest and most vulnerable ranks. Evidence from four informal sectors suggests that income and employment trends during the crisis – decreasing demand and wages aggravated by rising competition – are strongest in the poorest-paying and lowest barrier-to-entry informal sectors and sub-sectors where women are concentrated. The crisis is compounding women's paid and unpaid informal work burden. As a result, the relative socio-economic vulnerability of poor working women and their families is deteriorating during the crisis.

Keywords:

• women
• crisis
• impact
• informal
• employment
• vulnerability

Notes

1. In this paper, employment in the informal economy includes all paid work inside and outside informal enterprises – both self-employment and wage employment – that is not recognised, regulated, or protected by existing legal or regulatory frameworks, as well as unpaid work in income-producing enterprises.

2. The Inclusive Cities project was launched in late 2008, with the aim of improving the livelihoods of the urban working poor, most of whom are employed in the informal economy. Inclusive Cities addresses urban poverty through providing support to, and building capacity of, membership-based organisations (MBOs) of the working poor in the urban informal economy. Inclusive Cities aims to strengthen MBOs in the areas of organising, policy analysis, and advocacy, in order to ensure that urban informal workers have the tools necessary to make themselves heard within urban planning processes. Inclusive Cities is a global collaborative project with the following partners: Asiye eTafuleni, AVINA, Homenet South Asia, Homenet South-East Asia, KKPKP, the Latin America Network of Wastepickers (Recicladores Sin Fronteras), SEWA, StreetNet International and WIEGO. More information is available on the project website at www.inclusivecities.org

3. The ‘feminisation’ of the labour market refers to shifting patterns of women's labour participation – associated with globalisation – that mark not only a rise of women's participation in the labour market, but also an increased segmentation of the labour market by gender. Women are increasingly participating in paid work but these women are, in turn, increasingly concentrated in precarious and low-paying sectors and sub-sectors of the economy.

4. For a review of this evidence, also see Chen et al. (1999).

5. The term ‘middlemen’ can be applied to individuals or firms, often themselves informal, who operate further up the value chain from informal workers or enterprises and who act as points of access (and barrier) for entry of their goods to international, regional or local markets.

6. Pune waste-pickers who collect waste from Infosys sell their material to a cooperative scrap store run by their own organisation, KKPKP. Those who service Pune University Campus are under a formal contract between KKPKP and the University, and earn a salary, apart from the money they receive through sale of scrap. Scrap is usually accumulated for a week and then sold collectively by the group and the profits are shared equally after deducting expenses.

7. While fee hikes by authorities and private market operators may not have the deliberate intention of intensifying the crisis, these actions are nonetheless making business more expensive for vendors when they can least afford it.

8. According to the World Food Program, in 78 percent of the countries covered by their price monitoring bulletin, the cost of a basic food basket during April–June 2009 was higher than the same period in 2008 (UN Food and Agriculture Organization [FAO] 2009).

9. For more information on the NREGA, please see MacAuslan (2008).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Zoe Elena Horn

Zoe Elena Horn is a project coordinator and researcher for WIEGO. She is currently coordinating WIEGO's ongoing global study on the impact of the economic crisis on the informal economy