Globalization pushes more women into informal economy in Africa

It emerged at a forum by CSOs to herald the UNCTAD conference that Sub-Saharan Africa in particular is experiencing a growing informalization of labour relations with dire consequences for women.

The character of employment in countries in the region is found in the informal economy where majority of women make a living, mostly in self-employment.

This has been described as one of the fallouts from economic globalization and highlights the gross global inequalities in incomes and living conditions, resulting in the exponential growth of the informal economy in many developing countries.

According to Dr. Dzodzi Tsikata, Senior Research Fellow of the Institute of Social Statistical and Economic Research (ISSER), the situation in sub-Sahara Africa today is jobless growth, the deteriorating quality of employment and labour conditions and growing number of working poor are some of the key development issues that can be blamed on economic liberalization.

“How does it come to be that some are so rich, while others are hungry and can barely find food to eat? All these have to do with the quality of work one does,” stated Dr. Tsikata.

She noted that jobs in the informal economy becomes a problem when it takes over the whole economy, since government has no way of ensuring that they are descent.

She stated this at a forum on Women and Globalization: Issues and Challenges for Advocacy Today, organised by NETRIGHT Ghana and Third World Network (TWN) alongside UNCTAD X11 in Accra.

According to her while more informal employment opportunities have been created under globalization, especially in Asia, in Sub Saharan African not many of such jobs have been created. Instead, many new entrants into the labour market happen to be retrenched workers from the formal sector.

This situation, she said is a threat to the economic and social rights of women, who dominate the informal sector.She said that in the last twenty years, sub-Sahara Africa has witnessed a rapid pace of urbanisation coupled with its attendant problems due to globalization and that very soon urban population would outstrip the rural area.

Dr. Tsikata lamented that even though several studies point to a decline in livelihoods within the informal economy, recent policy interest has focused on the expansion of the revenue base of governments and improving market access for enterprises other than on its labour relations.

“Banks are now employing through agencies in order to reduce the cost of their operation, while workers become insecure because there is no guaranteed conditions of service.”

She described this as fallout from bad policies and not an accident, explaining that because jobs are not being created, there is so much job insecurity such that people are not ready to demand their labour rights.

“Beyond specific terms and conditions of service, the atmosphere of uncertainty created by informalization disables workers from insisting on their rights and protesting labour code violations, thus leaving them open to abuses, “ she stressed.

*Dr. Tsikata said feminization can be seen in the growing incidence of practices such as outsourcing, home-based work, home work, short term contracts, contract work, piece rate work and part-time work.”

She noted that while informalization may take different forms and involve varying degrees of change, a common outcome is the downgrading of the status of certain categories of workers and the worsening of their work conditions, bringing them more in line with much criticized working conditions within the informal economy.

The most striking issue about state policies, she stated, is the lack of recognition of how liberalization policies are fuelling the expansion of the informal economy and the nature of the expansion.

“Labour relations in the informal economy continue to be a neglected area in spite of efforts by trade unions across Africa to promote decent work as defined by ILO.”

She stated the need for the state to begin to think about labour protection in the context of informalization so that people could be empowered through labour.