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Overview Inclusive Cities aims to improve the livelihoods of the urban working poor, most of whom are employed in the informal economy, many as waste pickers, street vendors, and homebased workers. These workers, while numerous, have very little representation or “voice” in the municipal policy and urban planning processes that significantly impact their everyday lives and their ability to generate enough income to support their families. The Inclusive Cities project is based on the shared belief that reducing urban poverty requires reversing the current exclusionary trend of many modernizing cities. This requires fundamental rethinking and reshaping of urban plans, regulations, and policies to incorporate the working poor. The challenge is to promote Inclusive Cities that embrace the informal economy as a vibrant and key component of the urban economy, and view it as a solution to reducing urban poverty and violence. Inclusive Cities support homebased production through basic infrastructure and appropriate zoning regulations; allow street vendors and hawkers to operate alongside small kiosks and shops as well as large retail shops and malls; and incorporate waste pickers into modern solid waste management systems. Inclusive Cities require an inclusive, rather than exclusive, approach to urban infrastructure and services; urban spatial planning and zoning; urban regulations and laws; and urban policies. To achieve this, representatives of the working poor must have a voice in urban planning processes.
A large percentage of the developing world resides in urban areas and this number is growing. In 2008, more than half of the world’s population – 3.3 billion people – were living in urban areas. According to the United Nations, by 2030, the world’s urban population will be almost 5 billion and the towns and cities of the developing world will make up 81 per cent of urban humanity. The informal economy plays a vital role in these developing urban economies. Those who are informally employed in urban centres often work as street vendors, waste pickers or homebased workers. Informal workers include non-standard wage workers as well as entrepreneurs and self-employed persons producing legal goods and services, albeit through irregular or unregulated means. The informal economy is a major provider of employment, goods and services for lower-income groups and it is linked to the formal economy – it produces for, trades with, distributes for and provides services to the formal economy. Unfortunately, the urban informal workforce faces many issues including: lack of legal and social protection, highly competitive markets, and limited bargaining power with corporate buyers. Key areas for urban policies include: regulation of public space, framework for legalizing private property, accessing infrastructure and services (roads, transport, export promotion, and basic services such as water and electricity), regulation of commercial transactions and regulation of employment relations.
Article Between Exit and Voice: Informality and the Spaces of Popular Agency - Introduction In this African Studies Quarterly (Spring 2010) special issue – Between Exit and Voice: Informality and the Spaces of Popular Agency - contributors address the politics involved in and ensuing from processes of informalization / formalization in particular contexts and discuss some of the resulting contradictions, tensions, and conflicts. The authors deviate from the common victimizing views of informal actors by examining varied spaces and forms of popular agency in relation to those processes.
Publication
Empowering Women in an Insecure World Joining SEWA does make a difference. In addition to the intangible transformations in women’s lives – of voice, self-esteem and a widened world – the survey (on which this report is based) establishes the concrete impact of SEWA in women’s lives. SEWA members tend to be from the working class and castes and make their living from their own work rather than from owning assets. Despite being more disadvantaged than the general population, SEWA members are more financially adept. Joining SEWA has led to inclusion in formal financial systems. Whereas only 25% of non-SEWA families put some savings in financial institutions, more than 60% of SEWA members did so, even among the poorest families. Download the pdf: Empowering Women in an Insecure World
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