Every morning, millions of Africans set up stalls, push carts, spread goods on pavements and open their market spaces, ready to earn enough to support their families.
For many, however, the day’s earnings come without the safety net that formal workers often take for granted. An illness can mean no income. An accident can stop work altogether. Retirement can arrive without a pension, while a sudden loss of business can quickly put a household under financial pressure.
That gap is becoming a bigger economic and policy issue across Africa as informal traders, market vendors and hawkers push for greater access to social protection and better working conditions.
Leaders of informal traders’ unions, cooperatives and associations from 24 African countries will meet in Accra from August 24 to 26 to discuss ways of extending social protection to informal economy workers.
The meeting will bring together 35 participants at the Erata Hotel and is being hosted by the Trade Union Congress (TUC) of Ghana, in collaboration with StreetNet International and its Ghanaian affiliate, the Union of Informal Workers Associations (UNIWA).
Millions work without a safety net
The scale of the informal economy makes the issue difficult for governments to ignore.
StreetNet International President Lorraine Ndhlovu said Africa continues to face high levels of informality alongside limited social protection for people working outside the formal economy.
She said street vendors, market vendors and hawkers make up a large part of this workforce and need stronger mechanisms to engage governments and other authorities on social protection.
StreetNet International is a global alliance of street and market traders and hawkers, active in 56 countries and representing more than 800,000 informal economy workers.
For traders, social protection is not an abstract policy issue. An illness can mean losing several days of income. An accident can remove the ability to work. Without a pension, retirement can also bring serious financial pressure.
The cost of staying informal
Informal businesses provide jobs and livelihoods for millions across Africa, but many workers operate outside systems that provide pensions, health protection and other social security benefits.
StreetNet wants social protection to form part of efforts to improve the working conditions of informal traders while creating pathways towards greater formalisation.
Its priorities include universal social protection for informal economy workers, promoting the social and solidarity economy as a pathway to formalisation, and strengthening the leadership of women and young workers.
Why Ghana matters
Ghana is familiar with the challenge.
Street vendors, market traders, food sellers and other informal operators are a major part of everyday economic activity. They provide goods, services and employment while supporting households across the country.
Yet many operate without the protections available to workers in formal employment.
The Accra meeting therefore comes at a time when Ghana, like other African countries, is grappling with how to extend social protection to people whose livelihoods depend on informal activity.
The question is not simply how to move informal workers into the formal economy. It is also how to ensure that those who remain informal can work with greater security and dignity.
Beyond trading to decent work
StreetNet International Coordinator Oksana Abboud said the organisation intends to engage governments and local authorities in finding practical solutions.
“StreetNet remains committed to advocating and negotiating with key partners, including municipal and national decision-makers, to ensure that every informal trader can access decent working conditions and a dignified livelihood,” she said.
For Africa, that places informal trading firmly within the wider debate about jobs, social protection and economic development.
The discussions in Accra will seek to give informal workers’ organisations across the continent stronger tools to engage governments and push for policies that recognise the contribution of street and market traders to their economies.
