An economic policy for informal traders in Gauteng

This project, a partnership between Women in Informal Employment Globalising and Organising (Wiego) and SCIS, investigates the role of economic policy for informal traders. While economic policy is usually conceived at the macro level to achieve country-level outcomes, this project asks what an economic policy for informal traders would include, and who would be the main stakeholders tasked with implementing such a policy.

 It focuses on the following questions:

1. What is scope of activities within this sector, the demographics of small and informal traders and the income/working conditions, and level of organisation?
2. What are the main economic challenges that street vendors and informal traders face?
3. Are there tensions between national and provincial policy, and local bylaws and enforcement? If so, what are they and how can they be overcome?
4. What are the existing opportunities to improve income generation, and to what extent have they been able to address the concerns by street vendors and informal traders? What can be learnt from other countries in this regard?

It draws on the findings from these questions to offer an economic policy for informal traders, focused on the Gauteng province. The main output from the project will be a concise and focused policy document which should be useful for informal traders and policy makers.