Informal Economy in Africa: Which Way Forward? Making Policy Responsive, Inclusive and Sustainable

Nearly 83% of employment in Africa and 85% in Sub-Saharan Africa is informal, absorbing many of the continent’s young employment seekers. In the past, policy narratives in Africa tended to either neglect informal economies or even viewed them as potentially threatening to formal economies – therefore needing elimination and control rather than support and investment for inclusive structural economic transformation.

Registration: Zoom

Over time an alternative policy narrative began to take root. While this narrative still viewed the informal economy as outside formal arrangements, and often found on the edge of high vulnerability to poverty, low earnings, irregular incomes, and bad working conditions, it brought significant attention to welfarist policies to ensure safety nets, minimum floors, and access to basic social protection.

Organized by UNDP, the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the African Union Commission (AUC), this policy dialogue intends to play a connecting and enabling role by assembling analysis and findings, and bridging current gaps, including through direct interaction with informal economy actors, on the impacts, their agility, needs, solutions and innovations. It will provide an inclusive dialogue space to discuss the increasing importance of the informal economy in Africa, understand the gaps between current programmatic approaches and needs on the ground, and build collective intelligence on more effective policy responses and solutions to trigger inclusive, resilient, sustainable and prosperous recovery.

Click here to register.

Download the concept note >>>Here