informal economy
Zimbabwe: One vast informal business

Zimbabwe: One vast informal business

The collapse of the economy has seen thousands of traders flooding into Harare Zimbabwe’s economy has seen a drastic collapse since 2000. Once a fairly highly industrialised country, Zimbabwe is now a vast informal...

EDITORIAL: The lifeboat of informality

EDITORIAL: The lifeboat of informality

African governments and their formal business sectors often hold up the informal sector as the nemesis of formalised growth  and  organised  development  –  yet for many citizens on the continent (and elsewhere),...

Africa’s real economy

Africa’s real economy

  Global competition and the active downsizing of formal jobs force most Africans to look elsewhere for a living Widespread recognition that the informal economy is expanding rather than declining across the...

Formalising artisanal and small-scale mining

Formalising artisanal and small-scale mining

  Governments need to implement the Africa Mining Vision, not honour it in the breach In all corners of sub-Saharan Africa, artisanal and small-scale mining (ASM) is widespread. Low-tech, labour-intensive and with...