WIEGO – Women in Informal Employment Globalizing & Organizing
WIEGO Text for Arab Watch Publication: Informal Employment in the MENA Region
The Informal Economy in the Arab Nations: A Comparative Perspective – 69 Pages – January 2017
http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/resources/files/Informal-Economy-Arab-Countries-2017.pdf
- Samir Aita’s executive summary of the report.
- Samir Aita’s background paper on Informal Labor in Arab Countries.
- Full report: Arab Watch Report on Informal Employment (only in Arabic).
Across the Global South, most workers earn their livelihoods in the informal economy and most low-income households are sustained by informal livelihoods. Those working in the informal economy, and especially women, face many challenges,including low and fluctuating incomes, difficult working conditions, legal and physical risks, and often low social standing. Yet the informal workforce is not adequately covered by legal and social protections. This is partly because informal workers have not been recognized as workers eligible to be covered by labor standards and social protection. Nor have their activities been seen as legitimate economic activities requiring supportive policies and services. Rather, the informal economy and those who work in it tend to be stigmatized by policy makers and the general public. As a result, most informal workers face an unfavorable, if not hostile and punitive, policy and regulatory environment. However, there is growing policy interest in supporting the informal economy as a key pathway to reducing poverty, inequality and economic injustice as well as unemployment.
Arguably, supporting the informal economy also represents a key pathway to promoting peace and reconstruction in conflict or war-torn areas, such as the MENA region. To provide a comparative perspective on informal employment outside the MENA region, and on alternative policy responses to informality, this paper draws on the data analysis, research findings and grounded experience of the global research-action-policy network Women inInformal Employment: Globalizing andOrganizing(WIEGO).For informal employmentinside Arab countries, and the MENA region, , this paper draws on the country studies commissioned by the Arab NGO Network for Development (ANND) for its Arab Watch report and other recent studies on informal employment in the region.
http://www.wiego.org/content/launch-arab-watch-report-informal-employment
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