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Latin America is a region that includes Central and South America. Its more than 21 countries include Spanish and Portuguese-speaking communities as well as many indigenous groups with their own languages and histories. It is culturally and politically diverse with a history of colonialism and in many countries military dictatorship. Street vendors are a visible part of the Latin American urban landscape. Informal trade is a well established tradition that dates back to the 16th century. In the last decade their has been a dramatic increase in the numbers of street and market vendors, as new formal jobs have not matched the growth in population and rural-urban migration as well as inter-regional migration. As a result of the political and cultural diversity, the many thousands of street vendor neighbourhood and market associations and organisations in Latin American cities face very different situations in terms of regulation and the local and national Government support they receive. In many Latin American countries, like their counterparts in Asia and Africa, informal traders face daily harassment in the process of trying to earn an honest living, see corruption and are at the receiving end of unnecessary violence. There is general consensus however, that street commerce is an important and vibrant part of the region's economy. It is estimated that in Latin American' cities nearly half the workers are engaged in informal economy activity. Researcher Sally Roever (2006) writes, "Street commerce represent one of the most visible and dynamic segments of the informal economy in Latin America. Rapid rural-to-urban migration from the 1940s to the 1970s, economic crisis in the 1980s and neo-liberal reform in the 1990s combined to create a surplus of unemployed workers in the region's cities. In the absence of formal wage employment, many workers have turned to the informal economy as a way to generate to income. " (Sally Roever, 2006). Street and market vending offers a means of earning an income for growing numbers of the unemployed and contributes to development and metropolitan revenues. For the urban poor street vending is an an occupation with low barriers to entry that needs small amounts of capital and no or little built infrastructure. As a result street vendors often work in precarious and insecure situations as their work places are urban public spaces, pavements, streets and markets. The ILO's statistical research on the informal economy and street vending shows that in most countries women account for a significant proportion of street and market traders, often working in the informal food sector, preparing, selling or serving food, as the main family breadwinners. Street vendors' organisation StreetNet International, as an international federation of street vendor organisations, aims to build street vendor organisations' visibility, to share information, defend street and and market vendors' rights and to build capacity to negotiate with local governments on the laws, policies and regulations that affect informal trade. Click here for StreetNet International affiliates in Latin AmericaWebsites of street vendor organisations:
Informal economy workers In Latin America like Africa and Asia, informal employment has overtaken the formal economy as the main source of work as a result of globalisation and the increase of casual and flexible forms of labour. Self-employment is one of the sectors of informal employment that has grown very rapidly. In the ten year period between 1980/1990 and 1999-2000 in Central America the percentage of informal economy workers who are own account (self-employed) workers grew from 30% to 40%. The number of women working in self-employment in the same period grew dramatically from 32% to 54% in the decade. The country where the percentage of the self-employed is highest is Honduras where 69% of informal economy workers are self-employed. In South America, the percentage of informal workers in self-employment is 43% while in the Caribbean it is 55%. Two countries where women are a very high proportion of self-employed workers is Bolivia where they are the overwhelming majority as 95%, while in Haiti women represent 80%. City-based, regional and national alliances have been formed by street vendor and market organisations and associations in many Latin American countries. Informal economy trade unions and trade union centres have begun to recognise that street vendors as self-employed/own account workers in the informal economy are vulnerable to exploitation and represent a growing proportion of the working poor. Through building alliances street vendors are in a stronger position to represent their sector and to negotiate with local and national government and to organise for better working conditions. Informal economy unions are demanding that street and market vending be regulated as part of the mainstream economy and for policy-making processes to incorporate street vendors' needs and views. Regional organisation of informal economy unions
Two organisations that are working for Decent Work in the Informal Economy are CIOSL/ORIT, the Latin American arm of the international trade union confederation ITUC and the ACTRAV programme of the ILO.
The ILO resolution on Decent Work in the Informal Economy at the International Labour Conference, passed in in 2002, calls on governments to encourage the organisation and representation of informal economy workers who are unprotected workers. Own-account workers, or autonomous workers or non-dependent workers are a rapidly growing part of this sector.
Organising issues for market and street vendors Recognition of vending as a fundamental right: In many cities, street and market vendors and hawkers are fighting for the right to earn a living. They face harassment by local government and municipal police, being chased off the streets and frequently having their goods confiscated. The issue of legal recognition of street and market vending has been taken up by organisations in many ways: through policy, through Supreme Court challenges, through local protest action and through negotiations.
Infrastructure and services: Vendors' organisations have identified the lack of services, infrastructure, security, sanitation and child-care as workplace concerns. People who migrate to and from the city have an additional problem of finding affordable accommodation. Harassment: Many street vendor organisations in Latin America, raise the problem of police harassment, bribery and corruption by local authorities. The lack of regulation of street vending makes it possible for corrupt officials to extract bribes, creating additional obstacles for street vendors who are trying to earn an honest living.
Recognition and representation: Where traders and hawkers have formed organisations and worked for representation and achieved recognition by local and national government it has been possible to find solutions to workplace problems. By negotiating solutions with local authorities, by being involved in policy-making and demanding that their needs as economic actors be taken seriously they have been able to improve their situation. Reports on Latin American street vendors' from StreetNet newsletter:
Acknowledgements: Street Trade in Latin America: Demographic Trends, Legal Issues, and Vending Organizations in Six Cities, (48 pages) by Sally Roever, Dept of Public Administration, Leiden University (Netherlands), Prepared for WIEGO Urban Policies Programme, 2006. Informal economy and the street vendors of Sao Paulo by Luciana Itikawa (powerpoint - of paper presented at the Inclusive Planning for the Urban Poor, Conference in Durban, South Africa, April 2006). Women Street Vendors: the Road to Recognition by Monique Cohen, Mihir Bhatt and Pat Horn, Seeds Publication #20, 2000, (29 pages) English, PDF File. |
