ReturnNewsletter
French Spanish
Southern Africa: Demand for regional trade protocols to include informal economy
The LEDRIZ / ANSA Regional Informal Economy Workshop was held at Kopanong Hotel and Conference Centre, Johannesburg, South Africa, 4-5 February 2008. The main objectives of the workshop were to firstly share knowledge and experiences on the challenges being faced by the informal economy workers in the different Southern African Development Community (SADC) countries. Secondly participants critically analysed and discussed the SADC Trade Protocol, the SADC Protocol on the Facilitation of the Movement of People as well as Economic Partnership Agreements (EPAs) and what it holds for the Informal Economy.
Comrade Moyo, Deputy General Secretary of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions (ZCTU), on behalf of the Southern African Trade Union Coordination Council (SATUCC) President who could not be present, opened the workshop.
Moyo said that the informal economy, contrary to predictions, had withstood the test of time and in the past few decades had become the leading employer and also an important contributer to GDP for SADC economies. This was explained as a result of the failures of neo-liberal policies which caused a serious loss of formal jobs in many countries.
In the first presentation Dr. G. Kanyenze, LEDRIZ Director, explained the ANSA Concept and Economic Framework and Macro-Economic/Finance Policy thrust. The
development strategy preferred by the ANSA Initiative is a bottom-up worldview in finding and developing alternatives to neo-liberalism. In discussion of the word development the participants listed the right to food security, health, education, housing, basic utilities, transport, decent work, living wage.
He noted that the economic growth that has been seen is negative as it tends to have no long-term benefits nor to redistribute resources to the poor. He noted that before and after independence, the SADC governments
concentrated mainly on improving the formal economy whilst neglecting the non-formal economies. This has led to "dual or enclave economies". He noted that while the formal economy is male dominated, the urban informal and the communal economies are both dominated by women, the latter often being ignored.
The ANSA Initiative is a call to mobilise people to engage the governments on issues which are critical in achieving human-centred development. Dr Kanyenze said that the starting point is for the trade unions to mobilise and organise the informal economy workers into organised structures where they can begin to learn about their politico-socio-economic rights and demand them.
In the second session, the current trends in the Informal Economy in the SADC countries, was facilitated by Ms. N. Chakanya, LEDRIZ. Ms Chakanya gave a background to the informal economy according to the ILO perspective, highlighting that more than 30 years ago, ILO first used the term "informal sector" to refer to "activities of the working poor who are working very hard but who were not recognised, recorded, protected or regulated by public authorities". She went onto emphasise the size of the informal sector. In Africa, informal work is estimated to account for almost 80% of non-agricultural employment, 60% of urban employment and over 90% of new jobs.
Participants were asked to list what they identified as the biggest problems faced by informal economy workers in their countries. In the next session the strengths, weakness and threats to informal economy organisations in the countries represented, Malawi, Zambia, Botswana, Namibia, Zimbabwe, and South Africa was made.
On the second day the workshop spent discussing the three SADC protocols. Aulline Mabika, Southern and Eastern Africa Trade Information and Negotiations Institute (SEATINI) guided the workshop in evaluating the trade environment within SADC countries and the extent to which it stifles or promotes full participation of the informal economy in regional integration. She explained that poverty
reduction was not an explicit objective of the trade protocol. It is expected to be achieved, unrealistically, from the effects arising from regional trade expansion. She went through the opportunities and the risks for the informal economy.
The SADC Protocol on the Facilitation of the Movement of People pertains to the free movement of "natural persons" and to the dismantling of barriers such as visa requirements, requiring governments to issue travel documents and to remove restrictions to the movement of human beings across national borders. State parties have agreed to harmonise current immigration practices, however, much confusion exists across the SADC countries on these.
Mabika noted that the realisation by SADC governments of the need to ease the movement of people among SADC countries should be a starting point for lobbying the governments. The advantages of these policy initiatives should not be confined to large formal sector companies. The business of small entrepreneurs involved in cross-border trade should also be facilitated as a means to encouraging the development of the informal economy in the Southern Africa region, as well as regional trade and integration, poverty alleviation and the economic empowerment of women. She said that obstacles that are placed in the way of informal traders' movement are also obstacles to trade.
The next presentation on EPAs and the Informal Economy was facilitated by Ms Chakanya, from LEDRIZ. She started by explaining that one of the largest trading agreements between Europe and the African Caribbean and Pacific (ACP) countries, the Cotonou Agreement, came to an end on the 31st of December 2007. The EPAs are supposed to succeed this with supposed effect from January 2008. However, the process has been largely dominated by the EU. ACP countries' developmental needs are in danger of being overlooked. The regional trade union organisation, the Southern Africa Trade Union Coordinating Council (SATUCC) sees the developments pertaining to thenegotiations having negative implications on domestic production, local businesses, workers and national development as a whole. The EPAs call for lifting of trade tariffs and reciprocity in markets. Reciprocity means that the ACP countries will be required to progressively open their markets to the EU's products and services. The implication is that this will destroy the industrial, services and agricultural sectors due to influx of cheap imports.
In light of the above, she concluded her presentation by stating that the challenge confronting the informal economy in SADC is to make the transition from mere survival (subsistence) to an economically stronger position.
In the next session groups broke up to do group work. The questions were posed:
o "What benefits can be drawn from the SADC Protocols discussed - and how can players in the informal economy benefit more from them? What needs to be done?;
o "What are the negative aspects of the SADC protocols to the informal economy? Or how do they disadvantage the informal sector players? How can these disadvantages be mitigated? What needs to be done, to reduce or eradicate these disadvantages?"
A group of six people were identified from the participants, to produce a draft declaration or communiqué drawing upon the issues raised from the group presentations. The draft was presented to the rest of the participants and all necessary corrections were made. Participants were given a copy of the declaration and they were tasked with taking it to their organisations and other interested parties within the informal economy in their respective countries.
DECLARATION OF THE INFORMAL ECONOMY ASSOCIATIONS/ ORGANISATIONS AND TRADE UNIONS IN THE SADC REGION
Demands:
-
Governments must recognise and support the informal economy through supportive legislation and national policies;
-
Governments must engage the informal economy workers in policy formulation and decision making. "Nothing for us without us!"
-
The informal economy be legally recognised through legislation to the effect that by-laws become user friendly;
-
The national Governments must move away from the neo-liberal policies such as trade liberalisation perpetuated by the developed countries, which displaces informal economy workers through huge influx of cheap products. For example, the neo-liberal polices proposed under EPAs;
-
The SADC Protocols be simplified and disseminated to the ordinary citizens by all the SADC Member States;
-
Governments must fulfill their obligations as enshrined in the SADC Protocol on Trade and the Protocol on the Facilitation of Movement of Persons enabling the free movement of goods and services and people at national borders through removal of visas and tariffs within the SADC region; and,
-
Organisations such as SATUCC and StreetNet must establish a regional structure for the informal economy that can engage SADC in dialogue for the betterment of the welfare of the informal economy workers.
Source:
LEDRIZ / ANSA Regional Informal Economy Workshop.