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Durban's new informal Economy Policy  

An interchange between informal workers, researchers and local government

by Caroline Skinner

In 1998, the Self Employed Women’s Union (SEWU) approached the Centre for Social and Development Studies (CSDS) at the University of Natal, Durban to conduct a study on street trading. This was a unique opportunity as seldom had a grass roots organisation approached the centre with a project that it had itself designed. This 18 month research programme covered a number of issues including synthesising all the research that had been conducted in South Africa on street trading since 1990, analysing five city governments‘ approaches to street traders and understanding how street traders were organised. The research was conducted in close collaboration with SEWU under the auspices of the international research and activist network Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising or WIEGO. As a direct result of the research, Prof. Francie Lund and Caroline Skinner, who had worked on the project, were approached by the City of Durban to assist in developing an informal economy policy.

The research found that Durban compared well with the other four South African cities. Unlike Cape Town, Johannesburg, Pretoria and East London, Durban has a department dedicated to managing street trading. Since 1995 Durban has spent R45 million (approx. US$5.6 million) on infrastructure for street traders both in the city centre and in outlying areas.  This is more than any other city has spent and has resulted in a real improvement in the work environment of many traders. Although progress has been made, the research also highlighted that the city did not have a policy to guide its approach. This meant that different departments often had different approaches.SEWU had found this very frustrating, and described to the researchers how important it was to them to have a clear, written policy, translated into the language of traders, which officials from all departments would be guided by. As in other cities, interventions in Durban have tended to focus on street trading and not on other informal economy activities like home based work. The North and South Central Councils (which govern the central areas of the city) and particularly the forward thinking Metropolitan Economic development Department, rose to the challenge.

In November 1999, an interdepartmental Technical Task Team was established to develop an informal economy policy. The Team comprised officials from different departments (City Health, Metropolitan Police, Economy Development, Planning, Informal Trade and Small Business Support). This was the beginning of a year long process. There was a substantial consultation process with organisations representing formal and informal business, trade unions, officials, development forums and individuals.Where information was lacking research was commissioned.

The North and South Central Councils adopted the policy in October 2000. With respect to improved management, the policy presents a vision for the city, which integrates informal work into economic and urban planning. This in itself will lead to a more coherent approach from the many different Council departments who deal with informal workers. Concrete suggestions are made to ensure greater co-ordination between departments, such as area-based management.

The policy emphasises support of informal economy workers. It acknowledges that currently national government support is inadequate and that the private support providers are often reluctant to service this group. Local government must be proactive and should;

* disseminate information about how best to support informal economy workers to existing service providers

* provide a referral service to informal economy workers

* identify gaps in support

* where appropriate be a direct service provider or fund appropriate agencies.

Globally, there is a sectoral or industry based approach to supporting formal business. The policy suggests employing a group of sector specialists to conduct analysis of the informal component of different sectors. This will help to focus support more precisely and identify appropriate roles for local government as well as formal business.

The City of Durban has been particularly forward thinking from different experiences:

* Lessons learnt from the pilot projects, which Durban municipality had set up during the political transition. 

* New approaches to health education developed by the City Health Department 

* Insights gained through the SEWU initiated research.

These combined with direct involvement from informal economy workers in the policy development process,  has contributed to making Durban’s approach particularly accommodating to those working in the informal economy.