Making a Living in African Cities: The Role of Home-based Enterprises in Accra and Pretoria

An Urban “Mixity”: Spatial Dynamics of Social Interactions and Human Behaviors in the Abese informal Quarter of La Dadekotopon, Ghana

“…The second evidence is the dominance of women in economic activities, which points to cultural norms where informal activities, such as food-vending, are considered "women's occupations". This finding confirms earlier observations that home-based economic activities, usually run by women, are common in low-income settlements in the GAMA and other African cities, adopted as an income-earning strategy to address poverty and unemployment [63].…”

Home-Based Economic Activities and Caribbean Urban Livelihoods : Vulnerability, Ambition and Impact in Paramaribo and Port of Spain

“…Urban planning studies on HBEAs on the other hand, discuss the effects of HBEAs for urban planning and the other way around of urban planning on HBEAs, including issues of tenure and sometimes local governance (Tipple 2000;Gough et al 2003;Tipple 2004). Furthermore, urban planning discusses issues of locational strengths and weaknesses, such as proximity related aspects and the type of neighbourhood.…”

“…As sources of credit, relatives, NGOs and money lenders were more important than banks and other formal institutions (Afrane 2000;Tipple 2005b:624;Ligthelm 2005). Generally, a lack of access to HBEA-finance and funding is perceived as a major problem for HBEA-operators (Kellett 2000: Gough et al 2003. The studies discussed here, show that HBEAoperators themselves are also not keen on loans and credits from formal institutions and rather mobilize household income or informal sources for the start of HBEAs.…”

“…Often, especially where production is concerned, they are carried out within spaces that are not designated for work and need to be converted for other uses (Bose 2000:66;Gough et al 2003). HBEAs using space exclusively for the HBEA rent out rooms, or have customers who need to spend a relative large amount of time in the space (Strassman 1987).…”

“…In this regard, the text box 5.1 below reflects interesting characteristics. The size of the income generated through HBEAs in a study in Ghana is considered similar to that earned in the lower brackets of the government, but its skewed distribution means that median incomes are often much lower than mean incomes (Gough et al 2003;Tipple 2005:623). The analysis of Strassman (1987:129-131) shows that incomes of individual workers, especially women, are half of what they could earn for full-time employment outside the home.…”