The Urban Informal Economy in Ethiopia: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Desta, Chalachew Getahun

doi:10.1353/eas.2018.0001

Cited by 12 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 6 publications

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“…This absence demonstrates flaws in a definition that regards the formal economy as the primary characteristic for entrepreneurship, especially in low-income contexts. The literature on micro-entrepreneurship and the informal economy calls on development programmes to strategize on how to integrate the informal economy into broader sustainable development efforts, especially because of the apparently positive role played by the informal sector in low-income households across LMICs (Desta, 2018;Krishnan et al, 2017). Likewise, scholars of women's entrepreneurship highlight the fact that viewing entrepreneurship primarily as an economic activity conceals broader issues, such as "who and what are represented within the main theoretical and research frameworks of this literature and who and what are left out" (Cal as et al, 2009, p. 553).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interrogating “entrepreneurship for development”: a counter-narrative based on local stories of women in rural Ethiopia

Cummings

López

2022

IJGE

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PurposeTo interrogate the grand narrative of “entrepreneurship for development” that dominates international development circles, by applying a feminist critical discourse analysis that prioritizes women's situated experiences as local stories.Design/methodology/approachTwo existing frameworks for analysing women's entrepreneurship, namely the 5M (Brush et al., 2009) and the 8M (Abuhussein and Koburtay, 2021) frameworks, are used to examine the local stories of women in rural Ethiopia to provide a counter-narrative to the grand narrative of “entrepreneurship for development”. The local stories are derived from 16 focus group discussions and 32 interviews.FindingsThe findings provide a counter-narrative to the grand narrative of “entrepreneurship for development”, evident in Ethiopia and in international development generally, while demonstrating larger structural issues at play. They challenge entrepreneurship's solely positive effects. While women recognize the benefits of having a business, particularly in terms of financial gains, empowerment and social recognition, they also highlight negative consequences, including uncertainty, concerns for their own personal safety, criticism, stress, limited social life and fear of indebtedness and poverty.Practical implicationsPolicymakers, scholars and development professionals are urged to reflect on the limitations of “entrepreneurship for development” and to consider the negative effects that promoting an acritical grand narrative of entrepreneurship could have on women's lives.Originality/valueThe article advances an innovative partnership between feminist analysis and established women's entrepreneurship frameworks to contest dominant assumptions in the fields of entrepreneurship and international development studies. It adds to the limited empirical evidence on women's entrepreneurial activity in Ethiopia, tests the adequacy of the 5M and 8M frameworks in the rural low-income context of Ethiopia, and proposes a 7+M framework as an alternative to study rural women's entrepreneurship in low and middle income countries.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Interrogating “entrepreneurship for development”: a counter-narrative based on local stories of women in rural Ethiopia

Cummings

López

2022

IJGE

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“…Unlike for the developed countries where it is defined in terms of wage employment, it is here broadly defined to include working for wage and/or self-employed whether for wage or own consumption. This definition appears to be more realistic given the country’s context where paid or market work opportunities are very limited, and even where they exist are dominated by informal employment (Desta, 2018). So in this case, the large negative coefficient is surprising, given the lack of very clear distinction between housework and non-housework especially for farming and the informal sector.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…While the lack of statistical significance may be due to problems in data quality, a possible reason for the negative coefficient could be that since such women are likely to be lone earners (non-head husbands/male partners are likely to be non-earners or earn less than women), the whole responsibility of feeding and maintaining the household rests solely, or at least mostly, upon them, leading to fewer hours allocated for housework and more hours for earnings and/or food production. Given the informal nature of farming and of urban economic activities in the developing countries including Ethiopia (Desta, 2018), it is also likely that they can combine housework and non-housework. In one way or the other, as Buvinic and Gupta (1997) remarked, this can lead them to lower paying jobs more compatible with housework, and this is likely to worsen their well-being.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resources, Time and Gender: Determinants of Women’s Housework in Bahir Dar and Nearby Rural Villages, Northwest Ethiopia

Getahun

2019

Journal of Family Issues

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Women’s disproportionate engagement in housework and its determinants has been relatively well studied for developed countries, but such research is absent for less developed countries. Unless barriers to women’s participation in development efforts are addressed, poverty reduction programs may not succeed. Using data from a household survey of 502 women and employing a multivariate linear regression model, this paper analyzed determinants of women’s hours of housework. Results show that, in line with theory and past research, time availability and resources or bargaining power have statistically significant negative associations with a woman’s housework time. Similarly, traditional gender perception/practice has the expected positive association with a woman’s housework time. National strategies aiming at poverty reduction may need to pay more attention to educate women, help them overcome shortage of working capital, and improve employment opportunities since these may increase resources available to women, empower them, and thereby minimize gendered housework.

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“…This finding agrees with Belay's (2012), and ILO's (2017) studies; which revealed that informal businesses highly contributed to the socioeconomic well-being and food security improvements. The findings of Belay (2012), CSA (2007), and Desta (2018) also underlined the supplementary and subordinate role of the informal sector for lowincome households.…”

Section: Supplement the Low Incomes Of Householdsmentioning

confidence: 94%

Deriving forces and socioeconomic status of women in the urban informal sector in Bichena Town, West-Central Ethiopia

Jenberu

Kasse

2021

J. Soc. Econ. Dev.

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Migration-driven population growth coupled with limited formal job supply in Bichena escalates unemployment and the numbers of informal business operators. The purpose of this study was to investigate the deriving factors and socioeconomic status of women informal business operators in Bichena town, west-central Ethiopia. Mixed research approaches were used to acquire and analyze data. Purposive and convenient sampling techniques were employed to select sample kebeles and 245 respondents, respectively. The study employed questionnaires, interviews, field observations, and document review to collect data. The data were analyzed quantitatively using SPSS and qualitatively. The study revealed lack of options for survival; divorce and/or widow; limited household income; easy entry requirements (education and finance); and flexibility of the business as prominent factors for women's engagement in the informal sector. The study also indicated that women informal workers largely operate small survival-based business with low profits. Consequently, more than half of the respondents obtained very low monthly income (≤ 29.5 USD) with no saving habit, and about one-third of them failed to cover their monthly expenses. The statistical analysis demonstrated that age, family size, type of informal business, and work experiences had a significant influence on respondents' monthly income. The income, expenditure, and saving conditions of respondents vary across the types of informal activities. The study further revealed that women informal workers in Bichena have low livelihood assets ownership except for social capital. The informal sector generally serves as a survival strategy for migrant and urban poor women; thus, the town administration should work hand-in-hand with other stakeholders to empower informal workers through designing appropriate policies/strategies.

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The Urban Informal Economy in Ethiopia: Theory and Empirical Evidence

Cited by 12 publications

References 6 publications

Interrogating “entrepreneurship for development”: a counter-narrative based on local stories of women in rural Ethiopia

Interrogating “entrepreneurship for development”: a counter-narrative based on local stories of women in rural Ethiopia

Resources, Time and Gender: Determinants of Women’s Housework in Bahir Dar and Nearby Rural Villages, Northwest Ethiopia

Deriving forces and socioeconomic status of women in the urban informal sector in Bichena Town, West-Central Ethiopia

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