The Pandemic Could Transform Informal Labor
The coronavirus crisis could force the Global South to change the way it treats people employed in the informal sector.
Who stands up for their rights?
Photographer: Sima Diab/BloombergAs coronavirus-induced lockdowns loom on the horizon in low-middle and low-income countries in the Global South, governments are confronting the challenge of massive unemployment in the informal economy. According to the International Labor Organization, 85.8% of employment in Africa is informal. The proportion is 68.2% in Asia and the Pacific, 68.6% in the Arab world, 40% in the Americas and 25.1% in Europe and Central Asia. In total, 93% of the world’s informal jobs are in emerging and developing countries.
As elsewhere in the Global South, governments in the Middle East and North Africa are discovering that having so many people working in informal activities—whether as irregular labor, self-employed or in household enterprises that depend on daily transactions—makes it hard to orchestrate and sustain prolonged lockdowns.