Informal Businesses
This is a page on informal businesses.
Seed content[edit]
Cambodia[edit]
The various sources of data that we collect will help to paint a more comprehensive picture of the stories of informal workers and MSMEs, and the challenges they face in light of COVID-19. We can then utilize these findings to create a real-time dashboard for UNDP Cambodia to better serve and guide our programs, and to support the Government in its evidence-based policy response.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
This starts with determining the problems that matter to people; the source of which is citizen-generated data. This type of data includes any information that can be collected from citizens either by active involvement (e.g. sharing experiences or ideas, or upvoting options given) or passively (e.g. through wearables or transactions data). This type of data is key to generating more comprehensive and up to date insights from citizens that can help to produce appropriate solutions and actions for and with them. Citizen-generated data can be gathered in three ways, that we have identified for understanding the realities and needs of informal workers and MSMEs in Cambodia.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
The UNDP Accelerator Lab in Cambodia in collaboration with the UNDP Socioeconomic Team has invested in both traditional and non-traditional sources of social and economic data to understand the challenges faced by informal workers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country. This data is critical to understanding and responding to the socio-economic impacts and consequences faced by these individuals and enterprises, with the ultimate goal of strengthening evidence-based policymaking.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
Kenya[edit]
We are thus looking forward to leverage on UNDP’s integrator role to connect health needs to social, economic and environmental well-being, doing so by working closely with the public and private sectors. As we support the national response to COVID-19, the issues highlighted by the women traders which affect their informal businesses present opportunities for catalytic interventions which could deliver sustainable development and tangible progress.
Source: AccLab Blog
Namibia[edit]
This initiative is an online option designed to keep the businesses of informal retailers in markets going by connecting them onto a digital space. A small start-up called Tambula Online Shop had recently just launched and the Namibia Accelerator Lab saw an opportunity to build back better through collaboration. The Lab approached Tambula with the idea to create an online portal for consumers who desired items from the market and their usual street vendors at a time when these vendors had been taken off the streets due to COVID-19 restrictions. The initiative benefits the consumers who can remain in the safety of their home during the COVID-19 lockdown as well as the informal retailers who now have access to customers who they ordinarily would not have had access to by also safely working from home. Having encouraged my team to take the bold step and launch admittedly knowing the idea was not perfect, we have an intervention that all parties are now impressed with. After all, this is what experiments are all about and this is why the lab exists. We launch, we learn, we adjust, we improve but we must never wait until the concept is perfect for us to start.Reflections
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Trade, Informal Workers
Nepal[edit]
Ideas and solutions that are worth exploring and experimenting also come from the network of the UNDP Accelerator Lab, which spans 60 country offices. From helping small businesses and informal-sector employees stay afloat through a "pay in advance" service during the quarantine to collecting perception data to understand binge consumption, all of these ideas are important in today’s context.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Workers
South Africa[edit]
The project experimented with an alternative method of food distribution by supplying money through a cloud-based transactional platform in the form of vouchers. These vouchers could be redeemed at the major retailers near the communities, and the project additionally registered local spaza shops and informal traders as vendors for voucher redemption in an effort to support the local and informal economy.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Trade, Informal Workers
Zambia[edit]
In a bid to mitigate long term impact on the small informal business sector and provide for business continuity during the COVID-19 outbreak, the UNDP Accelerator Lab and UNDP Gender teams in partnership with the Lusaka City Council (LCC), Ministry of Health (MoH) and working closely with market committees from the three residential areas of Nyumba Yanga, Chilenje and Lilanda designed and developed a model market that promises to help businesses in the community markets to continue operating while minimising the risk of contracting the virus.
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Sectors
Zimbabwe[edit]
Zimbabwe has the world’s second largest informal economy with over 60% of the population relying on informal activities for their source of income. The Zimbabwe Country Office believes the informal economy is a strategic bet as it has the potential to drive the country’s economic recovery. Informality is often misunderstood and criminalized, with big questions remaining unanswered - What pushes people to go informal? What does informality and formality mean to various businesses? How can informal businesses tap into formal structures and grow to create more jobs? Can the informal economy and government policies coexist?
Source: AccLab Blog
This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Economies, Hybrid Models, Informal Activities, Formalization, Perceptions and Motivations