Individual Assignment 1: Reflective writing

Institutions on Informal Economic Sector and Women Development

The most concerning thing I got from analyzing institution lesson is I understand the meaning of legal framework for economic development. In informal sector, legal framework is not only really crucial for economic growth but also for women development, the main labor force of this sphere. Informal sector occupies around 25% to 40% of annual output in developing countries in Asia and Africa (WB, 2013). In a research in 2001, Chen cited out that the proportion of women working in informal sector outside agriculture is over 95% in Benin, Chad and Mali. I always wonder why do women chose to work in this field? What do these governments think about that?

A possible implication to explain for this issue can be listed as following ways. Firstly, informal sector is the only option of women when formal sector is always closed in front of women life. A lot of women in developing countries are impossible to be successful in recruitment process due to low educated, unskilled, and less experience profiles. Even educated women have to drop their job because of childbearing, taking care of other dependents and discrimination by men. Secondly, the government may be recognize the contribution of informal sector, yet they cannot cover it as formal sector. It will require much human resource from governments. Moreover, informal sector is viewed as illegal sphere owing to lacking contribution for state tax to improve social welfare, public infrastructure, potentially negative consequences for competitiveness and growth, and so on (Dendukuri, 2014).

Every home-based worker has to cope with occupational health problems by herself 

Trying to make a linkage between legal framework of informal sector and women development, I realized many inside problems. There is a fact that the government has their own critical argument to say informal sector should not be encouraged to develop widely. However, in practice, informal sector plays an important role in economic feature of most developing economies, creates millions of jobs for people who have no chance in formal sector, produce necessary reasonable goods and generate for poor women. Importantly, because of lacking protection from economic institution, women in this working field are facing police harassment, occupational health problems, and irregularly income.

A female street vendor in Vietnam is crying because of police's punishment 

This insight is really important for my further career in development projects. So far, I know how to elaborate a gender analysis in a public policy. To carry out the mission of my organization is to give well-being life for women, we will try to do gender mainstreaming in economic programs. In short term, we try to build up alternative livelihood models for women based on local resources. Some solutions related to health insurance, welfare also are planned for long term strategies. Hopefully, we can get attention from governmental system on women’s problems in informal sector.

References:

1. Chen, 2001. Women and informality: A global picture, the global movement. SAIS Review, 21(1), 71-82.
2. Dendukuri, 2014. A Study of Street Vending Across the Globe. International Journal of Advanced Research in Computer Science and Software Engineering, Vol. 4, Issue 9: 514 – 519.
3. World Bank, 2013.  Retrieved on 20^th June, 2015, from World Bank Website:   http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/EXTSOCIALPROTECTION/EXTLM/0,,contentMDK:20224904~menuPK:584866~pagePK:148956~piPK:216618~theSitePK:390615,00.html.