ABSTRACT

Micro-trade is the dominant informal occupation in the Global South, serving as a source of livelihood and income for many city dwellers. However, many micro-traders operate under deplorable conditions and often encounter conflicts with city authorities. Most informal workers (IWs) in developing countries lack social protection (SP) benefits associated with formal employment such as sick leave, paid leave, and maternity benefits and work long hours, earning low and irregular incomes. The harsh economic reality and harsh treatment from city officials have led to the emergence of IWs organizations to voice issues and to claim rights to work in public spaces. Although literature exists on IWs and on SP, the link between IWs associations and access to SP services has received little attention. Drawing on empirical data collected from a combination of quantitative and qualitative methods, this chapter seeks to show how micro-traders access both formal and informal SP services. The chapter reveals that most micro-traders still lack access to formal social insurance and attributes poor enrolment and retention of micro-traders in formal insurance schemes to socio-economic factors such as low and irregular incomes and service provision factors such as cost of premium and cumbersome procedures. Trader associations are revealed to have developed their own forms of SP to cushion themselves albeit not adequate in terms of meeting all needs.