WORKSHOP B- INFORMAL ECONOMY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Discussion leaders Mr Andreas Klem- mer from the ILO (left) and Dr Shirin Sharmin Chaudhury, MP (right).
sustainable businesses should be implemented where the market and not the individual enterprise is the point of departure. A people- centred framework should be initiated in which the market system is constituted by people, working through organizations that represented their aligned interests. The framework should recognize three different operational levels, namely the micro level, the macro level and the meta level.
The rationale for intervention Parliament as the premier representative institution in democratic governance, and Parliamentarians, being the people’s
representatives, should ensure that democracy is responsive to the needs and aspirations of the people. They must thrive to deliver on the challenges of poverty, inequality and deprivation in effecting the smooth functioning of democracy. The promotion of women entrepreneurship in an integrated approach can easily be implemented through closer linkages between Parliament, civil societies and the private sector.
Constraints within the informal economy sector
Informal entrepreneurship displays real business acumen, creativity, dynamism and innovation. There was
however constraints in this sector facing participants, especially women, and women entrepreneurs in the informal economy encountered several difficulties. These included:
• Work in the informal economy operating at a low level; • Work relying heavily on day-to- day profits for survival; • Women lacking or having restricted access to formal financial institutions for credit; • Facing severe economic vulner- ability as informal lending arrange- ments are not conducive and do not follow standardized interest procedures; and • A lack of education and skills
opportunities available to them.
It is within this context that Parliament must effect change in informal sector dynamics through policy measures that will equip women-led entrepreneurship with socio-economic protection and enhance their limited bargaining power.
Challenges for the informal economy
The majority of Commonwealth countries in the Africa region were still growing and their economies were in the development stage which created a need for deliberate actions to ensure economic freedom.
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