CWP 3 - INFORMAL ECONOMY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
COMMONWEALTH PARLIAMENTARY CONFERENCE Johannesburg, South Africa
59th
Commonwealth Women Parliamentarians: Session 3 - 1 September 2013
INFORMAL ECONOMY AND ENTREPRENEURSHIP
Moderator: Hon. Thapelo Chiloane, MP (South Africa)
Discussion Leaders: Hon. Joanmariae Fubbs, MP (South Africa) Hon. Alix Boyd Knights, MHA, Speaker of the House of Assembly (Dominica)
Summary
Delegates agreed that women must receive adequate training to ensure they have the necessary skills to maximise profits whilst remaining economically independent. They recognized that infrastructural development should be put in place to facilitate women–led projects in the informal sector. Micro-lenders should be monitored by financial regulators to ensure the development of low interest rates in the informal sector.
Promoting gender equality Hon. Joanmariae Fubbs, MP, South Africa, argued that democracy would not survive in a fractured economy. Therefore she pressed on the significance of overcoming unemployment and a fractured economy by using and bringing about
294 | The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue Four
economic equity. This requires both growth and development that in turn it will create an enabling democracy, Parliament and cause many other institutions to flourish.
Informal sector and significance of economy Ms Fubbs asked what interventions Parliament could do to make this happen, particularly as women represent more than 50 per cent in her country. The informal sector has been growing along with the formal sector globally not just in South Africa. According to Statistics South Africa, the sector is represented right across the economy. These include workers in the home, to agricultural and non-agricultural manufacturing. It represents many diverse areas as much as the formal
economy. She stressed that one of the important things to consider when thinking about the informal sector and women, is the high correlation with unemployment. In South Africa, the relative share by province indicates a correlation with the overall unemployment rate, supporting the idea that the informal economy is the only alternative.
It’s argued that without this sector, the unemployment rate would rise from 25 per cent to as high as 48 per cent. This implies there is a great significant in pro-poor economic development policy, and is more important than its relative size suggests. The informal sector is alive with entrepreneurs because women not only see the opportunity they grab it with both hands. By its very nature the economic activity is
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