ENTREPRENEURSHIP
CWP 3 - INFORMAL ECONOMY AND
and systems in people’s respective countries, so that they work and perform for the rural and urban poor engaged in the sector. Hon. Lisa Baker, MLC, Western Australia, commented on procurement and the need in developed countries to look at targeting some portion of government procurement into gender targets. She underlined the necessity for training in business skills, and stated that “money without skills will go nowhere”.
Responses from presenters Ms Fubbs supported the recommendation on infrastructure, but with regards to education, she alluded it was important to also incorporate gender into the curriculum, particularly relating to the informal sector. On funding, she recognized the survivalist issues raised earlier in the session, while also supporting the idea of total interest- free loans.
no matter how small, because they think they will have to get licenses, pay taxes and have to make social security contributions.
The problems itself within the informal sector can be said to be self- perpetuating. The Governor of the East Caribbean Central Bank pointed out that hard data is needed in order for a country to develop policies to move forward.
He complained that because of the vast informal sector in countries like Dominica, such statistics are hard to come by, and issues and problems confronting the sector are not addressed and thereby perpetuate themselves.
She ended her presentation asking participants whether entrepreneurs within the illegal formal sector should be persuaded to formalize their operations and if so, how would the authorities go about it?
Discussion
Hon. Noraini Ahmad, MP, Malaysia, acknowledged the programmes and initiatives in her country that empower women in the informal economy. This was not merely a means of providing financial help, but one to help strive towards economic independence for women.
She added that the Malaysian Government has also introduced a women’s entrepreneurship incubator programme to meet the current demands of the employment market. It has set up training centres, paid by the government, to enable participants to generate income on skills they have acquired. Grants will be provided to participants under this programme to help them move forward.
Rt Hon. Rebecca Kadaga, MP, Uganda, spoke about the issues relating to access to credit. She
referred to the Islamic banking model being implemented in Uganda, which uses a system where there is no interest on loans.
She felt this would be another way of supporting women and their businesses.
Ms Christine Ombaka, MP, Kenya, argued that formalizing the informal sector is very prudent given the statistics highlighted by Ms Fubbs with regards to South Africa. The sector in general is bigger in Africa than the formal economies. She asked how Parliamentarians could push for necessary infrastructure to address issues of space, so the informal sector worked better. She encouraged looking to women in markets and finding ways of helping them do their businesses better.
Ms Ombaka also asked about ways of regulating the financial sector
Ms Boyd Knights expressed the need to also focus on micro- financing success stories in order to enlighten and encourage, and pushed for women to develop an enterprising spirit when it came to entrepreneurship and enterprise. With regards to mentoring, she championed the importance of youth mentorship for the development of the informal sector.
Recommendations from the session
Recommendation One:
“Advocating legislation that promotes access to capital, assets and markets, legislate credit that supports people (interest rates) especially women. National Credit Acts and Micro- finance.”
Recommendation Two: “Although women entrepreneurs within the informal sector can help to alleviate poverty, they need to formalize their activities to avail themselves of social protection measures.” •
Both recommendations were endorsed. The Parliamentarian | 2013: Issue Four | 297
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