LIVELIHOOD OF STREET VENDORS DURING COVID-19 LOCKDOWN IN BANGLADESH: EARNINGS BREAK OFF EXPENSES REMAIN

On March 8, 2020, the first case of covid-19 was discovered in Bangladesh. As a result, the government decided to shut down all sectors for a certain period when the whole world was battling the first wave of Covid-19. After one year of the first wave, the second wave has recently hit the planet affecting almost all the countries including Bangladesh. Like all other sectors, street vending has been encountered and felt severe distress regarding the vendors’ livelihood. This study aims to explore the livelihood of street vendors during covid-19 in Bangladesh. This study features an in-depth interview of 15 street vendors to document their experiences during lockdown due to covid-19. This study is based on a qualitative approach with a purposive sampling technique. This study found lockdown is a significant burden for street vendors, leaving them with no other choice for earning money. During the lockdown, they expend savings, borrow money from others, take out loans, sell home furniture, and obtain money from their parents to fulfil their needs and demands. In order to improve this situation of street vendors, the government should take necessary steps with adequate financial and food assistance so that the vendors can survive during this lockdown.

Managing Contentious Collective Action

Chapter 5 develops an ethnography of street vendors, their organizations, and the city officials who they interact with in the city of La Paz, Bolivia. The chapter is based on 14 months of ethnographic fieldwork in the city over four research trips in 2012, 2014 to 2015, 2018, and 2019 as well as administrative data on 31,906 street vending licenses in the city. Fieldwork included interviews, participant observation at dozens of meetings between bureaucrats and organized vendors, ride-alongs with the Municipal Guard, a street vendor survey, working as a street vendor in a clothing market, and selling wedding services with a street vendor cooperative. The theory’s observable implications are illustrated with ethnographic evidence, survey results, and license data from La Paz. I discuss how street vending has changed in the city and how officials have intervened in collective action decisions as the informal sector grew. The chapter demonstrates that officials increased benefits to organized vendors as the costs of regulating markets increased. Additionally, the leaders that take advantage of these offers tend to have more resources than their colleagues, and as the offers increased, so did the level of organization among the city’s street vendors. The chapter also discusses the many trade-offs that officials make in implementing different policies, and how officials manage the often combative organizations that they encourage.

Street Markets in La Paz and São Paulo

Chapter 4 tells the history and structure of street vending in two municipalities in the La Paz department of Bolivia and two districts in the São Paulo state in of Brazil. This chapter demonstrates how officials actively intervene in informal markets and workers’ organizations, and suggests how those interventions vary over time, creating highly structured organizations around La Paz and fleeting organizations around São Paulo. The chapter then develops the specific incentive structures that officials and workers face. Chapter 4 grounds the game theoretic model’s assumptions in observations from street markets in La Paz: It shows that unorganized street vendors create negative externalities, that street vendors approach collective action decisions with a cost–benefit analysis, that officials offer private benefits to organized street vendors, especially leaders, and that once organized, street vendors self-regulate and bargain with officials.

Study on the formalized development of the street-stall economy - based on domestic and international experiences and perspectives

The ground-floor economy has a long history as a significant part of the informal economy. Due to the dependence on its own social status and relationship to the government's political and economic objectives, it has developed precariously in recent years. In the face of post-epidemic problems, a shortcut is to learn from international experience. This paper used the structural theory and drew from the secondary data, demonstrating the background of informal economy and exploring the rational ways to maintain and develop street vending. Spatialization, legalization and network digitization are proven international approaches, which display the empirical and theoretical implications to urban practice and studies.

Vendor rights and violence: Challenges faced by female vendors in Zimbabwe

The paper seeks to highlight the challenges faced by women street vendors in Zimbabwe. The paper provides an overview of the brutal attitudes displayed toward women and young girl vendors by law enforcement agencies in Zimbabwe. Street vending is an important source of income for the poor in the developing world. Street vending activities contribute to the livelihoods of millions of people and to national wellbeing at large, especially in developing countries. Secondary sources including journals, newspapers and online news articles were used in the compilation of this study. These sources were analysed for any insights into women street vendors’ socio-economic status, police treatment of street vendors and working conditions. Street vendors experience arbitrary arrests, harassment, and confiscation of their wares and the government continues to move them out of the town and cities structures despite the unavailability of alternative accommodation. is a need for the government of Zimbabwe to see economic and social rights as a priority and the government should also protect women and girls from police brutality. Without the state’s protection, women and young girls who ply their trade in the street will remain in a state of harassment, beatings and arbitrary arrest by the police.

How does Street Vending Economy Help Rural to Urban Migrants Integrate into Cities?

Street vending is a form of informal economy. The main participants of street vending economy consist of exploited workers, rural-urban migrants who are in low level of socioeconomic households, common workers, and some individual households. Most of the studies and articles have explored how to regulate the street vending economy and how to facilitate the relationship between vendors and city authorities, but the important constitute of street vending economies, rural migrants, has received little attention from scholars and there is little research about it. What role does street vending economy play in the lives of this segment of this population which itself faces a number of challenges in migrating and integrating into the city? We have found out that street vending functions as a platform which helps these people to better integrate into the cities. Through desktop research and case studies, this paper explores how street vending economy helps rural to urban migrants integrate into the city from four perspectives: identity integration, integrating in economic level, integrating in social level, and females' empowerment.

Retailing Strategies of West African Itinerant Immigrant Traders in Ghana

While Ghana remains a key destination for West African itinerant immigrant traders, studies examining their retail strategies appear missing in the Ghanaian migration literature. Applying the mixed methods design, quantitative and qualitative data were obtained from 779 immigrant vendors and 9 immigrant key informants. In tandem with this design (mixed methods), interview schedule and in-depth interview guide were employed to collect the data for analysis. The results indicate that most of the respondents exhibited their entrepreneurial prowess by constructing a network of clients around their business. The findings indicate that they sustained their clients by selling their wares at reduced prices with the supplier price being the determinant. Such traders usually prefer cash payments for their products with street vending being their main itinerant retail strategy. Primarily, most of them advertised their wares by shouting to draw attention to what they sell while others increased their sales using flattery and persuasive language. The Chi-square test results revealed a significant nexus between the immigrant vendors’ countries of origin and the various techniques they used to retail their goods. The study unveils the fact that aspiring entrepreneurs and shop retailers could experiment the pricing strategy of these immigrant traders, to increase sale values.

The Challenges Faced by Women Street Vendors in Warwick Junction, Durban

Warwick Junction in Durban is a hive of informal sector activity, mainly street vending, which sustains several families in and around Durban. There is an abundance of literature on street vending as part of the informal sector. Challenges specific to women engaged in vending at Warwick Junction have attracted little attention in the new millennium. A qualitative study using interviewing was conducted with ten purposefully sampled women participants. The aim was to describe the challenges faced by women vendors. This study reports findings and provides a set of recommendations. Several threats were identified and categorised into four broad themes, namely; financial challenges, competitive pressure, social challenges and infrastructural challenges. This paper provides short term and long-term recommendations.