Challenging the formality bias: The organization of informal work, working relations, and collective agency in Kenya and Tanzania

Abstract

MotivationFormal social protection systems, such as health insurance and representation, are often biased towards formal workers; thereby excluding most of the world's working population who make a living in the informal economy.PurposeThe article extends existing critiques of the formality bias by investigating the reality of work for people in the informal economy in Kenya and Tanzania and analysing related social protection challenges. Specifically, we look at a) the governance of work; b) the organization of work relations; and c) collective agency. In terms of social protection, we focus on formal and informal forms of social insurance and representation.Methods and approachWe draw on interview and survey data from people working in micro trading, transport, and construction in Nairobi and Kisumu, Kenya, and Dar es Salaam and Dodoma, Tanzania. 1462 workers were surveyed, and 24 focus group discussions were run with such workers. Interviews were held with 120 key informants: leaders and members of informal workers’ associations in the three sectors, as well as representatives of authorities, trade unions, and business associations. Data were collected from June 2018 to December 2019.FindingsFormal social insurance and representation do not fit the reality of most people working in the informal economy: they have been modelled on and designed to support workers in formal standard employment relations. At the same time, informal workers’ own associations play important roles in meeting—albeit inadequately—the social insurance and representational needs of their members.Policy implicationsMeaningfully engaging with the reality of work and collective agency in the informal economy is necessary to inform more appropriate policies and measures to provide informal workers with appropriate social protection measures, particularly social insurance and representation. Their reality should not have to conform to an inadequate model; rather the model should fit their reality.