Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jn8rn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T15:09:21.010Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Informal Sector in Jinja, Uganda: Implications of Formalization and Regulation

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  18 October 2013

Sarah Lince
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract:

This article examines two policies targeting the informal open-air market and fishing sectors in Jinja, Uganda. The informal sector has grown to become a significant source of livelihood for people in growing cities such as Jinja. At the same time, development policies have become increasingly concerned with encouraging formalization as well as the participation of local stakeholders in governance and decision-making. While there has been much debate about the potential impacts of formalizing previously informal, unregulated, unpermitted activities, the implications of these policies for informal vendors and fishers have received less attention. Despite their promises of addressing previous marginalization, the patterns of participation and formalization enforced by these two policies in Uganda have reduced the control of these individuals over their own livelihoods, as well as intensifying contestations of local authority and jurisdiction over resources.

Résumé:

Résumé:

Cet essai examine deux mesures ciblant le marché ouvert informel et les secteurs de la pêche à Jinja, en Ouganda. Le secteur informel est devenu une source importante de revenus pour les gens dans les villes en croissance comme Jinja. Simultanément, les efforts de régulation ainsi que la participation d'actionnaires locaux sont devenus une priorité de développement et de planification politique. Bien qu'il y ait eu beaucoup de débats concernant les conséquences potentielles sur le marché de la régulation d'activités au préalable non régulées ou autorisées, les implications pour les commerçants et les pêcheurs non régulés n'ont pas été considérées avec autant d'intérêt. En dépit des promesses de prise en compte des problèmes antérieurs de la marginalisation, les modes de formalisation et de participation régulés par ces mesures ont réduit le controle que ces individus peuvent avoir sur leurs moyens d'existence et leur futur. Ces mesures ont aussi fait augmenter les contestations de l'autorité locale et de la juridiction des ressources.

Type
Research Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 54 , Issue 2 , September 2011 , pp. 73 - 93
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abrahamsen, Rita. 2000. Disciplining Democracy: Development Discourse and Good Governance in Africa. New York: Palgrave/St. Martins Press.Google Scholar
Africa Neios. 2009. “Uganda: Even Fish Heads Are Now Expensive.” January 16. www.AfricaNews.com.Google Scholar
Asowa-Okwe, Charles. 1996. “Amavubi: An Examination of the Living and Working Conditions of Fish Labourers of Lakes Kyoga and Victoria. In Uganda: Studies in Labour, edited by Mamdani, Mahmood, 181–242. Dakar: CODESRIA.Google Scholar
Brett, E. 2008. “State Failure and Success in Uganda and Zimbabwe: The Logic of Political Decay and Reconstruction in Africa.” Journal of Development Studies 44 (3): 339–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
van Beusekom, Monica. 2002. Negotiating Development: African Farmers and Colonial Experts at the Office du Niger, 1900–1960. Portsmouth, N.H.: Heinemann.Google Scholar
Decker, Alicia. 2007. “Beyond the Barrel: Women, Gender, and Military Rule in Idi Amin's Uganda, 1971–1979.” Ph.D. diss., Emory University.Google Scholar
Escobar, Arturo. 1991. “Anthropology and the Development Encounter: The Making and Marketing of Development Anthropology.” American Ethnologist 18 (4): 658–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, James. 1994. The Anti-Politics Machine. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Farrington, Conor. 2009. “Putting Good Governance into Practice I: The Ibraham Index of African Governance.” Progress in Development Studies 9 (3): 249–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Geheb, Kim, et al. 2007. The Future of Change: Roles, Dynamics and Functions for Fishing Communities in the Management of Lake Victoria's Fisheries. Aquatic Ecosystem Health and Management 10 (4): 467–80.Google Scholar
Geheb, Kim, et al.. 2008. “Nile Perch and the Hungry of Lake Victoria: Gender, Status and Food in an East African Fishery.” Food Policy 33: 85–98.Google Scholar
Gettleman, Jeffrey. 2009. “Ripples of Dispute Surround Tiny Island Along Watery Border in East Africa.” New York Times, August 17.Google Scholar
Heck, S. Ikwaput, et al. 2004. “Cross-border Fishing and Trade on Lake Victoria.” Nairobi: IUCN Eastern Africa Regional Programme and Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization.Google Scholar
Hoppe, Kirk. 1997. “Lords of the Fly: Colonial Visions and Revisions of African Sleeping Sickness Environments on Ugandan Lake Victoria 1906–1961.” Africa 67 (1): 86–105.Google Scholar
Jutting, J. P., and Laiglesia, J. R de, eds. 2009. Is Informal Normal? Towards More and Better Jobs in Developing Countries. Paris: Development Centre of the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kosack, Stephen. 2003. “Effective Aid: How Democracy Allows Development Aid to Improve the Quality of Life.” World Development 31 (1): 1–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lange, Siri. 2003. “When Women Grow Wings: Gender Relations in the Informal Economy of Kampala.” Chr. Michehon Institute 8: 1–30.Google Scholar
Lindell, I., and Appelblad, J.. 2009. “Disabling Governance: Privatization of City Markets and Implications for Vendors' Associations in Kampala, Uganda.” Habitat International 33 (4): 397–404.Google Scholar
LVFO (Lake Victoria Fisheries Organization). 2008. The Fisheries Management Plan for Lake Victoria 2009 to 2014. Jinja: LVFO Secretariat.Google Scholar
Maloney, William. 2004. “Informality Revisited.” World Development 95 (7): 1159–78.Google Scholar
Maxwell, D. G. 1998. “Urban Agriculture: Unplanned Responses to the Economic Crises.” In Developing Uganda, edited by Hansen, H. B. and Twaddle, M., 98–108. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.Google Scholar
Kate, Meagher. 2003. “A Back Door to Globalisation? Structural Adjustment, Globalisation and Transborder Trade in West Africa.” Review of African Political Economy 95: 57–75.Google Scholar
Mendoza, Ronald U. and Thelen, Nina. 2008. “Innovations to Make Markets More Inclusive for the Poor.” Development Policy Review 25 (4): 427–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mohan, Giles, and Stokke, Kristian. 2000. “Participatory Development and Empowerment: The Dangers of Localism.” Third World Quarterly 21 (2): 247–68.Google Scholar
Musisi, Nakanyike. 1995. “Baganda Women's Night Market Activities.” In African Market Women and Economic Power, edited by House-Midamba, B. and Ekechi, F. K., 121–40. Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Namisi, Paul W. 2000. Socio-Economic Implications of the Fish Export Trade on Fishers and Fisheries of Lake Victoria Uganda. Master's thesis, National University of Ireland, Cork. NaFIRRI Archives, Jinja, Uganda.Google Scholar
New Vision. 2010. “Uganda's Fish Export Earnings.” New Vision, January 31. www.newvision.co.Google Scholar
Ntege, Hilda. 1993. “Women and Urban Housing Crisis: Impact of Public Policies and Practices in Uganda.“ Economic and Political Weekly 28 (44): 46–62.Google Scholar
Obbo, Christine. 1980. African Women and Their Struggle for Economic, Independence. London: Zed Press.Google Scholar
Odongkara, Konstantine. 2001. “Poverty in the Fisheries: Indicators, Causes and Interventions.” In NaFIRRI Socio-Economic Research Report Two: Lake Victoria Environmental Management Project. Jinga, Uganda: National Fisheries Resources Research Institute.Google Scholar
Tendler, Judith. 2002. “Small Firms, the Informal Sector, and the Devil's Deal.” IDS Bulletin 33 (3): 98–104.Google Scholar
Tripp, Aili. 1998. “Local Women's Associations and Politics in Contemporary Uganda. “ In Develofnng Uganda, edited by Hansen, H. B and Twaddle, M., 120–32. Kampala: Fountain Publishers.Google Scholar
Uganda Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. 2004. National Fisheries Policy. Kampala: UMAAF.Google Scholar
Uganda Ministry of Agriculture, Animal Industry and Fisheries. 2000. Women and Politics in Uganda. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press. World Bank. 2009. “Urban Informal Sector in Uganda.” http://info.worldbank.org.Google Scholar