Street Vending Problem

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1.3 Problem Statement According to Bromley (2000) street vending is viewed as a worldwide phenomenon, found in all countries of developed, transitional and developing economies. Nevertheless, it is important to recognize that street vendors are most numerous in poorer countries, and that they are usually concentrated in urban areas. According to ILO (2002) despite the importance of street vending activities in developed and developing economies, the local authorities consider street vending to be a problem for urban management. The street vendors are most of the time at best ignored, or at worse repressed by the local authorities. This situates street vending in unsafe position and to carry on the existence of a conflictual environment. There…show more content…
street vending in most urban settlements in developing countries cannot be ignored since they play significant role in the development of the economies of these countries. For instance, the sector employs between 35 % and 65% of the labor force; and contributes between 20 % and 40% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in developing countries (Braun and Laoyza, 1994). According to Timalsina (2007), in most developing countries such as India, Nepal, Bangladesh and some Sub-Saharan African countries like Zimbabwe, Malawi, about half of the urban employed population works in the informal trading i.e. street vending since the entrance to this activity is easy. According to Skinner (2008) a critical factor in increasing the numbers of street vending in Africa is the Structural Adjustment Programs (SAPs) of the 1980s and 1990s the cocktail of privatization, restructuring of the public sector and opening up of African economies to foreign goods led to a dramatic shrinking of the formal economy in Africa. This resulted in a substantial increase in the numbers of those informally employed. According to ILO (2002), in Africa Street vending is estimated to account for 60 % of all urban jobs and over 90 % of all new urban jobs. Street vending is estimated to account for the largest share of these jobs. Trends in street vending over time are integrally linked to urbanization and…show more content…
Hence, the population is forced to informal means of work i.e. street vending so as to increase income and to solve employment problems within their respective household. It is thus not a miracle and surprising that in Ethiopia, 48.2% of urban employed are in the informal sector (CSA 2003). According to Tigray region Bureau of Urban Development Trade and Industry (2010) report in Tigray region, the growth of informal economy particularly in the current regime is dynamic. When we look at the growth of the sector from the year 2008-2010; there were only 74,000 people engaged in the sector in the year 2008. In the year 2009 the number of people engaged in the sector was increased to 84,416. It was in the year 2010 that the sector showed substantial increment from the previous increment. In the year 2010 there were 109, 712 which showed an increment of 23,296 people engaged in the

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