Abstract
Who is included in civil society metrics? An ethnography of a women’s organization is used to explore the unaccounted—or under-accounted for—community-based, grassroots social and economic roles of women by applying Salamon and Sokolowski’s (2016, Voluntas, 27(4), 1515–1545) definition for identifying boundaries of civil society. Historically, informal organizations—those operating in the informal sector of the economy and not registered with government—are marginalized because they are methodologically difficult to identify and count. Findings demonstrate the complexity of organizations in the informal sector of the economy, using an in-depth analysis of a women’s organization founded and operated by street vendors in Ghana.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Similar content being viewed by others
Notes
- 1.
Civil society is intended as an inclusive term to describe the many types of formal and informal social purpose organizations working toward social benefits, that is, the third sector, non-governmental sector, social economy, social purpose sector, and nonprofit sector. It is inclusive of a variety of different formal and informal organizations, that is, nonprofits, social purpose organizations, non-governmental organizations, and civil society organizations.
- 2.
Please note that these efforts can indeed help with economic, political, and social inclusion, but may also lead to inequities and new threats to women and women livelihoods, such as increased gender-based violence, feminization of poverty, and legal retrenchment of rights based on gender (see Chant, 2014; Eggers del Campo & Steinert, 2020; Horton, 2017).
- 3.
Due to a confidentiality agreement with the group, the name will not be disclosed. As a part of the ethnography, over 80 interviews were completed, but this chapter predominantly focuses on interviews with the members of a single fellowship and savings group.
- 4.
Of the 23 members, 21 are included in this analysis. Of the two members not included in the demographic data and interviews, the first one was absent almost the whole observation period taking care of a parent who was sick in her region of origin. She had migrated to Accra three years earlier to join an elder sister already working in the market. The other member not interviewed joined the group in the last month of the observation; however, another member who joined during the observation period was included in the interviews.
- 5.
This purpose is newer to the Club, enacted in the last year at the behest of one of the members. As covered in the Self-governing section, one of the Club members brought the issue of the orphanage forward for new business and the membership voted to take action. Essentially the Club adopted the orphanage as a public service/volunteer activity.
- 6.
Susu is the local Ghanaian term for individuals that act as an intermediary between market vendors and banks. A susu is different from a microfinance organization. Typically male, they collect money from market vendors, then deposit and monitor that money in a bank on behalf of the participants. Accounts are short-term and payout terms vary depending on the agreement between the susu and street vendor. Some are for specific purposes, similar to life insurance or saving for educational expenses, others are general savings accounts with or without interest. The susus are viewed as more trustworthy because several have been working in the markets for decades, building trust and good standing within the market community.
References
African Development Bank Group. (2012). Urbanization in Africa. https://blogs.afdb.org/inclusive-growth/urbanization-africa-191
African Development Bank Group. (2013). Recognizing Africa’s informal sector. https://blogs.afdb.org/afdb-championing-inclusive-growth-across-africa/post/recognizing-africas-informal-sector-11645
Awumbila, M., Owusu, G., & Teye, J. K. 2014. Can rural-urban migration into slums reduce poverty? Evidence from Ghana. Migrating out of Poverty RPC Working Paper 13. Migrating out of Poverty Consortium, University of Sussex, Brighton, UK.
Brass, J. N. (2016). Allies or adversaries: NGOs and the state in Africa. Cambridge University Press.
Buame, S. K. (1996). Entrepreneurship: A contextual perspective: Discourses and praxis of entrepreneurship activities within the institutional context of Ghana. Lund University Press.
Chant, S. (2014). Exploring the “feminisation of poverty” in relation to women’s work and home-based enterprise in slums of the Global South. International Journal of Gender and. Entrepreneurship, 6(3), 296–316.
David Horton, Smith (1997). The Rest of the Nonprofit Sector: Grassroots Associations as the Dark Matter Ignored in Prevailing “Flat Earth” Maps of the Sector. Nonprofit and Voluntary Sector Quarterly 26(2) 114–131 https://doi.org/10.1177/0899764097262002
Eggers del Campo, I., & Steinert, J. I. (2020). The effect of female economic empowerment interventions on the risk of intimate partner violence: A systematic review and meta-analysis. Trauma, Violence, & Abuse, 23(3), 810–826.
Ghana Statistical Services. (2016). 2015 Labour force report. Accra, Ghana: Ghana Statistical Service. https://www2.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/publications/Labour_Force/LFS%20REPORT_fianl_21-3-17.pdf
Hart, K. (1973). Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 11(01), 61–89.
Heinrich, V. (2005). Studying civil society across the world: Exploring the Thorny issues of conceptualization and measurement. Journal of Civil Society, 1, 211–228.
Horton, L. (2017). Women and microfinance in the global south: Empowerment and disempowerment outcomes. Cambridge University Press.
International Labour Office. (2009). The informal economy in Africa: Promoting transition to formality: Challenges and strategies. ILO.
International Labour Office. (2018). Women and men in the informal economy: A statistical picture. 3rd ed., https://www.ilo.org/global/publications/books/WCMS_626831/lang--en/index.htm. ILO.
José, Castillo Jaime, Jurado Stephen, Allen. (2008). Assessing the effect of social networks among Mexican enterprises. International Journal of Commerce and Management 18(4) 331–343 https://doi.org/10.1108/10569210810921951
Kiaga, A., & Leung, V. (2020). The transition from the informal to the formal economy in Africa. Global Employment Policy Review Background Paper N2. https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/%2D%2D-ed_emp/documents/publication/wcms_792078.pdf
Konadu-Agyemang, K. (Ed.). (2001). IMF and world bank sponsored structural adjustment programs in Africa: Ghana’s experience, 1983-1999. Ashgate.
Meagher, K. (2005). Social capital or analytical liability? Social networks and African informal economies. Global Networks, 5(3), 217–238.
Meagher, K., & Yunusa, M. B. (1996). Passing the buck: Structural adjustment and the Nigerian urban informal sector. United Nations Research Institute for Social Development.
Minard, S. (2009). Valuing entrepreneurship in the informal economy in Senegal. Social Enterprise Journal, 5(3), 186–209.
Moran, M. H. (1990). Civilized women: Gender and prestige in Southeastern Liberia. Cornell University Press.
Olivier J., Walther (2014). Trade networks in West Africa: a social network approach. The Journal of Modern African Studies 52(2) 179–203 https://doi.org/10.1017/S0022278X14000032
Overa, R. (2007). When men do women’s work: Structural adjustment, unemployment and changing gender relations in the informal economy of Accra, Ghana. The Journal of Modern African Studies, 45(04), 539–563.
Patricia H., Thornton Domingo, Ribeiro-Soriano David, Urbano (2011). Socio-cultural factors and entrepreneurial activity. International Small Business Journal: Researching Entrepreneurship 29(2) 105–118 https://doi.org/10.1177/0266242610391930
Salamon, L. M., & Anheier, H. K. (1992). In search of the non-profit sector. I: The question of definitions. Voluntas: International Journal of Voluntary and Nonprofit Organizations, 3(2), 125–151.
Salamon, L. M., & Anheier, H. K. (1998). Social origins of civil society: Explaining the nonprofit sector cross nationally. Voluntas, 9(3), 213–248.
Salamon, L. M., Anheier, H. K., List, R., Toepler, S., & Sokolowski, S. W. (1999). Global civil society. John Hopkins University.
Salamon, L. M., & Sokolowski, S. W. (2016). Beyond nonprofits: Re-conceptualizing the third sector. Voluntas, 27(4), 1515–1545.
United Nations. (2009). World Survey on the Role of Women in Development Women’s Control over Economic Resources and Access to Financial Resources, including Microfinance. United Nations.
Viswanathan, M., Gajendiran, S., & Venkatesan, R. (2008a). Enabling consumer and entrepreneurial literacy in subsistence marketplaces: A research-based approach to educational programs. Springer.
Viswanathan, M., Gajendiran, S., & Venkatesan, R. (2008b). Understanding and enabling marketplace literacy in subsistence contexts: The development of a consumer and entrepreneurial literacy educational program in South India. International Journal of Educational Development, 28(3), 300–319.
Viswanathan, M., Sridharan, S., & Ritchie, R. (2010). Understanding consumption and entrepreneurship in subsistence marketplaces. Journal of Business Research, 63(6), 570–581.
Williams, C. (2008a). The hidden enterprise culture: Entrepreneurship in the underground economy. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Williams, C. (2008b). Beyond necessity-driven versus opportunity-driven entrepreneurship: A study of informal entrepreneurs in England, Russia and Ukraine. The International Journal of Entrepreneurship and Innovation, 9(3), 157–165.
World Bank. (n.d.) Workers in the informal economy. http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/TOPICS/
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Corresponding author
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Rights and permissions
Copyright information
© 2023 The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Singapore Pte Ltd.
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
Zook, S. (2023). Informally Formal: Women’s Mutual Aid Organizations in the Informal Sector of the Economy. In: Krawczyk, K.A., King, B.A. (eds) Women’s Contributions to Development in West Africa. Globalization, Urbanization and Development in Africa . Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8190-6_6
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-19-8190-6_6
Published:
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore
Print ISBN: 978-981-19-8189-0
Online ISBN: 978-981-19-8190-6
eBook Packages: Social SciencesSocial Sciences (R0)