Informal Sector Operations and the Environment

Abstract

Using case studies from Cairo, Harare, Kigali, and Addis Ababa, this study seeks to disentangle the relationship that exists between the informal sector and the urban environments in Africa. It argues that there are two sides to the coin of the informal sector: the informal sector as a major contributor to urban environmental pollution (land, water, air, and sound), and the sector works as a “cleanser” given its ability to re-use the materials that the formal sector has disgorged. The study defines the inputs, processes, throughputs, and outputs in the sector in keeping with the debates of informal sector contributor to poor environmental management and the informal sector cleanser of the potentially polluted environment. In light of these debates, the authors see the extant imperative of balancing between the two debates in order to inform the urban environmental policy. Overall, with improved technology or appropriate technology coupled with rigorous environmental stewardship campaigns, it is possible to create safer cities where brown, green, and red issues are balanced out.

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