Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-7cvxr Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T06:07:48.439Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Informal Sector and Zambia's Employment Crisis

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  11 November 2008

David M. Todd  and
Christopher Shaw
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Late in 1979 the Zambian Government unveiled its Third National Development Plan which will guide policies until the year 1984, and this implies that problems of unemployment, particularly in urban areas, will be partly overcome by an expansion of self-employment possibilities.

Such was the enthusiasm for the new initiative that the absence of reliable information surrounding it was largely ignored. This article attempts to provide relevant data concerning a number of issues which will be vital in implementing any measures to encourage self-employment in the so-called ‘informal sector’ of the Zambian economy. In particular we shall endeavour to quantify the likely flows into the labour force, particularly from the educational system, the possible growth of formal wage employment in urban areas, and the current size and composition of the informal sector. Finally, conclusions are drawn concerning the possible rôle of this sector in absorbing the unemployed in the plan period.

Type
Articles
Information
The Journal of Modern African Studies , Volume 18 , Issue 3 , September 1980 , pp. 411 - 425
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1980

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

page 411 note 1 Miracle, M., ‘Plateau Tonga Entrepreneurs in Historical Inter-Regional Trade’, in Rhodes-Livingstone Journal (Lusaka), xxvi, 1961, pp. 34–51.Google Scholar

page 412 note 1 Palmer, R., Zambian Land and Labour Studies, Vol. 1 (Lusaka, 1974).Google Scholar

page 412 note 2 Lombard, C. and Tweedie, A., Agriculture in Zambia Since Independence (Lusaka, 1972),Google Scholar and Muntemba, M., ‘Rural Underdevelopment in Zambia: Kabwe Rural District, 1850–1970’, Ph.D. dissertation, University of California, Los Angeles, 1977.Google Scholar

page 412 note 3 Hazelwood, A. and Henderson, P., Nyasaland: the economics of federation (Oxford, 1960), p. 46.Google Scholar

page 412 note 4 Seidman, Ann, ‘The Distorted Growth of Import-Substitution Industry: the Zambian case’, in The Journal of Modern African Studies (Cambridge), xii, 4, 12 1974, pp. 601–31,Google Scholar republished in Development in Zambia: a reader (London, 1979), pp. 100–28.Google Scholar

page 412 note 5 van der Hoeven, R., Zambia's Income Distribution During the Early Seventies (Geneva, 1977), p. 2.Google Scholar

page 413 note 1 Seidman, loc. cit. p. 102.

page 413 note 2 Mwanza, Jacob, ‘Rural–Urban Migration and Urban Employment in Zambia’, in Development in Zambia, p. 34.Google Scholar

page 414 note 1 Beveridge, A., ‘Economic Independence, Indigenisation, and the African Businessman: some effects of Zambia's economic reforms’, in African Studies Review (East Lansing), 3, 1974.Google Scholar

page 414 note 2 Van der Hoeven, op. cit. p. 6.

page 414 note 3 Maimbo, F. and Fry, J., ‘An Investigation into the Changes in Terms of Trade between the Rural and Urban Sectors’, in African Social Research (Lusaka), 12, 1971.Google Scholar

page 414 note 4 See U.N.I.C.E.F., Report on Children and Women in Zambia (Lusaka, 1979),Google Scholar ch. 6.

page 415 note 1 Labour force figures are based on the definition produced by the Central Statistical Office in their ‘Projections of the Labour Force, 1969–84’, Population Monograph, No. 3 (Lusaka, 1976), pp. 1–3.Google Scholar

page 418 note 1 Jackman, M., Case, J., Dow, P., and Shaw, C., School Leaver Migration in Zambia (Lusaka, 1979),Google Scholar Manpower Research Report, No. 2.

page 419 note 1 Lusaka Housing Project Evaluation Team, George 1976, Initial Results of the First Primary Sample Survey (Lusaka, 1977),Google Scholar Working Paper No. 4, and Chaisa Complex: some population statistics (Lusaka, 1977),Google Scholar Working Paper No. 5 also Collins, J. and Muller, I., ‘Economic Activity, the Informal Sector, and Household Income’, Lusaka, 1974.Google Scholar

page 419 note 2 National Housing Authority, ‘Gardens and Outdoor Living’, Lusaka, 1972.Google Scholar

page 419 note 3 David M. Todd, unpublished data.

page 419 note 4 Jol, D., ‘Urban Shelter in Zambia’, Lusaka, 1977.Google Scholar

page 420 note 1 Hansen, K., ‘Married Women and Work: explorations from an urban case study’, in African Social Research, 20, 1975, p. 777–800.Google Scholar

page 420 note 2 Collins and Muller, op. cit.

page 420 note 3 Lusaka Housing Project Evaluation Team, unpublished data, N = 436.

page 421 note 1 Todd, David M., Mulenga, A., and Mupimpila, C., ‘Marketeers and Urban Growth: a study of five Lusaka markets in 1978’, Urban Community Reports No. 1, Lusaka, 1978.Google Scholar

page 421 note 2 Todd, unpublished data, N = 280.

page 421 note 3 Oberschall, A., ‘African Traders and Small Businessmen in Lusaka’, in African Social Research, 16, 1973.Google Scholar

page 421 note 4 Hansen, loc, cit.

page 421 note 5 George 1976, Table 3.5.

page 421 note 6 Collins and Muller, op. cit.

page 421 note 7 Oberschall, loc. cit.

page 422 note 1 A. Oberschall, ‘African Businessmen in Rural Zambia’, Lusaka, n.d., N = 134.

page 422 note 2 Hansen, loc. cit.

page 422 note 3 George 1976, Table 1–13.

page 423 note 1 Todd, David M. with Mulenga, A. and Mupimpila, C., Businesses in Lusaka Markets and Recommendations for their Assistance (Lusaka, 1979),Google Scholar Lusaka Housing Project Evaluation Team, Working Paper No. 37, p. 49.

page 423 note 2 Jules-Rosette, B., ‘Alternative Urban Adaptations: Zambian cottage industries as sources of social and economic innovation’, in Human Organization (New York), 1979;Google Scholar also Todd, Mulenga, and Mupimpila, op. cit.

page 424 note 1 Development Planning Unit, University College London, ‘Employment, Self-Employment and Household Income in Lusaka’, Lusaka, 1974.

page 424 note 2 Lusaka Housing Project Evaluation Team, Employment Generation Study (Lusaka, 1977),Google Scholar Working Paper No. 14.

page 424 note 3 King, Kenneth, The African Artisan: education and the informal sector in Kenya (London, 1977).Google Scholar

page 424 note 4 Ibid. pp. 59–60.