Imagining the future of Africa 2025 - Social and political challenges

African countries which enjoy peace, political stability and where freedom is freely expressed has shown constant economic growth and stability compared to countries where there is no peace and political stability. Conflicts, political instability and social differences (way of living, better opportunities) in Africa compared to western countries has been a major cause of a large number of qualified African professions in diaspora, which has created professional backlog and affected growth in Africa. Over the last decade, trade has attributed to most growth in Africa but this growth has not been inclusive due to political instability, conflicts, high corruption, high youth unemployment rate and other factors in some African countries.

Informal economic activities are very common and is considered to be the source of income for millions of families in most African countries especially in Sub-Saharan Africa. The main causes of informal sector are lack of sufficient opportunities created by the formal sector, high unemployment rate which is caused by economic, political instability, crisis and conflicts. The informal sector is posed by many challenges such as lack of decent working conditions, informal workers’ rights are often violated, and workers are poorly protected and fluctuating income. The informal sector create employment opportunities and is the only source of income for millions of women and young people in Africa. Therefore any transformation to formality should ensure that revenue is not lost for informal workers.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) state that the difference between formality and informality has often been attributed to more than one meaning/interpretation, and that formalisation is a step by step process and can take a very long time to be realised. Moving out of informality will require societies/communities and all who operate in it to become formal themselves, which doesn’t happen overnight. So society with the help of organisations of good will (NGOs, charitable organisations etc.) can build a bridge between formality and informality. Bridging the gap between formality and informality will also require a change in perception in the society/community, some people tend to go into informal business as a way of evading tax and administration hustles in the formal sector.

According to ILO, Social economy refers to organisations such as cooperatives, NGOs, which produce goods, provide services and knowledge while satisfying both economic and social objectives. Social economy has been identified as key to bridge the gap between informal and formal sectors of the economy, thus increasing income, profits, productivity and competition. This can be achieved by combining social objectives with economic growth sustainability, to create opportunities, empower, protect and increase the bargaining power of informal workers.

To ensure the success of social economy, governments and social organisations should form partnerships, whereby governments come up with policies that protect, provide a conducive environment for informal workers to prosper and social organisations come up with initiatives to educate, encourage community projects in agriculture, manufacturing, commerce etc. and to empower social workers with knowledge. Governments and social partners need to fully recognise the potential of social economy in bridging the gap between informal and formal economies