Partner: DANIDA
Country: Tanzania, Rwanda, Kenya, Ghana
Project period: 2015 – 2018
There are millions of informal microenterprises in Tanzania. IMED Foundation led a project to examine the nature and causes of informality, experience, and lessons from formalization initiatives in Tanzania, Ghana, Kenya, and Rwanda. Based on the findings, IMED Foundation recommended a participatory formalization model that reaches the base of the pyramid of the private sector by using groups of microenterprise operators to recognize, regulate and act as a conduit for services (workspace, insurance, security, medical insurance, pension, etc.)for members who are too small or unestablished to fit into the conventional registration and licensing framework. This model can be adopted in the sub-sectors with relatively stable operators (e.g., urban farming, tour operators, guides, motorcycle and rickshaw operators, sanitary services providers, etc.) in Tanzania. The findings and recommendations have been presented in several forums and have been accepted for publication in the “Journal of entrepreneurship in emerging economies.” Further, IMED Foundation is working with the largest association of informal operators and local authorities to pilot them.