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Whether in the rich Western countries, or the Southern Hemisphere developing countries, street trading is a socio-economic phenomenon which provides employment to millions of poor and marginalised communities, allowing them to survive despite socio-economic and political constraints. Well aware that their empowerment cannot come or be initiated except by themselves, they find in organising an empowerment will-power which triggers collective action toward influencing change of institutional practices and processes which often marginalise and put them under unnecessary pressure. In this environment, street traders’ organisations’ role tends to be limited to meeting the direct causes of their current concerns as crises arise and therefore leave in the oblivion deep causes which lead to their marginalisation. Weakened by their constituencies’ economic situation, they often fall into fatalism and often become easy-targets and victims of non-inclusive municipal processes. By organising and building strong organisations they are likely to emancipate themselves from exploitative practices and processes and to claim a share in matters concerning their interests as equal stakeholders without any discrimination or exploitation but for the sake of empowering disadvantaged communities. Therefore the choice of this study was instructed by the feeling that empowered street traders’ organisations in Durban-CBD can play a major role towards the integration of street traders in the city socio-economic framework. / Thesis (M.A.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2009.

Thesis (M.S.)--Ohio University, June, 2007. / Title from PDF t.p. Includes bibliographical references.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-142). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.Sc.U.R.P.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, 2008.

This dissertation uses a mixed method approach to examine the determinants of internal remittances that are connected to the social networks of urban migrant street vendors. Urban street markets are a point of entry for many migrants moving from rural areas to cities in the Global South. The qualitative portion of the dissertation uses an ethnographic approach including participant observation, interviews and focus groups to examine the social networks of street vendors in a market in the municipality of Madina, Ghana. The quantitative analysis codes data from the ethnography in order to conduct a social network analysis using quadratic assignment procedure and logistic regression quadratic assignment procedure to analyze the relationship between attributes of street vendors and remittance behavior. Findings lead to several policy recommendations for the international community, as well as locally based non-governmental organizations, microfinance organizations, national and local governments providing funding or designing interventions affecting street markets or working with individual street vendors.

Cette thèse est une contribution à la compréhension des nouvelles dynamiques urbaines liées aux activités commerciales dans les villes des Suds et tout particulièrement à Dakar. L’entrée privilégiée est celle des acteurs qui sont impliqués directement ou indirectement dans les activités commerciales. Compte tenu de la place importante qu’elles occupent dans l’économie et dans l’espace urbains et la multitude d’acteurs qu’elles mobilisent, ces activités offrent un cadre pertinent d’analyse des processus d’appropriation de l’espace et des mutations urbaines en cours. Cette thèse révèle que les activités commerciales s’insèrent dans l’espace dakarois sous de multiples formes : commerce de rue, marchés, centre commercial. Mais l’absence d’une politique cohérente d’aménagement de l’espace urbain établit le commerce comme un défi pour la gestion urbaine. Dans ce contexte, la décentralisation qui aurait pu contribuer au développement harmonieux de la ville, a, plutôt, exacerbé les clivages entre les collectivités de proximité, la mairie de Dakar et l’Etat central sur fond de rivalités politiques, nourries par les conflits d’intérêts privés mis en concurrence. Les opérations de déguerpissement érigées en mode de régulation de l’espace urbain par les collectivités locales ne sont pas parvenues à résoudre le problème de l’occupation des rues par les marchands. Ces derniers préfèrent rester dans la rue plutôt que de regagner les centres commerciaux construits par la mairie de Dakar pour les recaser. Cette thèse contribue ainsi à éclairer la notion d’espace public territoire privilégié des stratégies de survie quotidienne. / This thesis aims to develop a better understanding of the new urban dynamics related to commercial activities in Dakar. It focuses on the identification of the stakes, the logics, and the actors’ game with a view of better understanding the processes of urban space appropriation and its management by multiple actors who are involved directly or indirectly in commercial activities in the Senegalese capital. As a matter of fact commercial activities offer a relevant analytical framework of the processes of space appropriation and urban changes in Dakar, given the important place they hold in urban economy and the multitude of actors they involve. In actuality, commercial activities occur in many forms in the city of Dakar: street trading, markets, shopping malls. They do play a role in space changes within the Senegalese capital. However, due to the lack of coherent policy on urban space, trading presents a challenge to urban management. In this context, whereas decentralization could have contributed to urban development, it has actually heightened tensions, with political rivalries in the background, between the city council of Dakar and the central State. At another level, the decamping operations that are taken as a mode of regulation of urban space by local authorities have failed to solve the problem of street occupancy by merchants.

M.A. / In terms of the Constitution, municipalities have a mandate to govern, to provide services and to promote social and economic development. Several pieces of legislation enhance the developmental role of local government, such as the Development Facilitation Act, 1995 (Act 67 of 1995) empowering municipalities to establish statutory land development objectives setting out a clear approach to land development for each municipality. The objects of local government as stipulated in section 152 of the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa , serve as a guideline in fulfilling its role and functions. The Integrated and Development Plan approach is more appropriate in facilitating efficiency and effectiveness in municipalities. Several provinces have passed regulations requiring that the land development objectives also cover economic development goals.The Department of Provincial and Local Government (DPLG) is compelled by law to use the Integrated Development Planning (IDP) and this is likely to shape the actions of local government in implementing policies intended to reduce poverty and inequality. A municipality must structure and manage its administration and planning process to give priority to the basic needs of the community and to promote the social and economic development of the community, according to the Constitution of the Republic of South Africa. Only when the majority of the citizens receive at least a lifeline supply of basic-need services and goods, can equity be achieved. This study focuses on the City of Johannesburg's constitutional obligation to promote local economic development. The study is limited in this way to make it more manageable. This area is selected on the basis that there is a diversity of people whose economic levels are highly different and therefore there is a need for LED. A municipality's approach to street traders in, for example, former Black township areas, is likely to be quite different to approaches in CBDs. The study is mainly a historical study of both published literature and unpublished material concerning municipalities' constitutional obligations to promote LED. The study is trying to pin down facts, and identify trends, in a rapidly changing environment.

The informal sector thrives in a context of high unemployment, underemployment, poverty, gender inequality and precarious work. It plays a significant role in such circumstances, especially in income generation and in contributing to the livelihood of those engaged in it. The study investigated the contribution of street vending to the livelihood of street vendors in Nkonkobe Municipality. The aim of the study was to investigate whether street vending has the potential to sustain the lives of those engaged in it. In order to reach its objectives, the study employed a qualitative research approach whereby a non-probability sampling design in the form of a purposive sampling method was adopted and considered appropriate for this study. In terms of data collection, the study made use of structured questionnaires as a data collection method whereby questionnaires were administered and distributed to 40 street venders. The Upper Bound Poverty Line (UBPL) was used as a measurement to assess whether the participants’ incomes were above the poverty datum line in order to determine the sector’s contribution to the traders’ livelihood. From this study, it was found that street vending has both positive and negative impacts with regard to the success and profit-earning potential of these traders. Thus, the study concluded that street vending is a vital community development tool and a major source of livelihood as it plays a very important socio-economic role in Nkonkobe and in South Africa in general. The sector provides a livelihood for a huge population mainly comprised of the poor and other impoverished groups of society.

Oliver Tambo Institute of Governance and Policy Studies