NN37, May 2006
Special Theme on Education and Training out of Poverty? A Status Report
EDUCATING AND TRAINING FOR SUSTAINABLE LIVELIHOODS: THE INFORMAL SECTOR IN COASTAL COMMUNITIES, SOUTH AFRICA
By Carolyn Petersen, Centre of African Studies, Edinburgh University
This piece looks at informal sector workers and training provision in rural areas on the West Coast of the Western Cape, particularly fishers and fishworkers, and draws parallels with informal sector workers in other sectors such as commercial agriculture. It draws lessons for training from the informal sector context in South Africa, arguing that skills training has to be specifically targeted for the informal sector. It advocates that literacy and basic education provision are not enough to improve the livelihoods of rural people, many of whom are working in the informal sector ? but that more advanced training, including in business and marketing, as well as financial support and an enabling environment are crucial in order for people to leave poverty behind. As such, this work also engages with current research emphasising the importance of post-basic education and training, including for the informal sector, which has been carried out in other parts of Africa, particularly in Ghana and Kenya. It also argues that skills training is not sufficient on its own but needs to be integrated into a rural development strategy and a policy environment where rural people receive an equitable allocation of natural and financial resources, including the benefits of export trade in the sectors in which they work.The increasing export-orientation and commercialisation of highly globalised industries such as fishing and agriculture has exacerbated the dominance of the formal sector. Yet at the same time informal, casual and precarious forms of labour are increasing. Using the fishing sector as an example, this paper shows that this has led to the creation of a number of mainly survivalist small businesses in the informal sector, producing for the export market on relatively unfavourable terms. Many others have been left out of legal access altogether, jeopardising their livelihoods. Thus the interests and profits of big business and the revenue such resources can provide for the state are privileged above the livelihoods of local people living in relative, and in some cases increasing poverty. A wide communication gap between rural communities and the government exacerbates these marginalizing effects. The internet has come to dominate as the mode of communication for government policy and information dissemination, primarily using English including in training provision, despite rural people?s inadequate access to these means.
Although this research calls for improved access to skills training and employment schemes that are specifically aimed to benefit informal sector workers and small, medium and micro enterprises (SMMEs) in rural areas, it also questions the universal appropriateness of the SMME model in this context. It emphasises the importance of two-way information and knowledge exchange mechanisms between people in rural areas and those who make development and policy decisions. In order to realise the potential of the informal sector to create employment and reduce poverty, greater recognition is required of the realities and livelihood strategies of local people, especially in the context of under-funding to rural areas and to specific communities.
Despite claims about conservation aims, neo-liberal economic and resource management models combined with aggressive fishing techniques used by the formal industrial sector have led to the global depletion of fish stocks. This has been to the detriment of the many local people that are reliant on these resources. In contrast, small-scale, informal sector fishers use relatively sustainable practices that have in many cases been carried out for generations. Thus this paper addresses the political nature of resource and training provision as well as information dissemination. It highlights the need to raise the profile within donors, government and the private sector of the importance of informal sector workers, including their contribution to the economy and their knowledge of relatively sustainable practices ? to push for greater skills development, as well as financial support and equitable allocation of resources. As such it recognises the role of civil society groups in furthering this goal.