Download the file - United Nations Rule of Law

ment procurement, tax rebates, and taxfundedsubsidies and incentive packages.• Provision of financial, business and marketingservices.• Creating mechanisms and financial arrangementsto provide social protection for informalproducers.• Promoting participatory policy processes andinclusive rule-setting institutions that involverepresentatives of associations of informalentrepreneurs.The broad effect of reform in attaining legal empowermentwill not only improve the well-beingand livelihoods of individual entrepreneurs; it willalso result in enhanced social protection, as wellas increased productivity and asset base of poorpeople and of the nation as a whole.I. Introduction andFrameworkSince the phrase ‘informal sector’ was coinedin the early 1970s 6 to describe the range ofsubsistence activities of the urban poor, there hasbeen considerable debate about its definition.The informal sector is not homogenous; it encompassesdifferent types of economic activities,different labour relations that range from the selfemployed,paid and unpaid, to disguised wageworkers and economies with different economicpotential that includes survivalist economies andsuccessful micro and small enterprises. In effect,the term ‘informal economy’ is more appropriateas it comprises the informal sector while notexcluding possible linkages of informal operatorswith the formal sector. 7Generally speaking, informal economyencompasses the expanding an increasinglydiverse groups of workers and businesses inboth rural and urban areas, operating informally— i.e., they are not recognised or protectedunder the legal and regulatory frameworks. Thenational and local economies continue to be acontinuum that ranges from informal to formal.The informal economy has been growing at arapid rate throughout the world, including in theindustrialised countries. In recent years, much ofthe employment potential within the developingcountries has been found in the informal economiesand, hence, in the informal enterprises.In these countries, a much higher proportion ofthose working in the informal economy are poor,with the share of women relative to men beingmuch higher.202Accordingly, the legal empowerment agendafor business rights emphasises reforms, creatingmechanisms and financial arrangements toprovide social protection for informal producers.