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negative manifestations of informal businessesand informalisation. Also, the changes have tooccur at the local level, which basically definesthe informal economy. Successful mobilisation ofbusinesses at local level, whether by the effortsof government, private sector or NGO, is a greatpromoter of equitable economic growth. Whilesuch interventions would be local in nature, theirimplementation recognises the global (universal)context that influences all development activities.In the end, the success and sustainabilityof any reform will depend on public recognitionand ownership of evidence-based transformationwithin the cultural, social and political milieu. 30To Sum UpThis introduction provided an overall frameworkon the legal empowerment agenda for businessrights and sets the stage for the sections thatfollow. We proposed that reforms can help thepoor and the disadvantaged with the legal andinstitutional environment and the rule of law.People would then be encouraged to developtheir capacities, energies and initiatives and toaccess livelihood resources, build assets andgenerate efficient and productive enterprises. Thenext section will look at informal businesses andenterprises within the context of the informal-formalcontinuum; it will examine the relationshipbetween the informal economy, poverty and productivity,and it will map the informal economiesthat involve women and indigenous people.2. Informal Economy andInformal BusinessesInformal-Formal ContinuumEven though any debate on ‘informality’ centreson the dichotomy between formal andinformal, the concept is a lesser representative ofdualism and embodies a continuum when viewedfrom any of the perspectives of activities, institutionsor contracts. The definition of informality,however, is ambiguous and informal economydenotes a plurality of activities that are also contextual.The term ‘informal sector’ is inadequatebecause it fails to represent the inherent heterogeneity,complexity and dynamism of this economyand its constituent activities. Also, the genderbias in the informal economy is probably underestimatedand women are more likely to be in thoseinformal activities that are under-counted, includingproduction for own consumption and paiddomestic activities in private households. Basedon the ILO’s classification, 31 the term ‘informaleconomy’ has come to be widely used to includethe expanding and increasingly diverse group ofworkers and enterprises in both rural and urbanareas, operating without recognition under legaland protective frameworks, and characterised bya high degree of vulnerability.The informal economy is differentiated in termsof production units as well as employment status.Informal may therefore refer to firm features oftypes of firms, or it may refer to employment. Itmay also be characterised as an activity or a typeof activity. On the one hand, it includes own-accountworkers in survival type activities, rangingfrom street vendors, cobblers and shoe shiners,garbage collectors and rag pickers, to the selfemployedentrepreneurs. On the other hand, therange of wage earners — from aid domestic work-210