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millions who operate poor, micro informal businesses.Changes have to be Context SpecificAlthough development interventions tend to favourreform through standardised, ‘best practice’ institutionalforms, 101 what is required is an empiricallygrounded perspective using context-specificresearch, organisational innovation and politicalentrepreneurship rather than the importation ofinstitutional templates (‘toolkits’) forged elsewhere.102 Because rules are at once constituentelements of cultural norms and values as muchas they are embodied in commercial codes andconstitutions, attempts at ‘legal empowerment’need to engage if not with that full spectrum thenat least with a more complete awareness of thespectrum’s existence and importance. 103Therefore context-specificity is a fundamentalrequirement in moving towards change. Thisspecificity must also extend to the reality ofdifferent categories of informal businesses inspecific locales and industries. Any policy orinstitutional reform has to recognise and supportboth the self-employed (differentiating betweenmicro-entrepreneurs and own-account operators)and wage workers in the informal economy. Thelack of recognition and understanding of thesebasic components of the informal economy oftenhinders the development of appropriate policy.Reform Processes Must beParticipatory and Gender ResponsivePolicy and institutional reform should be participatoryand inclusive and allow for policies tobe developed through consultation with informalbusinesses, and through consensus of relevantgovernment departments, the organisations ofinformal businesses and other appropriate socialactors. In order to have a voice, those who arein the informal economy must be organised andtheir efforts to organise into association andcooperatives at every level should be encouraged.In order to organise, the working poor have to beallowed the space and resources to associate fora common economic purpose and without politicalmanipulation.Of course, formulating appropriate policies andstrategies is not an easy task. However, with theinvolvement of the organisations that representinformal businesses it is likely to succeed. Theway forward has to be one of negotiated solutions,and these negotiations have to be aboutrights and responsibilities. While the inclusionof the voice of all stakeholders in making policyis essential to its success, the input of informalworkers and their organisations, based on recognitionof their right to organise, is crucial.The voice of women has to be clearly heard inthis process. In most regions of the world, alarger share of the female than of the male workforceis in the informal economy and, within theinformal economy, more women tend to be concentratedin lower-return segments than are men.As a result, even within the informal economy,there is a significant gender gap in earnings andin the benefits and protection afforded by work.Understanding relations between men and women,their different positions in the economy andtheir access to and control of resources, is crucialto understanding the informal economy, wherea gendered approach is a pro-poor approach.Supporting women’s work will, in effect, lead tosupport for poor households and poor children.Legal empowerment of informalbusiness should be prioritised as agovernance issueThe reform process should be based on an informedunderstanding of the economic contribu-257