Improving Skills Development in the Informal Sector


Book Description

This book uses household surveys in five countries of Sub-Saharan Africa to describe employment off the farm in the region s growing informal sector and assesses how different forms of education and training, including apprenticeships, influence choices in employment and earnings.







Skills Development in Sub-Saharan Africa


Book Description

This publication reviews recent developments within technical and vocational education and training (TVET) in sub-Saharan Africa, as well as future challenges in skills development in the region. Based upon 70 case studies covering 20 countries, it provides a good starting point for the development of country policies and programmes, of relevance to other African regions as well as countries in other regions facing similar challenges. Issues discussed include: the labour market context, reform of public training programmes, regulation of non-government training institutions, enterprise-based training, building skills for the informal economy, balancing cost-effectiveness with growth and equity, and financing.




The Global Informal Workforce


Book Description

The Global Informal Workforce is a fresh look at the informal economy around the world and its impact on the macroeconomy. The book covers interactions between the informal economy, labor and product markets, gender equality, fiscal institutions and outcomes, social protection, and financial inclusion. Informality is a widespread and persistent phenomenon that affects how fast economies can grow, develop, and provide decent economic opportunities for their populations. The COVID-19 pandemic has helped to uncover the vulnerabilities of the informal workforce.




Research Handbook on Development and the Informal Economy


Book Description

This Research Handbook on Development and the Informal Economy captures the magnitude of the informal economy for the global labour force. It unravels numerous concepts, definitions and methods of data collection to offer valuable insight into the differences between the informal, non-observed and shadow economies.




The Long Shadow of Informality


Book Description

A large percentage of workers and firms operate in the informal economy, outside the line of sight of governments in emerging market and developing economies. This may hold back the recovery in these economies from the deep recessions caused by the COVID-19 pandemic--unless governments adopt a broad set of policies to address the challenges of widespread informality. This study is the first comprehensive analysis of the extent of informality and its implications for a durable economic recovery and for long-term development. It finds that pervasive informality is associated with significantly weaker economic outcomes--including lower government resources to combat recessions, lower per capita incomes, greater poverty, less financial development, and weaker investment and productivity.







Planning for Technical and Vocational Skills Development


Book Description

The position of skills development on the agenda of policy-makers and development agencies improved markedly around the turn of the 21st century. This book tracks the ways skills have gained importance both in the developing and the more industrialized world. It analyses critically the multiple ’drivers' of skills development and the linkages of skills to the knowledge economy, growth, and employment in an increasingly competitive world. It also acknowledges the many modalities and delivery systems for skills development, arguing that this institutional diversity, often spread across several ministries and training authorities, has made it more difficult to give a national account of the skills development sector. The re-emergence of skills has triggered many reform initiatives associated with TVSD, some of which have become almost ’fashions' and are in danger of being adopted without sufficient evidence of their effectiveness. This work provides cautionary advice and fresh insights that planners will find rewarding.




Skills for Improved Productivity, Employment Growth and Development


Book Description

Examines how, within a decent work perspective, countries can develop their skills base so as to increase both the quantity and the productivity of labour employed in the economy.




Revisiting the Informal Sector


Book Description

This book provides insight into the diverse aspects of the informal sector, its role in the context of unemployment, child labor, globalization and environment, as well as its multi-faceted interaction with the other sectors of the economy.