The hidden opportunities of the informal economy
1,274,123 views | Niti Bhan • TEDGlobal 2017
Niti Bhan studies business strategy for Africa's informal markets: the small shops and stands, skilled craftspeople and laborers who are the invisible engine that keeps the continent's economy running. It's tempting to think of these workers as tax-dodgers, even criminals -- but Bhan makes the case that this booming segment of the economy is legitimate and worthy of investment. "These are the fertile seeds of businesses and enterprises," Bhan says. "Can we start by recognizing these skills and occupations?"
Niti Bhan studies business strategy for Africa's informal markets: the small shops and stands, skilled craftspeople and laborers who are the invisible engine that keeps the continent's economy running. It's tempting to think of these workers as tax-dodgers, even criminals -- but Bhan makes the case that this booming segment of the economy is legitimate and worthy of investment. "These are the fertile seeds of businesses and enterprises," Bhan says. "Can we start by recognizing these skills and occupations?"
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.
About the speaker
Through exploratory and human-centered research, Niti Bhan discovers and makes tangible pragmatic opportunities for sustainable and inclusive value creation.
Margeret C. Lee | ZenBooks | Book
Africa’s world trade: Informal economies and globalization from below
The entire text of Professor Margeret C. Lee’s work is made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0) Licence.
The reader is introduced to African traders in the markets in several African countries that trade in Chinese goods. What is perhaps most fascinating about many of these traders is the networks they have for the distribution of their goods – these traders serve as suppliers of Chinese goods to traders who come from surrounding countries to buy in bulk to sell in their respective shops. We learn a great deal about Africa’s world trade regimes and how globalization from below operates in this part of the world. And, African traders, through their stories, humanize these regimes for us.
The reader is introduced to African traders in the markets in several African countries that trade in Chinese goods. What is perhaps most fascinating about many of these traders is the networks they have for the distribution of their goods – these traders serve as suppliers of Chinese goods to traders who come from surrounding countries to buy in bulk to sell in their respective shops. We learn a great deal about Africa’s world trade regimes and how globalization from below operates in this part of the world. And, African traders, through their stories, humanize these regimes for us.
William Easterly | Book
The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good
Back in 2007, Easterly introduced me to an alternate approach to development based on the principles of the user-centered approach to the design of systems and solutions. My takeaway included these three key approaches to successful programs –
• Design programs for local needs and local culture, adapting them to each locale and environment
• Observe local solutions developed to address the issue successfully, particularly if they adapt the “official” way to do things to the needs of the local culture or customs
• Then cross-pollinate by taking concepts that have worked at the grassroots level – call it bottom-up innovation – and scale them or adapt them for other regions or countries
• Design programs for local needs and local culture, adapting them to each locale and environment
• Observe local solutions developed to address the issue successfully, particularly if they adapt the “official” way to do things to the needs of the local culture or customs
• Then cross-pollinate by taking concepts that have worked at the grassroots level – call it bottom-up innovation – and scale them or adapt them for other regions or countries
Richard Dowden | Article
Africa: Altered States, Ordinary Miracles
Richard Dowden brings something unique to his writing that I rarely come across in global media, a deep respect for the African continent and its peoples. Many will write with love and affection but there’s a nuanced difference when respect, and a touch of unspoken humility, bring to one’s understanding of the other.
This book offered me a foundation for understanding context and background, which, perhaps, I wouldn’t have appreciated, back when I first read it more than 7 years ago. I’d only just begun my own explorations of the African consumer market then, seeking to understand the patterns and rhythm of the informal and rural economy. Prepaid Africa was still an exploratory user research project, not the daily deep dive into news and views on the emerging economies of the continent that it is today.
This book offered me a foundation for understanding context and background, which, perhaps, I wouldn’t have appreciated, back when I first read it more than 7 years ago. I’d only just begun my own explorations of the African consumer market then, seeking to understand the patterns and rhythm of the informal and rural economy. Prepaid Africa was still an exploratory user research project, not the daily deep dive into news and views on the emerging economies of the continent that it is today.
Jean Dreze & Amartya Sen | Book
An Uncertain Glory: India and its Contradictions
Written in an accessible chatty tone, the authors have swept out some really cobwebby corners of India’s social and economic responsibilities to her people. Unsaid in so many words but underlined with charts, graphs and lucidly explained data-driven disparities, Dreze and Sen show us the social and economic apartheid that the country’s caste system perpetuates and the quarter of the population who are so destitute that the very lack of public goods and services, much less a civic consciousness of social responsibility, should draw international wrath upon our heads for allowing this daily humanitarian crisis to continue. This book made me recognize the importance of recognition of the value inherent in each human being.
Yanis Varoufakis | Book
And The Weak Suffer What They Must?
Varoufakis’ words breathe life into what could have been a dull and dry narrative, full of mind-numbing statistics and incomprehensible GDP growth rates. He humanizes the political economy of Europe, imbuing the German Bundesbank with nefarious motives and a schoolmaster’s strict discipline, and engagingly explains the social and political motives that shape the decisions that influence and impact the whole world.
No other economist that I’ve read has managed to dramatize the stage and the actors in such a way, crafting a gripping narrative of the sweeping changes that took place in the post-war era. If you’re looking to understand the politics of economics then there isn’t a better book yet that I’ve come across.
No other economist that I’ve read has managed to dramatize the stage and the actors in such a way, crafting a gripping narrative of the sweeping changes that took place in the post-war era. If you’re looking to understand the politics of economics then there isn’t a better book yet that I’ve come across.
Joseph E. Stiglitz | Book
Making Globalization Work
This was the first book I read on the political economy of trade and globalization. A light went on in my head. Here's what I said in my book review written in January 2007:
How ignorant I’ve been of one of the most crucial issues facing us all today. I can’t believe I simply assumed that globalization meant just business and the flow of capital, I can’t believe that after reading Jared Diamond and Amartya Sen, I never connected the dots. Even worse, what kind of fool was I, imagining that after all that we talk about regarding socio-economic development in the bottom of the pyramid, I never took the trouble to find out exactly why Korean farmers commit suicide in Hong Kong or protestors gather in Seattle.
How ignorant I’ve been of one of the most crucial issues facing us all today. I can’t believe I simply assumed that globalization meant just business and the flow of capital, I can’t believe that after reading Jared Diamond and Amartya Sen, I never connected the dots. Even worse, what kind of fool was I, imagining that after all that we talk about regarding socio-economic development in the bottom of the pyramid, I never took the trouble to find out exactly why Korean farmers commit suicide in Hong Kong or protestors gather in Seattle.
This talk was presented at an official TED conference. TED's editors chose to feature it for you.