Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto (2021 - 2026) "Reclaiming and reframing the policy arena"
Cover Art: Taga Design: Marce Digital
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Preface The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto is a political document. It lays out critical issues of concern to women street vendors and makes demands for addressing them. The Manifesto is a direct result of the insufficient attention given to critical issues affecting women street vendors and the general failure to recognize their contribution to Uganda’s economy. Given the unique challenges that the women street vendors are confronted with, it is important to put in place mechanisms that would draw attention to and address their needs and concerns and enable them to participate actively in public affairs. The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto therefore provides a platform for women street vendors to present a common set of demands which support the larger aims of gender equality and equity and sustainable national development. It has allowed women street vendors to raise these key demands and issues ahead of the 2021 Elections. Women are thereby empowered to use their votes as a bargaining tool and recruit others to do the same. The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto provides female and male candidates with an agenda once they are elected to parliament or the District level (Kampala Capital City Authority). Finally, it will ensure political party accountability to female voters as politicians can be assessed on the basis of where they stand in relation to issues that concern the street women vendors as outlined in their Manifesto. Initiated by the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa - SIHA Network, the Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto brings together various demands made by women street vendors over the years as part of their struggles for national development and women’s rights. The process of developing and promoting the Manifesto also built upon the experiences of the women street vendors’ cooperative union that brings together women from Kawempe, Naguru, Nakawa and Wandegeya in Kampala District.
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Acknowledgements The Strategic Initiative for women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA Network) would like to recognize the astounding work by the Women Street Vendors’ Cooperative Union (bringing together women street vendors from Kawempe, Naguru, Nakawa and Wandegeya) in developing this Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto (2021-2026). It shows the determination of these women to work collectively to challenge and counter the barriers that prevent their full and equal participation in society. This manifesto has been compiled by SIHA Network, with support from the African Women’s Development Fund (AWDF).
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Table of Contents Preface......................................................................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgements .................................................................................................................................... 4 Who is the woman street vendor? .............................................................................................................. 6 Women Street Vendors’ Affirmation........................................................................................................... 7 Introduction ......................................................................................................................................................................8 Background....................................................................................................................................... 10 About SIHA Network....................................................................................................................... 11 Thematic Call-To-Action ........................................................................................................................... 12 Health................................................................................................................................................ 13 Education.......................................................................................................................................... 14 Economic Empowerment................................................................................................................. 15 Leadership and representation of women street vendors ................................................................. 17 Operating and living environment.................................................................................................... 17 Laws and Policy................................................................................................................................ 19 Security and Violence against Women ............................................................................................ 20
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Who is the woman street vendor? Joy, like many others, was compelled to take to street vending due to poverty. Together with her colleagues they sell: food (raw and cooked), shoes, charcoal, fruits (bananas, mangoes, guavas), vegetables (tomatoes, leafy vegetables, onions), pastries (cake, mandazi, simsim balls), sweets and underwear (bras). Thirty-year-old Joy became a street vendor to supplement her family income. She is a single mother and she struggles every day to feed her three sons. On a good day she earns around 5,000 UGX. Even then, she would have to ration provisions. Joy is also struggling to keep her three sons in school because the fees have been increased. Joy will have to make the decision of keeping one of the children at home who will probably get involved in the same trade. Yet, educating her children was her family’s only hope to get lifted out of poverty. The ‘kibo’ (basket) that Joy carries daily is the source of hope for her family. On the streets, she has to tackle several other issues. Uncertain and insecure working conditions, the regular threat of eviction, harassment by local officials, and gendered violence are battles they fight every day. Once she gets home without her ‘kibo’, her children know that they will have no meal that night and the next day. Carrying the ‘kibo’ across town is very taxing work. Joy now suffers from regular back aches, yet she cannot afford to seek medical attention. The weather can become harsh in Kampala, and when heavy rains start, they can often limit her city coverage. Joy’s life has often been threatened especially during the 4:00am market runs to buy fresh stock at wholesale price. Sexual predators and thieves are always lurking in the alleys of the streets she walks. Joy wants to be seen and protected in her trade. Joy only seeks to create a better life for her family.
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Women Street Vendors’ Affirmation CONSCIOUS that the condition of the lives of women street vendors is often constrained by poverty and that their work is often under paid, UNHAPPY that women street vendors’ wages when paid are low and often uncertain, APPALLED by the number of Ugandans living below the poverty line and the conditions of extreme poverty and hardship, deprivation and exclusion of the rural and urban poor, the majority of whom are women, CONCERNED that socio-cultural attitudes conspire with institutional and policy practice to reinforce the unequal status between women and men, and even more so for women street vendors, DISTRESSED by the increasing incidents of gender based violence on the streets of Uganda, DISSATISFIED that women’s multiple roles place disproportionate unpaid care and domestic work on their shoulders in the face of economic crises and the retreat of the state from its social development mandate, AGGRIEVED by the nature of our political culture that makes it extremely difficult for women street vendors to participate in political and decision-making processes, DISTRESSED that women street vendors remain underrepresented in Parliament and in Local Authorities with their voices are not sufficiently heard, DISMAYED by the inability of our health system to halt the unacceptably high incidence of maternal and infant mortality and deaths, DETERMINED to have equal access to productive resources and to economic opportunities, DEDICATE ourselves to the search for a peaceful, just environment where women exercise their equal rights as human beings, CONFIDENT that with organisation and fortitude we can make a difference to the situation of women, men, and children and achieve gender equality in all aspects of life, HEREBY ADOPT this Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto as an affirmation of our commitment to collective actions toward achieving gender equality and as a set of minimum demands for action on gender equality and equity in Uganda. WE, THEREFORE, call upon the Government and all its Ministries, Departments and Agencies, Political Parties, Non-Governmental Organisations and Community Based Organisations to adopt and work towards implementing the demands of the Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto – Making Her Visible: Reclaiming and Reframing the Policy Arena.
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Introduction Promotion and protection of women’s rights is one of the Republic of Uganda’s primary objectives. The Constitution of the Republic of Uganda of 1995 guarantees gender equality through Objective VI and Objective XI of the “National Objectives of State Policy” section (11). Objective XV recognises the significant role that women play in society.1 The Government of Uganda has committed to achieve these objectives through the ratification and domestication of key international and regional legal instruments, namely: The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women ratified in 1985, without reservations; the 1995 Beijing Declaration and Platform for Action; the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights in 1987; the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights in 1995; the Convention Against Torture in 1986; and the Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1990. Uganda has also ratified the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) and, in July 2010, the Protocol to the African Charter on Human and Peoples’ Rights on the Rights of Women in Africa (Maputo Protocol). Uganda is also a signatory to the African Union Solemn Declaration on Gender Equality in Africa; the East African Treaty 1999; and the East African Gender Equality and Development Act 2017. International human rights law provides no explicit protections for the right of street vending. Nevertheless, vendors are subject to the more general rights outlined in human rights treaties, most notably the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR). Article 6 of the ICESCR ‘recognises the right to work, including the right of everyone to the opportunity to gain their living by work which they freely choose or accept.’2 The Constitution of Uganda of 1995 contains several provisions on the principle of non-discrimination and equal rights of women and men. Under Article 21, “All persons are equal before and under the law in all spheres of political, economic, social and cultural life and in every other respect and shall enjoy equal protection of the law... [A] person shall not be discriminated against on the ground of sex, race, colour, ethnic origin, tribe, birth, creed or religion, social or economic standing, political opinion or disability.” Article 33, entitled Rights of women, provides that “The State shall provide the facilities and opportunities necessary to enhance the welfare of women to enable them to realise their full potential and advancement”; “Women shall have the right to equal treatment with men and that right shall include equal opportunities in political, economic and social activities,”3 Further still, gender equality and women’s empowerment has been integrated into national development strategies of the National Development Plan aimed at achieving development targets, including the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The advancement of gender equality and women’s empowerment is dependent on the mind-set and social norms change to discard biased cultural practices and attitudes that discriminate against women and the readiness of Government to formulate and enforce gender responsive policies and legislation. Efforts have been made to domesticate the international and regional gender equality commitments in national legislation, policy and development programmes including the Ugandan Constitution (1995); the Local Government Act (1997); the National Gender Policy (2007); the National FAO: Rights entrenched in the Constitution. Available online via http://www.fao.org/gender-landrights-database/country-profiles/countries-list/ national-legal-framework/rights-entrenched-in-the-constitution/en/?country_iso3=UGA 1
Graeme Young (2018): De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www. researchgate.net/publication/326355554 2
FIDA – U et.al: Women’s rights in Uganda: gaps between policy and practice. Available online via https://www.fidh.org/IMG/pdf/ uganda582afinal.pdf 3
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Action Plan for Women 2016; Vision 2040; the 2nd National Development Plan (NDP) 2015/16–2019/20); the Equal Opportunities Commission Act (2007); Prevention of Trafficking in Persons Act (2009); the Domestic Violence Act (2010) and the Prohibition of Female Genital Mutilation Act (2010). Despite their relevance and contribution to urban life, economic and urban planners seem to view informal workers, and street vendors in particular, as problematic, perceiving these workers as a source of crime and deregulation. Since 2011, a number of by-laws and policies have been passed to run the city. These include; Maintenance of Trade Order Act (Main Act), Trade Licensing Act, Public Health Act, Market Statute law, and payment of the ground rent, which are in accordance with the Ordinance Act 2006 and KCCA Act 2010. These laws were administered under a newly established KCCA by the Ugandan parliament in 2011.4 However, this criminalisation does not take into account the value and dignity of street vending work, as it is an alternative (possibly the only alternative) for thousands of people that the formal employment system is unable to absorb. The bad reputation of urban informal traders does not match reality and contributes to further marginalization and exclusion. In addition to this, urban informal traders must also deal with the daily threat of violence, harassment, bribes, confiscations, and evictions by local authorities and law enforcement bodies. These workers are not only forced to rely solely on themselves, but they are also persecuted for daring to survive by working in the informal economy.5 The demands in the Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto are aimed at fostering gender equity and equality as well as protecting and empowering women street vendors. These demands were developed by women street vendors to reflect women-specific needs and concerns in order to open up the space for them to participate in public affairs. The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto serves as an avenue for women street vendors to express their concerns and establish a platform for their active role in the policy arena. The demands aim to ensure that political parties are accountable to the large number of women voters - with a specific focus on women street vendors – and that they will no longer use the women street vendors’ vote simply to propel men to leadership positions. The Manifesto also holds political parties accountable for how they treat women street vendors’ concerns. In a nutshell, the Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto is a political document and a public declaration of key demands that must be met for Uganda to fully realise its vision for gender equity, equality and women’s effective participation in governance and development. The Manifesto is a direct result of concern about the historical injustice and insufficient attention given to critical issues affecting women street vendors. It is also the result of concern about the under-representation of women street vendors in politics, policy and decisionmaking levels and public life in general. The purpose of this Manifesto is to specifically stipulate women street vendors’ demands, which when met, will encourage and ensure women street vendors’ advancement, involvement, and meaningful participation in leadership, good governance and socio-economic spaces in Uganda.
Margaret Nakibuuka (2015): The Vulnerable Livelihoods of Street Vendors in Uganda: A Case of Kampala Central Division. Institute of Social Studies 4
Margarida Teixeira (2020): Women’s leadership, COVID-19 and informal economy workers. Available online via http://streetnet.org. za/2020/07/06/womens-leadership-covid-19-and-urban-informal-workers/ 5
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Background From a historical perspective, vending is one of the oldest occupations that has been held by both women and men on the African continent in general and the Eastern and Horn of Africa region in particular. The growth of Uganda’s informal sector dates to the time of expulsion of Ugandan Asians during Amin’s regime in 1971, which resulted in the dramatic collapse of the industrial sector in the country, accelerated in the 1980s by SAPs. Both events caused people to lose many formal jobs and join the informal sector hence the latter’s expansion (Mitullah 2003). Like other African countries, Uganda’s economic restructuring perpetuated people’s vulnerability to poverty. There was a deficit in public service jobs that had collapsed approximately by 42 percent, pushing many urban dwellers into the informal sector for their survival (Mitullah 2003). Moreover, women’s involvement in the labour market increased to meet bourgeoning demand within the sector (Nyakaana 1999).6 It is estimated that in Uganda, women own 66% of all informal businesses in Kampala and make up a majority of informal workers as well. Uganda’s labour force participation is among the highest in the world, with 84% of the population being economically active. The scarcity of job opportunities in Uganda, combined with the countries relatively large youth population, has led to the emergence of a bulging unemployed or under-employed and under-productive work force of young men and women. Many of them are forced to take up work in the informal sector, in jobs that are precarious and poorly remunerated, with little access to social protection.7 Despite its precarious nature, informal work represents an important lifeline for many of those who participate. The lack of legal protections for workings in the informal economy is a glaring indicator of policy-makers’ ignorance of the value of this sector. A previous SIHA study conducted in the five administrative divisions of Kampala City, found that 66.7% (majority of the women street vendors interviewed) reported being heads of their households and not having high levels of education whilst also having a considerable number of dependents to support. According to a baseline study conducted by SIHA in preparation for engagement with women street vendors in Kampala, the majority of the respondents highlighted that 85.6% reside in Kampala and 58.5% walked to places of work. In terms of age, 70.6% were below 40 years; 29.1% married/cohabiting, with 70.9% being single, separated or widowed. In addition to this, most women had low education attainment and had a number of dependents, and 71.6% were involved in selling food stuffs.8 Despite the hardships they face, SIHA has found that women street vendors are proud that can meet their own needs and support their household through vending. However, the presence of the women street vendors and their activities has been in constant confrontation with city authorities over space for business and conditions of work. The Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA) has on several occasions evicted the vendors from the streets claiming they are associated with traffic congestion and make the urban environment untidy. Regrettably, this attitude has paved the way for a pattern of harassment and violence against women street vendors at the hands of law enforcement officers,
Margaret Nakibuuka (2015): The Vulnerable Livelihoods of Street Vendors in Uganda: A Case of Kampala Central Division. Institute of Social Studies 6
SIHA: LAUNCH OF THE REPORT AND DOCUMENTARY: THE INVISIBLE LABORERS OF KAMPALA. Available online via https:// sihanet.org/launch-of-the-report-and-documentary-the-invisible-laborers-of-kampala/ 7
SIHA: A SHADOW ECONOMY: THE INVISIBLE LABORERS OF KAMPALA. Available online via https://sihanet.org/a-shadow-economythe-invisible-laborers-of-kampala/ 8
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which has at times ended in death. One such case is the death of Olivia Basemera, a single mother of three, who drowned in Nakivubo Channel in August 2018 as she attempted to run away from city authority’s officers. In another case in 2014, a woman street vendor was arrested by law enforcement, not allowing the woman to make arrangements for someone to watch her two-year old child – unattended, the child was run over by a KCCA car later that same day. In 2016, a video circulated depicting the brutality meted out against a woman street vendor by the same city authority law enforcement. Based on this pattern of violence and negligence, the Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA) Network in Uganda seeks to facilitate spaces where women street vendors and government can dialogue to find alternatives to co-exist peacefully and productively.
About SIHA Network The Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa (SIHA Network) is a network of civil society organizations from Sudan, South Sudan, Somalia, Somaliland, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Djibouti, Uganda, and Kenya. SIHA Network was established in 1995 by a coalition of women’s rights activists, as a regional network to undertake research, capacity-building, exchanging experiences and lessons learned, negotiating spaces with men, all to build advocacy on women’s rights as a sustainable force for change. In partnership with her members, SIHA addresses sexual and gender-based violence against women and girls in the Greater Horn of Africa with the aim of amplifying the voices of the urban poor women living on the peripheries of major urban centres. SIHA aims to contribute to unlocking the massive potential of the women’s rights movement in the Greater Horn of Africa, by strengthening the learning of civil society organizations to build a strong collective that advocates for systemic change. In this way, SIHA works through, and in support of broad coalitions of grassroots members to campaign and advocate for women rights and equality. SIHA envisions women and girls in the Greater Horn of Africa with the right to live in a peaceful, just environment and the ability to exercise their equal rights as human beings. As a sub-regional network of women’s human rights and gender equality activists, SIHA is in a unique position to move this vision forward as one of very few indigenous coalitions born and nurtured inside the Horn. Strong ties and connections with women and their communities drive SIHA’s work across the region. After more than 20 years of working to advance women’s human rights in highly patriarchal contexts frequently characterized by insecurity, SIHA’s expertise is rooted in its familiarity with the socio-political situations around the Horn and the grassroots work of its members. SIHA’s membership continues to grow steadily, evidencing SIHA’s enduring relevance and effectiveness, and the ongoing urgency of advancing women’s human rights in the region.9
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https://sihanet.org/our-story/
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Thematic Call-To-Action The issues tackled in this Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto range from women’s low participation in politics and governance, to their poor access to resources critical for making a living, to their predominance among people living in poverty to women’s health – particularly the unacceptably high rates of maternal and infant mortality. Other concerns in this manifesto are the operating and living environment, security, laws and policy, economic empowerment and the harmful and discriminatory social practices against women – often justified in the name of culture and tradition. To ensure that a broad constituency participated in the development of this Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto, a series of consultations with different groups were organized to seek their mandate and solicit their ideas and views on critical issues of concern to women. Consultations with women street vendors (including members of women street vendors’ cooperatives), NGOs and key stakeholders working with women street vendors were convened in July 2020. Information gathered through these various consultations has informed this Manifesto. The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto highlights seven (7) key issues affecting women street vendors, namely: 1. Health; 2. Education; 3. Economic Empowerment; 4. Leadership; 5. Operating and Living Environment; 6. Laws and Policies; and 7. Security and Violence Against Women. The Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto therefore urges all street vendors and the informal sector actors to identify with the demands within the Manifesto. Only then will the organs with the responsibility of ensuring that women street vendors are equal in legal, political, social and economic rights be held accountable for failing to fulfil these responsibilities. The experiences of street vendors in Kampala underscores the degree to which economic and social rights can be fundamentally rooted in political rights. Political rights are crucial for allowing women street vendors to participate in political and development processes because they allow vendors to leverage their power as voters when claiming the right to participate in their economic activities. Without the right to engage in their economic activities, women street vendors have few other means of alleviating the conditions of extreme poverty in which they live.10
Graeme Young (2018): De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www. researchgate.net/publication/326355554 10
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Health While the informal sector is rapidly emerging as the major source of employment in poor countries, little attention has been paid to the health hazards encountered by workers in this sector. Women, the majority of informal sector workers in most parts of the world, are particularly at risk. Street vendors in Uganda receive few protections for a broad range of economic and social rights by the Ugandan state, including the right to health (Article 12 - International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights (ICESCR)) tying their access to these rights to their independent income generation. Poor government service provision means that vendors also need to pay for things that might, under different circumstances, be free or more affordable, including healthcare. In addition, their time constraints make it difficult for them to benefit from health programmes and activities. Many vendors are vulnerable to ill health due to the lack of shelter, exposure to the weather elements, injuries associated with lifting heavy wares/carrying them for long distances and other stressful circumstances common to their work environment. Income levels are a key factor in determining accessibility to health care, placing those in the low-income bracket, as most vendors are, in danger of neglect by the health care system. Furthermore, vendors often work in environments that expose them to hazards such as accidents and illnesses.11 Vendors often trade along pathways of congested traffic and concentrated air pollutants exacerbate conditions such as asthma, allergies, tuberculosis and chronic bronchitis. For some vendors, physical injury may be caused by prolonged participation in excessively strenuous physical activities such as loading and off-loading their goods on a daily basis. Pro bono medical drives to access services like family planning, HIV/AIDS and cervical cancer tests have, in most cases, not targeted street vendors and yet their health despite their equal right and need to have such services. Lack of good access to water and sanitation has implications for women’s experience of poverty. The provision of water for households is the primary duty of women in Uganda. Women usually spend hours walking long distances to fetch and carry heavy loads of water every day. This has negative consequences for their time and health. Because of its association with women, the provision of water for households is not considered a critical decision making area by policy-makers. Markets are characterized by a general lack of cleanliness and poor hygiene standards, which can provide for a poor working environment and even, in extreme cases, cause health concerns. For women street vendors, illness is not only expensive to treat, but can also cause them to forego essential income if they are unable to work.12 Women street vendors’ access to health is not guaranteed. Healthcare costs are also high, and can make treatment unaffordable. Therefore, we demand: 1. The Government and the Vendor Association Administration, must work together to create a safe and healthy environment for vendors. 2. The Government must promote safe motherhood through antenatal, intra-natal and post-natal care programmes targeting women street vendors. 3. The Government must ensure access to safe, effective and affordable methods of family planning.
Graeme Young (2018) De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www.researchgate. net/publication/326355554 11
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Graeme William Young (2018) Informal Vending and the State in Kampala, Uganda. St. John’s College
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4. The Government must establish a health insurance scheme targeting women street vendors. 5. The Government must provide sanitation facilities across town with maintenance systems. 6. The Government must facilitate health programmes including mobile health clinics 7. The executive, the legislature, the judiciary and the line Ministries should collectively create a safe and healthy environment for work particularly in the informal sector where occupational and environmental health are poor.
Education In terms of education, the majority of the women street vendors report that they stopped attending school at the primary level. The majority of street vendors lack sufficient skills and contacts to acquire stable employment from the formal setting, making street vending, which has no educational barrier to entry, one of their only options for generating income.13 School fees, which are charged for all levels of education in Uganda, are a particular burden for women street vendors, many of whom are single mothers.14 The inability to pay school fees often forces children to leave school, after which they enter the informal labour sector because, as one market vendor stated, “[t]here is no other alternative” for livelihood support. Formal employment is unobtainable given the state of the country’s labour market and the fact that vendors often lack employable skills, useful contacts or extensive education. Women street vendors may simply remain on the streets because they have nowhere else to go and no other means of supporting themselves and their dependents; they resist state repression and exclusion not as an act of defiant opposition, but because failing to do so would have disastrous consequences. Political realities significantly undermine the ability of the state to fulfil key functions and corruption significantly impacts the disbursement of education grants.15 Girls who have been forced into marriage and who wish to pursue their education should be supported to continue with their education. Protective policies in the form of affordable loans, appropriate vending markets, childcare services, and public education can reduce the vulnerabilities of women street vendors at home and sustain their businesses. Therefore, we demand: 1. The Government should institute and implement a policy of providing child care in all work-places including informal work settings in rural and urban areas, and promote the training and recruitment of both men and women as caregivers. In this connection, pre-school education has to become an integral part of basic education. 2. Basic education is a fundamental human right and its costs should be met by means of taxes and resources provided by central and local government, the private sector and communities, to ensure that all children can attend school.
Margaret Nakibuuka (2015): The Vulnerable Livelihoods of Street Vendors in Uganda: A Case of Kampala Central Division. Institute of Social Studies 13
Graeme Young (2018) De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www. researchgate.net/publication/326355554 14
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Graeme William Young (2018) Informal Vending and the State in Kampala, Uganda. St. John’s College
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3. Establishment of functional adult literacy and education programmes for the women street vendors, including the provision of teaching aids and materials during these education programmes. 4. The Government should formulate and implement policies, which guarantee equal access to education and training opportunities for disabled women street vendors. 5. Protective policies in the form of affordable loans, safer and cleaner vending markets, child care services, and public education can reduce the vulnerabilities of women street vendors at home and sustain their businesses.
Economic Empowerment According to the Uganda National Household Survey (UNHS) 2016/17, over 10 million women were recorded to be in the working age (14-64 years) with about 75 percent of them working compared to 82 percent of men. In line with this, the unemployment rate was observed to be higher for women (14.4 percent) than for men (6.2 percent). Despite the existence of the Equal Opportunities Commission Act, which promotes gender equality and women’s empowerment, occupational segregation is still high as women are often restricted to low-skilled and lower paying jobs and continue to earn less than their male counterparts. The median nominal monthly earnings for women was estimated to be UGX. 110,000 which is half the median nominal monthly earnings for men (UGX. 220,000). This can be attributed to the large number of women confined to lower paying jobs. Also important to note is that women’s labour is not adequately captured or recognised in the country’s national accounts. Figure 1 below highlights some of the labour market disparities between men and women.
Source: National Labour Force Survey 2016/17 At its core, street vending is defined by a clear labour market failure: when high labour supply driven by rapid urbanisation and population growth coexist with low demand for low-skilled labour in the formal sector. Trading on the streets is often an obvious livelihood source for those who lack formal employment due to its low entry costs, its minimal capital and skill requirements and the access it provides to potential customers. Despite the socioeconomic exclusion that women street vendors face, their activities contribute to the formal sphere and are highly dependent on local and national patterns of supply and demand. Most women street vendors are severely constrained by a lack of access to capital due to prohibitive interest Making Her Visible
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rates and collateral requirements imposed by formal banks, private moneylenders and even microfinance organisations, limiting their potential income growth in a trade that is already defined by high degrees of poverty and precariousness. Cooperatives represent a relatively cheap and effective grassroots structure that can support groups like women street vendors. SIHA supported the creation of women street vendors’ cooperatives that were anchored in the local community structures of each location: Wandegeya, Kawempe and Nakawa. These cooperatives have served as platforms that have amplified the women’s voices in different spaces and given them bargaining power. Women have long been active in wage labour, subsistence farming and informal sector. However, legal and customary barriers to ownership of and access to land, use of natural resources, access to capital and credit, compounded with lack of opportunities, resources, training and skills, access to and use of technology, as well as wage differentials, all stand in the way of women’s economic progress. Those who control economic policy in Government ignore the development needs of the majority of the population even as they pay lip-service to poverty alleviation. Therefore, women street vendors demand the following: 1. The Government must promote and guarantee women’s economic rights and independence. 2. Economic policy must be based on equality in economic opportunities, and promote the economic empowerment of women starting from the household level, which is where women perform unpaid labour. 3. Deliberate measures must be taken to boost cooperatives’ capital and access to markets. 4. Banks must come up with gender sensitive lending policies to enable women street vendors and their cooperatives to benefit from loans, so that women are not confined to microcredit societies. 5. To facilitate and enable women’s ownership of land for income generation, the Government must review property ownership laws and remove gender discriminatory elements that are protected or perpetuated in customary law systems. 6. The Government must ensure that budgetary allocations and expenditure plans take into consideration the unequal impact of poverty on women street vendors. It must facilitate, at all levels, more open, transparent and gender balanced budget processes. 7. The Government, jointly with development partners, must support women street vendors through capacity building and skills development for relevant technology and provide digital platforms such as the Market App through the Ministry of ICT. 8. The Government must implement the recommendations of the Beijing Platform For Action on the need to value unpaid care and domestic work in its System of National Accounts. 9. Sustained efforts must be made by the State and non-state actors to retain girls in schools, and to promote their participation in more technical subjects that equip them better for participating in wellpaid fields within the job market. 10. The Government must promote the economic rights of women by providing them with opportunities to improve their livelihoods. Such opportunities should specifically target poverty, and include access to the banking sector, land, technology and markets.
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Leadership and representation of women street vendors Political development and/or good governance is an essential instrument for holistic and sustainable development. Active and meaningful participation of women in decision-making will help foster the overall quality of governance in terms of boosting accountability and transparency, reducing corruption, and protecting the interest of marginalized sections of society. Without women, achieving sustainable development is impossible. The exclusion of women street vendors from local politics is exacerbated by their existence outside of the formal labour market. Support for the increased participation of women street vendors in political and civic leadership is an essential element in the design and implementation of all economic and development programs. The demands of the Women Street Vendors’ Manifesto aim to ensure that political parties are accountable to the large number of women voters and that they will no longer use the women’s vote simply to propel men to leadership positions. The Manifesto also holds political parties accountable for how they treat women’s concerns, therefore the women street vendors demand: 1. Ensure fair and proportionate representation of women street vendors in Associations, Local Authorities and Parliament, which are facilitated by concrete measures that support women street vendors to participate in political processes at all levels and take up leadership positions and responsibilities. 2. All political parties implement affirmative action in all party structures to increase the number of women from the grassroots, (sub-location) to national level and special interest groups and must build internal democracy with 50% representation by women in top party leadership. 3. All political parties ensure that women participate in leadership on an equal basis with men in all political, social, economic and cultural matters. 4. All political parties must mainstream gender in their constitutions and manifestos before the next general elections, with the specific interests of the women street vendors considered. 5. Parliament facilitates electoral reforms to create a level playing field for women’s effective participation in elective politics.
Operating and living environment Street vending in Kampala is inseparable from the city’s politics. The Kampala City Council (KCC) had the power to regulate street vending under the country’s Trade (Licensing) Act of 1969, and reaffirmed its apparent commitment to do so as late as 2006 with the passage of the Local Governments (Kampala City Council) (Maintenance of Law and Order) Ordinance. Both pieces of legislation mandated that street vendors must possess a valid license granted by the local authorities, allowing the KCC, in theory, to control and limit commercial activities on the city’s streets. With the introduction of the Kampala City Council Authority (KCCA), street vending was a practice seen to embody the very chaos and disorder that the KCCA sought to eradicate and to stand in the way of the new local government’s plans for the city, it was quickly banned in September 2011 as the KCCA chose to exercise the regulatory powers that the KCC had long neglected. Making Her Visible
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The effects of the KCCA’s ban on street vending have been both serious and significant. Street vendors who have continued to operate in Kampala despite the city’s ban face arrest by the KCCA. Vendors are often unable to afford legal representation, and the courts that vendors are tried in are run by the KCCA, raising concern regarding their accountability and impartiality. The fines that accompany arrests can also be extremely burdensome, and can, for such a poor segment of the city’s population, be virtually unaffordable. Even when street vendors are not arrested, they may still have their goods confiscated, a punishment that can be quite severe since the costs of acquiring new goods to sell can be high, particularly in relation to their often meagre profits and savings. The criminalisation of street vending has had a significant impact on the livelihood strategies of a large segment of the urban poor in Kampala. Income acquired through street vending usually provides for no more than basic subsistence, and the costs incurred in dealing with state officials through fines, the loss of goods and lower sales due to a climate of fear have depressed already low profits. Vendors commonly face food insecurity and limited access to housing, and many live in the slums that house approximately 85% of the city’s poor population or simply sleep on the streets. Poor government service provision means that vendors also need to pay for things that might, under different circumstances, be free or more affordable, including transportation, healthcare and education. The economic and social rights of street vendors in Kampala are therefore highly dependent on their political rights; when vendors lose their ability to participate in politics, they lose their ability to secure their livelihoods in a highly exclusionary urban economy, ultimately leading to further marginalisation and exacerbating the conditions of extreme poverty in which they live. Women street vendors face unique situations as they manoeuvre through the streets, including: theft, changing weather conditions (heat and rain), threat to their personal and property security, long distances travelled to sell goods, harassment from city officials, poor disposal of rubbish and violence – sexual, physical, verbal and economic. Poor location of business, low purchasing power among customers and unreliability of customers who take goods on credit also affects the street vendors’ potential earnings. Routine exposure to abusive language by customers and the high levels of insecurity also contribute to the stress and strain of working as a woman street vendor in Kampala. To ensure that women street vendors have a safe and respectful operating and living environment, we demand the following: 1. Lighting on the streets and CCTV should be installed across all roads for the purposes of documentation and collection of evidence to aid criminal investigations and deter crime. 2. Increased security at the markets to minimize theft of property. 3. Establishment of reporting desks/offices where women can report cases of abuse. 4. Improvement in the rubbish management, including the provision of several rubbish collection points in the markets and streets. 5. Renovation and regular cleaning of street facilities including trenches and toilets. 6. Renovation of roads to ease operations of the women street vendors. 7. Establishment of clean and safe breastfeeding stations in designated spaces across the city to enable women street vendors attend to their babies.
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8. Establishment of local council security systems through the Local Council I structures for the protection of vendors from theft and domestic violence including the training of Local Defence Units (LDUs) 9. Implementation of the Domestic Violence Act to facilitate the protection of persons from violence and strengthen survivors’ rights. 10. Enactment of the Sexual Offences Bill to provide redress for sexual violence and abuses and deter such crimes.
Laws and Policy Street vending does not constitute formal employment – work that is fully taxed and regulated by the state – however, it serves as one of the only realistic forms of income generation for the urban poor when states cannot or will not take steps to promote formal job creation. While international treaties may provide a legal or normative framework for conceptualising the rights of street vendors, they remain far removed from the realities that vendors experience in their daily lives. Uganda, like most states, has signed and ratified both the ICESCR and the ICCPR. For street vendors, however, this is largely inconsequential. The existence of formal institutions and legal protections is far less important than how rights are asserted and respected in everyday contexts, meaning vendors must continuously negotiate their rights with politicians, state officials and other interest groups in a highly contentious and constantly evolving political environment16. The previous local government body in the city, the Kampala City Council (KCC), was in some ways more open to the concerns of women street vendors, however, the new local government body, the Kampala Capital City Authority (KCCA), has closed these channels of influence as the central government has sought to reassert its authority in the city. This dramatic political transformation has forced street vendors in Kampala to find new ways of asserting their rights in a highly repressive environment. The relationship between street vendors and the state is not static over time, however, but rather characterised by ambivalence, fluctuation and uncertainty as it frequently alternates between various forms of repression, neglect, inclusion and support.17 The current restrictions make vending principally illegal, and view vendors as responsible for making cities dirty, obstructing traffic and therefore a public nuisance. Street vendors are hardly consulted in the development of the by-laws and planning of vending sites in respective urban areas. Indeed, street vendors are often not aware of the by-laws applicable to their operations. Street vendors who wish to organise also have important practical concerns. In August 2013, the Ugandan Parliament passed the Public Order Management Act, which bans unauthorised public political discussions involving more than three people. As a result, vendors (like all other Ugandans) who plan to hold public meetings, rallies or demonstrations require official approval that, given their political status, is obviously not forthcoming. It can be difficult to organise meetings given that street vendors generally work all day,
Graeme Young (2018): De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www. researchgate.net/publication/326355554 16
Graeme Young (2018): De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www. researchgate.net/publication/326355554 17
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after which they are often tired, stressed and busy with other obligations (such as caring for dependents).18 In order for street vendors and their associations to influence policy, they need to be organised with wellestablished effective channels of communication with urban authorities.19 In 2019, the KCCA Regulation of Street Trade Ordinance 2019 was discussed. The purpose of the ordinance is to provide a legislative framework that will allow orderly hawking and vending on the streets. Under the proposed ordinance, all vendors and hawkers are expected to register with KCCA, have a special street trading license, identification numbers, uniforms, among other issues. KCCA’s hope this will spur an increase in the purchase and sale of goods and allow for greater economic activity that will promote the welfare of Kampala residents. According to the ordinance, street vendors grade one and two are to pay sh210,000 and sh78,750 respectively, while hawkers’ grade one and two will pay sh112,500 and sh60,000 for their trading licenses. The traders will also be required to pay for their uniform at sh50,000. The uniforms will be in different colours depending on divisions where they will be operating. Kampala Central (green), Nakawa (blue), Kawempe (red), Rubaga (orange) and Makindye (yellow).20 To ensure that the law becomes an effective instrument for gender justice, we demand the following: 1. Government to implement the ‘KCCA Regulation of Street Trade Ordinance 2019’ including the translation of the law into different languages to enhance legal knowledge among the street vendors. 2. Government clarification on just and fair regulations including license fees, designation of spaces and time of operation. 3. Designation of a women street vendors’ leadership representative at different levels of decision making – in political parties, Council/ Local Government, Parliament, Market Associations and Traders Associations.
Security and Violence against Women A secure environment is a prerequisite for any type of business, yet for women street vendors, security is a major concern while they are working and travelling to and from their places of work. Street vendors worry about their own security, and the security of their goods and customers. They view security and safety as an economic priority, and not simply one of personal safety. As a result of this some vendors have formed voluntary associations to fight crime, while the police are often viewed as collaborators since they do not arrest some known criminals. The women street vendors have also resorted to moving in groups of five between 2:00am – 6:00am in the morning to enable them buy fresh merchandise at a wholesale price. The insecurity in the streets is sometimes used as an excuse to evict street vendors. In Uganda, sites for street vending are viewed by urban authorities as dens for thugs and robbers. The Uganda case study has observed that aggravation of city thefts and insecurity in Kampala were used by the city authorities as grounds for
Graeme Young (2018): De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www. researchgate.net/publication/326355554 18
Winnie V. Mitullah (2005): Street Vending in African Cities: A Synthesis of Empirical Findings from Kenya, Cote D’ivoire, Ghana, Zimbabwe, Uganda and South Africa 19
Juliet Waiswa (2019): KCCA to regulate street vendors. Available online via https://www.newvision.co.ug/news/1503255/kcca-regulate-streetvendors 20
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evicting vendors from the streets in 2001. It was argued that due to the overcrowding in the streets, pick pocketing and petty thieves were rampant in the streets of Kampala. Street vending is also seen as a potential threat to public security. This often comes from the fear that street vendors may be criminals. Petty theft is the most common concern in this regard, but one KCCA official claimed that criminals would disguise themselves as street vendors in order to commit house robberies, doing “their surveillance during the day” before returning “preferably in the night to execute their mission”. The idea that criminals can pose as street vendors due to the low entry costs that characterize street vending has echoes in the similar (if more outlandish) fear that terrorists may do the same.21 The cause of violence against women is rooted in gendered power relations that create social, political, and economic imbalances of power, among others. Domestic violence is highly prevalent in Uganda, and men are most often the perpetrators. For the safety of women street vendors, we therefore demand: 1. All relevant constitutional bodies and civil society should work to improve the culture of peace as a key condition for promoting human security and social justice. 2. The Government must ensure that the Domestic Violence Act 2010 is implemented and structures resourced without compromising its spirit, intent and purpose. 3. Provision of street lighting and CCTV cameras. 4. The executive committees of parish/ward and village councils must engage in “self-help projects,” recruit for security/law enforcement bodies, communicate with other levels of government and monitor activities. 5. The Government must enact a suitable family bill – Marriage and Divorce Act and the Sexual Offences Bill and an inclusive plan for social security. 6. The Government must reform police stations and court facilities to make them gender sensitive and responsive. This must be facilitated by the provision of training and enhance the role and response of the police when dealing with cases of domestic violence. 7. The Government must create special mechanisms for supporting survivors of gender-based violence, before, during and after judicial processes. This must include legal assistance as well as interim and long-term medical, psychological and material support.
21
Graeme William Young (2018) Informal Vending and the State in Kampala, Uganda. St. John’s College
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Compiled by
Strategic Initiative for Women in the Horn of Africa
Plot 2A Lugogo Lane - Bank Village, Naguru P.O. Box 2793, Kampala, Uganda Tel: +256 200 906 263
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