Education

4.

5.

6.

7. The Government must establish a health insurance scheme targeting women street vendors.

The Government must provide sanitation facilities across town with maintenance systems.

The Government must facilitate health programmes including mobile health clinics

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.

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.

2. 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.

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.

13  Margaret Nakibuuka (2015): The Vulnerable Livelihoods of Street Vendors in Uganda: A Case of Kampala Central Division. Institute of Social Studies 14  Graeme Young (2018) De-Democratisation and the Rights of Street Vendors in Kampala, Uganda. Available online via https://www. researchgate.net/publication/326355554 15  Graeme William Young (2018) Informal Vending and the State in Kampala, Uganda. St. John’s College