Research project Informal livelihoods in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban Africa

This project aims to generate new knowledge about processes shaping the possibilities for economic recovery and political recognition of informal livelihoods in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic in urban Africa. It examines how state provision or denial of resources, such as business support packages and appropriate infrastructures, to informal workers during the pandemic relates to constructions of informality as (il)legitimate. The study also investigates how informal workers, in diverse ways, may contest or act upon unjust distributions and the excessive inequities that the pandemic has brought into relief, and how they possibly articulate new claims for recognition. This involves exploring how possibilities for collectively organising and articulating demands have changed during the pandemic. The project will pursue the following research questions: What determines access by informal workers to business support packages created to facilitate recovery and mitigate the economic impacts of the pandemic? What initiatives have emerged during the pandemic to adress the inadequacies of vending infrastructures (sanitation, proper stalls etc)? What new claims are informal workers possibly articulating in the context of the pandemic? The project will apply qualititative methods and investigate these dynamics in four African cities: Dar-es-Salaam (Tanzania), Kitwe (Zambia), Blantyre (Malawi) and Accra (Ghana).