Food Vending: Adaptation Under Difficult Circumstances
The respondents discussed in this article depended on food vending as their main source of income. To succeed in this activity requires shrewd marketing and hard work. For the majority food vending was basically a hanging on and coping strategy, offering very limited surplus for investment. Food vending allowed them merely to stay in town while maintaining a foot in their home villages. The paper presents both a descriptive and an analytical account of food vending activities by female heads of households in Masvingo. The officially imposed constraints on food vending demonstrate the existence of competing and conflicting rationalities between male decision-makers and poor women. The inter -connections between food vendors and the formal markets are noted. Journal of Social Development in Africa Vol 15 No 2 2000, pp. 69-92
Au-delà de Beijing, l'exemple d'une stratégie de survie : l'existence difficile des marchandes d'aliments du secteur informel à Limbé (Cameroun)
En reponse a l’engrenage de la mondialisation et de la marchandisation du secteur de la production, les femmes continuent de jouer un role essentiel, elles qui s’assurent un gagne-pain en preparant a manger pour les populations des zones rurales, periurbaines et urbaines. Sur la base d’une enquete menee aupres de marchandes de denrees alimentaires, le present article evalue l’apport des femmes qui tirent des revenus du secteur informel, les strategies qu’elles mettent au point pour faire reculer la pauvrete engendree par l’effondrement economique, les difficultes qu’elles rencontrent face aux exigences quotidiennes auxquelles elles doivent satisfaire pour assurer la survie de leur famille, et l’influence de ce phenomene sur les relations entre hommes et femmes.Les informations recueillies a propos de ces vendeuses revelent que la plupart d’entre elles assument la majeure partie des responsabilites dans le menage, qu’elles doivent se partager entre leur maison et leur point de vente, avec les consequences qu’on imagine en temps, mobilite, sante et charge de travail. Sur tous les fronts a la fois, les marchandes ont beaucoup de mal a faire vivre leur famille. Cependant, elles accedent a l’autonomie economique car elles exercent davantage d’influence sur la repartition des ressources a l’interieur du menage. Mais les revenus minimes qu’elles tirent de ces activites sont greves par des impots eleves, elles se heurtent a l’absence de reglementation des activites du secteur informel et a la guerre incessante que leur livrent les autorites municipales. Pour compenser le temps passe a gagner de l’argent au lieu de s’occuper de leur foyer, elles doivent faire appel a leur famille – le plus souvent aux filles, ainsi qu’a d’autres personnes disponibles parmi leurs proches.
An assessment of the Impact of Devolution on Women Empowerment in Nakuru County
-Women have been grossly marginalized in organs of decision-making and governance structures. The Constitution of Kenya has sought to bridge this gap by providing both women and men the right to equal treatment, including the right to equal opportunities in political, economic, cultural and social spheres. However, gender equality has not been achieved and women are still lagging in terms of decision making processes. The main objective of the study was to detemine the impact of devolution on women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study found that substantive women representation, development of programs and accessibility of services had a positive effect on the women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study also found out that increased accessibility of Services by women influenced women empowerment, this study also concludes that the introduction of development programs had the greatest impact on women empowerment in Nakuru County. The study recommends that more programs targeting women should be introduced as these have the greatest impact on women empowerment. The findings may be used to make conclusions and recommendations.