Genre et commerce

This document presents a book on Formal and Informal Enterprises in Francophone Africa: Moving Toward a Vibrant Private Sector. This book makes an important contribution to the analysis of the informal sector and how it affects business environments, jobs, institutions, and structural transformation in Francophone Africa. It provides an understanding of the landscape of private entrepreneurship in Africa through its consideration of both formal and informal firms. The authors refute the traditional formal/informal duality hypothesized in the mainstream literature and undertake a thorough analysis of the wide spectrum of private entrepreneurship, between the extremes of complete formality and complete informality. This approach to informality as a continuum provides useful insights into the following issues: How do formal and informal firms cooperate or compete in various value chains, and how does this shape jobs, social protection, and productivity? What are the magnitude and sources of the productivity difference between formal and informal firms, and do the characteristics of firms help to explain this gap? What are the barriers to growth for formal and informal firms, and how can policy contribute to overcoming them? How do the labour regulations, to which formal firms are subjected, affect the share of informal sector jobs? How can policy contribute to nurturing a greater synergy between formal and informal firms?

This document presents a book on gender and natural resource management, livelihoods, mobility, and interventions. The aim with this book is to initiate a response to recent calls to re-establish more politicized approaches to gender at the heart of environment–development debates. We accomplish this through exploration of the uneasy negotiations between theory, policy and practice that are evident within the realm of gender, environment and natural resource management across a range of contexts marked by hybridized neoliberal and populist agendas of decentralization, community-based natural resource management and participation.

This document presents an issue on gender and the information revolution in Africa. This collection examines the current and potential impact of the explosion of information and communication technologies (ICTs) in Africa, focusing on the gender dimensions and analyzing the extent to which the revolution is serving women's needs and preferences. The book argues that it is not enough for women to be simply passive participants in the development and dissemination of ICTs in Africa. They must also be decision-makers and actors in the process of using the new ICTs to accelerate African economic, social, and political development.

This document presents a handbook for policymakers and other stakeholders on Gender Mainstreaming in Poverty eradication and the Millennium Development Goals. This book brings together arguments, findings and lessons from the development literature that are relevant to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) from the standpoint of gender equality. This is because, firstly, while there may be other forms of socio-economic disparity in a society that are far wider than gender. Secondly, gender inequality is also pervasive across different groups within societies. It cuts across other forms of inequality so that it is a feature of rich as well as poor groups, racially dominant as well as racially subordinate groups, privileged as well as 'untouchable' castes. And finally, gender inequality structures the relations of production and reproduction in different societies. Men play a critical role in earning household livelihoods in much of the world but generally play a negligible role in the unpaid work of reproduction in the domestic arena. Women, on the other hand, play a critical role in the unpaid work of caring for the family. While their role in the productive sphere varies, it is generally highest among poorer households. However, there is a marked inequality in the resources that men and women are able to mobilise to carry out their responsibilities, in the value and recognition given to their contributions and in their capacity to exercise agency on their own behalf.

This document presents a glossary of Terms on Gender, Employment, and the Informal Economy. This glossary was prepared as a compendium to the publications from the regional initiative on “Gender Equality and Workers’ Rights in the Informal Economies of Arab States”, and complements the country case studies (Lebanon, Syria, West Bank and Gaza Strip, and Yemen), the regional overview, and policy briefs. It aims to compile up-to-date definitions of key concepts relevant to the discussion generated by the regional initiative from the most authoritative sources, for use by government agencies, workers’ and employers’ organizations, research and academic institutions, non-governmental organizations and international agencies working on development, employment, gender equality and workers’ rights issues in the region.