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Many theories hypothesize that long-term migration is more welfare-enhancing than short-term migration as the benefits from skill acquisition, experience, and labour networks outplay the permanent disutility/cost of migration. This article aims to evaluate the influence of long-term migration on wages and contrast it with the effect of short-term migration on wages. We applied the Endogenous switching regression (ESR) model to measure the treatment effect of long-term migration on wages. The results suggest that religion, marital status, employment sector, experience, and region are significant determinants of long-term migration. We also conclude that short-term migrants are better than long-term migrants in Jammu & Kashmir because the treatment effect negatively affects migrants' daily wages. The paper also directs potential policy implications. • The paper compares the impact of long-term and short-term migration on wages. • ESR model evaluates the wage difference between long-term and short-term migrants. • Households' decisions on migration length affect wages and welfare. • Short-term migrants earn higher wages than long-term migrants in Jammu & Kashmir. • Short-term migration to politically and environmentally volatile places is better. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract Neoliberalism, rights to the city, and sustainable development are systems of ideas competing for the attention of policymakers and citizens worldwide. Analyzing Ghana's key urban reports, we produce a heat map of the intensity and fragility of ideas concerning the urban poor. We employ the Agbogbloshie informal settlement as a case study to explore conflicts among diverse planning goals: urban entrepreneurialism, environmental protection, formalization of parts of the informal economy, the reframing of citizenship, and settlement upgrading. Decongestion exercises, shack demolitions, and threats of relocation are strategies employed to restore order, but the settlement's regeneration is beset by transience and piecemeal actions. We introduce hypocrisy as a theoretical analytical perspective to call into question pro-poor urban planning interventions as a way of responding to continuous ambivalent planning measures and framing. Hypocrisy prompts an alternative focus on inconsistencies and contradictions in the planning system. Highlights • Neoliberalism, rights to the city, and sustainable development are ideas competing for attention of policymaker. • Lefebvre's lived space and right to inhabit are understood against the backdrop of neoliberalism. • Decongestion is employed to restore order while regeneration strategies are beset by transience and piecemeal actions. • Utopian and dystopian views are suppressing its real geography. • Hypocrisy prompts an alternative focus on inconsistencies and contradictions in the planning system. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Informality is growing in a context of increasing inequity, and in many places becoming the norm. However, despite decades of studies and interventions, ‘recognising informality’ is still a key issue. This paper provides a review of the literature on informality showing the shifts in its conceptualisations. The paper firstly discusses conceptual approaches related to the term ‘informality’ in the context of urban development; it then examines practices within, and related to, informality; and it concludes with an appraisal of policy approaches and their impact as reported in the literature. The paper finds a wide range of conceptualisations, including the questioning of the usefulness and appropriateness of the term. It finds reported evidence of ‘informality’ (as understood to date) spreading to the middle classes, and increasingly emerging in the Global North. Policies seem to be lagging behind in how they engage with so-called informality, with little acknowledgement of theory and limited understanding of their impacts on ‘informal’ practices. Finally, the paper identifies the need for better understanding of governance frameworks that include the range of actors that would normally be associated with so-called ‘informality’. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The green economy is widely promoted as a 21st century solution to sustainable development. The role of cities in pursuing this agenda is increasingly recognised. Yet, the informal economy, which so many urban dwellers and workers in low- and middle-income countries depend upon, is seldom considered. This paper examines the opportunities and barriers that the urban informal economy pose for making economies greener, and the risks that such attempts pose for vulnerable informal dwellers and workers. In contemplating how this group can be included in the transition to a greener economy, the different schools of thought on informality are reviewed, with a focus on recent thinking that relates urban informality to conflicting processes of inclusion and exclusion. The paper then considers a set of action areas aimed at leveraging the positive contributions that informal dwellers and workers can make in the transition to an economy that is not only greener, but also more inclusive. Leveraging these contributions will require recognising and supporting women's unpaid reproductive work (including community organising and strategizing around environmental improvements) and applying the principles of inclusive urban planning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With over half of the world's population living in cities, and with rising consumption, the generation of solid waste has become a ubiquitous and serious problem in urban agglomerations. City administrations are facing social, cultural, environmental, and economic challenges when planning solid waste solutions. The paper discusses the participatory epistemology and methodology experience resulting from inclusive solid waste management in Brazil. In the global South countless informal and organized solid waste collectors are engaged in resource recovery, classification of discarded waste, and redirection of recyclables towards the recycling sector. Their work is mostly unrecognized and the service is not remunerated. Governmental support to include recycling cooperatives in selective waste collection varies significantly in scope and quality. In theory, the Brazilian solid waste management legislation supports recycling cooperatives and promotes avoidance, reuse, and recycling as a primary solution tackling waste. In praxis, however, many challenges towards inclusive resource recovery and awareness building about waste avoidance and diversion are yet to be overcome. Action-oriented, participatory qualitative research, conducted with recycling cooperatives and local governments in the metropolitan region of São Paulo, has revealed some of the environmental and social contributions, as well as challenges arising in planning, policy design, and implementation of waste management. The research applies a feminist and post-colonial theoretical lense and demonstrates a wealth of knowledge co-generation on waste management. The participatory method underlines important social aspects to consider in planning and policy design for inclusive waste management. The final conclusion of this paper is that selective household waste collection with recycling cooperatives creates unique opportunities to build more inclusive and cleaner cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The informal sector in developing countries plays a particularly important role in the overall economic development, yet due to epistemological neglect, its conceptualization focuses on the prism of poverty and social exclusion, hence overshadowing its embedded innovativeness, adaptability and contributions to job creation, poverty alleviation and environmental management. This paper contributes in bridging this knowledge dearth by focusing on how informal e-waste recyclers negotiate the challenges of contemporary political economy contexts. Using an urban mining lens, this paper shows how crucial this sector is for the success of any municipal waste management system and Accra's local economy in general. It is contended that the continuous denial of the sector's virtues in the economy is a poor situational analysis and the research emphasizes instead the need to consider as well as harness the sector's potential in order to create not only employment for the poor but also to bring e-waste recycling into mainstream waste management scholarship. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Waste is the most visible evidence of inefficiency in any environment. As in many Sub-Saharan African (SSA) countries, the waste problem in Nigeria is of serious concern to stakeholders. While some investigation to understand the nature of the drivers and barriers affecting sustainable solid waste management in Nigeria has been undertaken, there is little understanding of the interface between solid waste management and governance. This paper is based on a study carried out between 2008 and 2010. The study reviews available literature on solid waste governance in Nigerian cities with a view to making some comparisons and proffering new strategies to enhance waste governance. Findings indicate that absence of good governance in the case studied has negatively impacted on solid waste management performance. This situation has tended to influence individuals to resort to self help. Results also indicate that a rethinking of the current top-down approach to waste governance in Nigeria is urgently required. The main lessons from this study are: (1) a number of governance-related barriers currently constrain sustainable solid waste management (2) public–private partnership is an effective waste management strategy in evolving political systems such as Nigeria (3) mainstreaming the informal sector into the waste management infrastructure in Nigeria will enhance efficiency. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The city corporation of Dhaka (DCC), Bangladesh, currently only collects less than half of the solid waste produced in the municipality, an area of 360 km2 with a population of 7 million. Uncollected waste is dumped indiscriminately by inhabitants into water bodies or floodplains or else burnt, thus contaminating water, land and air of the city area and beyond. Rather than searching for solutions to improve collection and disposal services, this paper presents research which focuses on the production of waste at household level, and explores how household waste segregation can preserve the value of recyclable materials, enhance their accessibility to informal workers of the recycling sector and reduce the overall waste flows. The analysis of the informal recycling industry and its stakeholders as well as waste generation and composition shows that there is still a large untapped potential. However any initiative aiming to increase source segregation and access to more recyclables needs to carefully consider all “integrated” aspects of the waste management system which influence and determine sustainability and success of the envisaged improvement. Practicality of segregation at the household level as well as regularity of collection or purchase of recyclables by the informal sector need to be addressed as priority. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper contributes to the conceptual discourse of urban informality with empirical findings taken from a rapidly growing informal settlement in the periphery of Dhaka, Bangladesh. It considers the case of a public water utility dealing with the rationality of the decision-making process and the working culture of the public authority, and with the consequent local practices embedded in water supply. It explains how the informal behaviour of the public utility and the practices of the study community are constructed, legitimated and negotiated and thus become everyday reality. The findings characterise the public utility as an informalised entity whose decisions lack any prescribed set of statutory institutions and are, instead, rationalised politically, based on the location and individual interests of actors in a power matrix. This mode of water governance produces discriminatory practices of differential treatment and tolerance, thus informing questions of difference and urban division. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Significant spatial and structural changes have occurred in the business sector of intermediate-sized cities in South Africa since the mid-1990s. These changes can largely be ascribed to responses of entrepreneurs, from both formal and informal sectors, to the profound changes that have taken place in business markets in those cities over the period. This paper addresses the question how the business environment has changed in three rather representative intermediate-sized cities in the North West Province of South Africa since the demise of apartheid and what economic, environmental, social and political key factors may have played a role in those changes. It analyses changes in the spatial distribution of formal and informal businesses in those cities and, based on that, identifies general trends in the structural changes that have become apparent in them since the political transition. Some general conclusions are drawn from our survey results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Recycling and valorisation of waste in urban centres in low- and middle-income countries is often misunderstood. Recycling in these countries represents neither the service of removal, nor an activity of “greening” related to ecological modernisation. Recycling is first of all an economic activity of commodities extraction, upgrading, and trading, and as such it provides a livelihood for millions of persons worldwide. Based on evidence of waste management and recycling activities in six urban centres in low- and middle-income countries, this paper explores the contribution of informal sector recycling to recycling and solid waste management. It interprets the variety of urban recycling systems as “modernised mixtures”: the mixing of formal municipal waste removal systems with informal private sector recycling activities. Context-dependent factors determine how this mixture of formal and informal systems looks, and how effective informal recycling in these urban centres is. This approach to analysing existing recycling can contribute to improvement of solid waste management systems through sustainable and fair recycling. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: Appropriate finance can greatly increase the speed and lower the cost of incremental housing – the process used by much of the low/moderate-income majority of most developing countries to acquire shelter. Informal finance continues to dominate the funding of incremental housing. However, new sources have developed including housing microfinance, community-based finance savings and loan groups, and consumer credit for building materials. This paper examines informal and formal finance for incremental housing and makes recommendations for the vast expansion necessary to meet the affordable housing demand from the huge urban wave in developing countries projected over the next three decades. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Contemporary international models of governance prescribe the devolution of service provision to a range of non-state actors and the adoption of market-oriented policies. This paper explores the politics that have arisen from changes in the governance framework in Kampala, the capital of Uganda. The focus is on the privatisation of the management of city markets and on the relations between the multiple actors involved—private contractors, vendors’ associations, cooperatives and state actors. In particular, the paper looks into the implications of the privatisation process for vendors and their associations. It argues that, while the latter have sometimes adjusted to the changes by turning into cooperative societies or creating their own management firms, increasingly, however, private interests external to the markets are taking over the management functions, sidelining or even repressing, vendors’ associations. The general picture is one of weakening associations and endangered possibilities for broad-based organising and interest representation. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper suggests policy actions for safe urban and peri-urban agriculture and domestic waste recycling in urban lowland areas of Africa, in particular, in lowland areas of the capital of Cameroon, Yaoundé. We identify the explanatory variables of recycling domestic waste and their use in three selected lowland areas. Data were collected between August and September 2005 among 126 farmers. Results show that the factors contributing to the adoption of recycled fresh and decomposed kitchen waste are: vegetable production, the distance between the house and its crop field and the use of livestock waste. The factors contributing to the adoption of recycled livestock wastes are the age of the farmers, the distance between the house and its crop field, the educational level of farmers and land size. Young farmers are more likely to adopt recycled livestock wastes, and short distances between houses and crop fields are more likely to contribute to the adoption of both recycled kitchen waste and recycled livestock wastes. In this context, the implementation of transfer stations for domestic waste, inside or next to lowland areas, appears to be an adequate solution of transport and sanitary constraints faced both by farmers and municipalities in Africa. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The status of solid waste management in a city is often considered an index for assessing governance. In cities of the developing world, the informal sector plays an important role in the management of solid waste. This paper examines the position of the informal recycling sector in the planning and reform of solid waste management in the city of Enugu, Nigeria. The paper is based on direct field observations, key-informant interviews with important stakeholders in solid waste management in Enugu, and review of relevant legislation, policy documents and reports on solid waste management. The paper highlights recent efforts to visibly improve governance through reform of solid waste management in the urban area. Contribution of informal recyclers towards handling the city''s solid waste problem, job creation and poverty alleviation is also noted. The study also reveals that the import of the informal recycling sector has not been given adequate consideration within the framework of the reforms in solid waste management. With the focus of the Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction, improvement of quality of life and environmental sustainability, this paper observes that the informal recycling sector in Enugu possesses unacknowledged development potential. The paper calls for official recognition and support of the activity and empowerment of people involved in it within the context of this reform programme. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A large majority of the workers engaged in the informal sector operate through various informal channels of information flow, designated as ‘social capital.’ Though these contacts may result in overcrowding and prevalence of low wages in certain activities, without ‘social capital’ access to any source of livelihood is almost inconceivable. For upward mobility, job market experience and self-initiative are more important though the phenomenon of upward mobility itself is quite limited among the low-income households. Even in terms of the well-being index several long duration migrants, who constitute a sizeable percentage of the slum population, are located in the lower size classes, indicating the lack of evidence in favour of any significant improvement in their living standards over time. Social capital is seen to be hindering the upward mobility possibly by creating excess supplies of labour. The policy implication of the study is that the role of ‘social capital’ needs to be integrated with the existing support schemes to make the latter cost-efficient and effective. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: A majority of people now live in cities. Countries need to accommodate such a rapidly growing urban population, which is often living and working informally, and which is lacking access to decent working and living conditions. By integrating economic promotion policies with social protection instruments public policies not only mitigate the effects of social risks on poverty, particularly in low-income settlements, but also create the necessary conditions to allow the poor to work out of poverty. Some international organizations including the International Labour Office (ILO) consider that low-income countries can afford a basic package of social benefits. In face of growing informalization of the labour force worldwide, universal and targeted social cash transfers to poor people, which are not related to their employment status, are contributing today to curb poverty and reduce inequality in a number of developing countries. But, for poor people in petty jobs, poor housing and living conditions, social and economic rights are indivisible. Case studies show how social protection and local development in urban areas can be combined to achieve progressive universal coverage. These studies provide evidence that workers and families, who need to secure and enhance their vulnerable household economies, can largely benefit from measures that aim to extend further the reach of social protection. A major challenge lies in breaking down the conceptual and administrative barriers that artificially oppose economic development and social protection, in order to reduce the costs of the access to productive and basic social services and remove hurdles to local development in urban areas. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: This paper draws on a recent study of informal construction workers in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, to show how social dialogue was used in finding solutions to the encountered problems. The paper explains why the construction industry in general—and its informal sector in particular—is important for urban development. Following, the case study of Dar es Salaam is narrated with illustrations of practical experiences of how social dialogue was carried out. The conclusion draws together findings from the case and the literature that has been referred to. It links the findings of the case study with the theoretical framework of social dialogue. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The study investigates the operations of an informal initiative; the “barro’ boys” in the primary sub-system of urban solid waste management. The study is focused on 2 of the 20 local government councils in Lagos State, Nigeria. All the barro’ boys identified in Mushin and Kosofe local government areas were purposively sampled through structured interview. Information on the residents’ perception of the operators’ services were obtained from 392 households through systematic random sampling technique. The study identified that the operators of the initiative are educationally low in status, single by marital status, young adults all of whom are below the age of 35 years. The main activity of the initiative is collection of waste from the source of generation and no form of sorting is practiced. The equipment used is human driven cart which is either owned or rented. No definite method of service charge exists. The service is available throughout especially from Monday to Saturday. The operators’ minimum daily income is Naira 1000 (Naira 128=US$1). The initiative also produced dump site touts and several clandestine waste dump sites. The study further established that residents use environmentally unfriendly storage receptacles which aggravate the problems of effective collection. Though the residents were apprehensive of their properties’ security in the hands of the initiative''s operators, it is still the most popular means of disposal as 71.3% of the waste produced in the two council areas is disposed through them. In addition, the index of satisfaction (residents’ satisfaction index, RSI) on each attribute of “service availability”, “cost, in relation to the service provided”, “politeness of the initiative''s operators” and “reliability of the service rendered” is higher than the aggregate satisfaction of their service. The study concludes that with the popularity of the illegal, but highly cherished service of the barro’ boys, integrating them into the existing system to evolving an effective and efficient urban solid waste management is more realistic than the consideration to outlaw the initiative. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: Many thousands of people in developing country cities depend on recycling materials from waste for their livelihoods. With the focus of the Millennium Development Goals on poverty reduction, and of waste strategies on improving recycling rates, one of the major challenges in solid waste management in developing countries is how best to work with this informal sector to improve their livelihoods, working conditions and efficiency in recycling. The general characteristics of informal recycling are reviewed, highlighting both positive and negative aspects. Despite the health and social problems associated with informal recycling, it provides significant economic benefits that need to be retained. Experience shows that it can be highly counterproductive to establish new formal waste recycling systems without taking into account informal systems that already exist. The preferred option is to integrate the informal sector into waste management planning, building on their practices and experience, while working to improve efficiency and the living and working conditions of those involved. Issues associated with integrating informal recycling into the formal waste management sector are discussed. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

Abstract: The important role played by the informal sector in most economies in less developed countries is now recognized by governments and international agencies. However, enterprises in the informal sector continue to encounter various legal barriers that prevent them from attaining their full potential. This paper examines the performance of small-scale enterprises in three neighborhoods in Nairobi, Kenya. The study reveals that government intervention and donor funds are essential to enable small-scale enterprises to attain their full potential. However, government and donor agencies provide more assistance to enterprises located in neighborhoods that have security of tenure and open space available for development. The study also demonstrates that with the installation of basic infrastructure, and the elimination of both rigid regulations and the threat of demolition, the enterprises perform more efficiently and new enterprises come up diversifying neighborhood economies and creating job opportunities. This highlights the need for urban planners to allocate land and provide basic infrastructure for the informal sector. Government intervention and funds from donor agencies are, therefore, crucial in enhancing the performance of small-scale enterprises and creating jobs. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

The construction industry in developing countries comprises a regulated formal part and unregulated informal part. This paper discusses the linkages between the formal and informal parts (or sectors) of the construction industry in Tanzania, based on information gathered from structured interviews with both registered and unregistered contractors undertaken in 1999/2000. It is shown that there is a symbiotic relationship between the two groups of contractors, with registered contractors providing an important source of work and income for the unregistered contractors and the latter being an important supplier of labour to the former. Despite this, the informal part of the construction industry is generally ignored and receives little support from the government. It is argued that policies to develop the construction industries of developing countries should address the needs of the informal sector, where the bulk of the labour force is found, as well as those of the formal sector. A classification system for informal contractors is proposed as a basis for formulating programmes for the development of the informal construction sector. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]

This study explores the ways in which urban kampung communities deal with the sudden upsurge of large-scale to neighborhood-scale urban investments by the different government levels in Indonesia. This study examines the shift in livelihoods and utilization of space in urban kampungs in navigating these changes. The paper presents two urban kampungs from Pontianak, a medium-sized city in West Kalimantan, Indonesia. The study finds a change in livelihood strategies and in the utilization of space after developments in infrastructure specifically targeted at the urban kampung. First, there is a significant shift in the informal economy toward tourism-based livelihoods. Second, the kampungs are spatially more connected and integrated. In addition, spaces in the kampungs have been developed for visitors and local residents to congregate. Third, the effects of urban investments on livelihoods and space utilization differ between the two kampungs because of illicit business in one of the kampungs. Finally, the research contributes to understanding how government-led spatial interventions influence informal activities and urban spaces, but urban informality can lead to unexpected consequences of government interventions due to location-specific attributes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores a significant gap in knowledge about the employment impacts of community-led, low-income housing production, and the complex intersections between rights to housing, rights to work, and international attempts to define these rights, such as the ILO's 'decent work' agenda. We develop a four-way classification to understanding the livelihoods impact of housing interventions and how to measure it and, using evidence from construction workers and beneficiaries of the low-income housing developments supported by CLIFF (the Community Led Infrastructure Finance Facility) in Nairobi, this paper moves towards contextually-relevant definitions of 'a job'. We argue that existing employment multipliers used by evaluation agencies underestimate livelihood needs, and that the ILO's 'decent work' agenda should be contextually reviewed, particularly for informal economy workers with multiple livelihood streams, where sustainability may be more important than formalised work. We suggest that 'rights to housing' and 'rights to work' may conflict, particularly where in-situ upgrading is not feasible and developing housing in peri-urban locations is necessitated by the contextual realities of fast-growing cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]