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Resumen: El presente estudio tiene por objeto el impacto de la pandemia de COVID‐19 en los trabajadores de plataformas de transporte urbano en vehículos de turismo con conductor (VTC) en África. Debido a su naturaleza mercantilizada e informalizada, el sector ofrece oportunidades de empleo en condiciones de mala calidad, que se agravaron durante la pandemia. Mediante un enfoque metodológico ecléctico que comprende entrevistas en profundidad con conductores de VTC en Nairobi y análisis de etnografía digital, se observan estrategias de resiliencia, adaptación y resistencia de los trabajadores que recurren al pluriempleo informal en plataformas. El estudio subraya la necesidad de establecer marcos reguladores y redes locales de solidaridad que garanticen unas condiciones de trabajo decentes y contrarresten la precariedad en la economía de plataformas. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article examines the impact of the COVID‐19 pandemic on ride‐hailing drivers in Africa. It argues that, although ride‐hailing offers paid work to some African workers, the commodified and informalized nature of this work results in poor job quality, the effects of which were greatly amplified during the pandemic. Drawing on a mixed methods approach involving in‐depth interviews with ride‐hailing drivers in Nairobi and digital ethnography, it also provides accounts of drivers' hustles to demonstrate strategies of resilience, reworking and resistance among informal workers. The article concludes by highlighting the need for adequate regulatory frameworks and on‐the‐ground solidarity networks to ensure decent working conditions, and to push back against precarity in the gig economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Paid work and gender equality are key elements of international development discourse on women's economic empowerment. New digital technologies are considered to generate paid work opportunities for the marginalised groups in Africa, particularly women. The rise of the platform economy (work digitally mediated via platforms), for example, is framed as a panacea to poverty and informality among women. Yet the evidence remains anecdotal so far. Drawing on the author's empirical research conducted between 2015 and 2021 on two kinds of digital labour (remote and place-based work) in Africa, the paper examines the job-quality outcomes among women gig workers in five African countries. The paper highlights new gender-based inequalities on platforms and the ways in which women cope with such outcomes. In particular, it outlines economic insecurities, discrimination at work, high work intensity and adverse physical and psychological impacts among women workers on platforms. It advances the cause for women's labour rights and offers policy recommendations for a gender-equitable platform economy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]