As North Africa faces both the health and economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic, the region’s informal workers and businesses are disproportionately at risk. In the medium term, the region’s informal economy faces more substantive challenges. The growth of informal employment in North Africa has been closely connected to sluggish employment creation in the public and formal private sector. If the current crisis further depresses formal employment, additional entries into the informal economy will drive up competition for sparse livelihoods in already overstretched sectors. Platforms for dialogueMeaningful reforms for North Africa’s informal economies will require long-term policy engagements.

Source: The North Africa Journal April 15, 2020 11:03 UTC