Articles for June 2023
Riding to survive: food couriers in three African cities
Most of the studies on gig work focus on the Global North. There has been little research on how platform workers in Africa are responding to the digital economy. Although it is ostensibly based on freedom and self-employment, our research amongst food-courier riders in South Africa, Ghana, and Kenya found that this new work order is deepening worker insecurity, undermining worker rights, and dramatically increasing inequality between a core group of extremely wealthy senior manager/owners and a growing pool of precarious workers.
The Social Relief of Distress Grant: how it stimulated local economies
The Social Relief of Distress (SRD) grant was a key policy mechanism introduced to mitigate the effects on vulnerable groups of the COVID pandemic and government measures to contain its spread. While there is substantial research on the social impacts of the COVID-19 social relief package, little is known about its economic impacts. This article is based on a study that sought to understand, from the perspectives of local traders, the perceived economic effects of the grant. Evidence gathered in the study showed that the SRD led to an increase in customer demand within local economies. It was a crucial mechanism that helped informal trader businesses survive and, in some cases, enabled new business formation. By stimulating both supply and demand, the SRD supported the circulation of people, goods, and money and promoted higher transaction intensity in food and non-food sectors. Although the SRD could not reverse the negative impacts of COVID-19, and cannot be considered a standalone intervention, it nonetheless functioned as an effective shock-response mechanism for households and informal traders. The detection of some economic multipliers in a time of emergency signals the potential for a long-term intervention that could be beneficial to local economies.