sector through access to smaller-sized farmed tilapia sold by informal fish ... Informal fish retail is the main, if not
Brief
4 More meat, milk and fish by and for the poor
December 2013
Improving the working conditions of women fish retailers in Egypt Samy Hussein, Eshak Mounir, Samir Sedky, Susan A. Nour and Paula Kantor Egyptian aquaculture has grown over the last 20 years and is now a strategically important industry providing around 65% of the fish eaten by Egyptians and employing at least 100,000 full-time equivalents, 50% of whom are youth. Aquaculture-derived fish is the cheapest farmed animal protein source in the country, making the sector particularly important for the country’s 21 million poor people. Continued, sustainable growth of aquaculture has the potential to lift poor people out of poverty and to improve their food and nutrition security through increased supply of nutritious protein and essential micronutrients. Achieving this depends on how the growth is achieved and how inclusively its benefits are shared. Poor rural consumers benefit from Egypt’s aquaculture sector through access to smaller-sized farmed tilapia sold by informal fish retailers, many of whom are women. Informal fish retail is the main, if not only, segment of the farmed fish value chain where women are found.1 The SDC-funded project ‘Improving Employment and Incomes through the Development of Egypt’s Aquaculture Sector’ (IEIDEAS), implemented by WorldFish and CARE in five governorates (El-Mineya, Fayoum, Kafr el Sheikh, Sharqiya and Beheira) works with women fish vendors to improve their work conditions and earnings. This is a challenging task given the risks and constraints the retailers face; it offers great potential to make fish selling more attractive and secure poor consumers’ access to farmed fish. This brief explores the risks and constraints faced by the women fish retailers. It draws on the results of a situational analysis, placing it within a global framework illustrating employment conditions and risks affecting street vendors. It also describes approaches to improve the situation of vendors and actions of CARE. 1 Macfadyen, G. et al. 2011. Value-chain analysis of Egyptian aquaculture. Project report 2011- 54. Penang: WorldFish.
Employment conditions and risks Street vendors make their living through trading goods or services in public.2 Trading locations vary and include sidewalks, medians, roadsides as well as formal or informal marketplaces. Traders may sell from kiosks, semi-fixed stalls or less permanent structures such as moveable crates, plastic sheets or mobile pushcarts. Street vendors often supply consumers with affordable and convenient access to goods, however, the work itself can be highly insecure due to the lack of guaranteed places to vend and irregular supply of products. The global organization Women in Informal Employment Organizing and Globalizing (WIEGO) has developed a framework illustrating the various dimensions of street vendor employment conditions and risks, as well as the role of legal status as a bridge between the two (Figure 1). This framework is used to structure the presentation of the situational assessment results. CARE carried out the assessment in 2012, conducting 278 structured interviews with purposively selected women fish retailers in the five project governorates (50 in each of the 3 Delta governorates, 58 in Fayoum and 70 in Mineya). The results illustrate the challenges faced to improve the quality of opportunities for women in this activity. In the framework in Figure 1, key factors influencing the employment conditions of street vendors include employment status3, workplace location and structure, and product category. Street vendors also face several risks associated with their employment, categorized as
2 Statistics on employment in the informal economy are relatively poor but improving. That said there are few estimates of the share of street vendors among informal workers. Existing data focus on urban areas, with street vendors estimated to be 14% of informal workers in Ghana and India for example (www.wiego.org). 3 Employment status represents the type of explicit or implicit contract of employment an economically active person has. See www.ilo.org/global/statistics-and-databases/statistics-overview-andtopics/status-in-employment/lang--en
1
income, asset, physical and normative. Variations across these risks and employment conditions are associated with different qualities of employment. The situational assessment provides insight on which of these factors influence the employment quality of women fish retailers in rural Egypt and provides direction for action.
is needed to meet basic needs (23%), or an unemployed or deceased husband has made a woman the sole provider (30%). The low entry requirements and concentration of women fish retailers on the lower end consumer market may lead to saturated markets and competition, reducing earnings.
The participating women fish retailers lack legal status; they have no registration, permits or licenses that provide workers’ rights or protections. This has many negative consequences. One is a lack of secure, clean space from which to vend. This commonly reported problem leads to a number of other challenges related to employment location and structure, and risk of asset loss.
Women retailers in contexts like rural Egypt where female seclusion is an ideal may face social disapproval for working in public, and may themselves internalize these norms and find little social benefit from their work.4 There was evidence of these normative risks among many respondents, and particularly those in the more conservative Upper Egypt governorates. Women reported feeling shame for having to work outside of the home. Further study is needed to understand whether being pushed into income earning work in these ways, and in a work location not typically appropriate for women in Egypt, limits the empowerment potential of the work.
Many respondents reported selling on streets in informal undesignated market areas. Their lack of fixed location means vendors are unwilling to invest in any structures that might improve their sales environment. Thus, in summer they and their fish are directly exposed to the hot sun and in winter, during the rains, they sit in muddy streets. Even though they receive few services from the local government and have no fixed vending place, some women fish retailers report having to pay “floor fees” to officials. Some respondents reported being chased by police and having their fish confiscated. Others have had local shop owners throw dirty water at them. Given these conditions, it is not surprising that another common finding is the lack of enthusiasm and choice with which the women entered fish retailing; it is an occupation of last resort. A need for income, low entry requirements and lack of alternative employment opportunities lead women into the sector. In some cases they are married to fishermen and sell their catch (30% of respondents) as well as supporting the family through sales of farmed fish during fishing ban periods when men migrate for work. In other cases husbands rely on casual labour to support the family and a second income source
Women retailers’ employment status is defined mainly through their relationships with wholesalers. Most women retailers buy their fish from wholesalers (65%); another 30 percent obtain their fish from husbands or relatives who are fishers or wholesalers, and 5 percent buy from fish farms. Women in the latter two categories fall most clearly into the independent selfemployed employment status category. Women buying from wholesalers can become enmeshed in dependent relationships that limit their bargaining power, placing them in the category of semi-dependent workers. Evidence on how these women buy their fish supports this conclusion. Ninety-three percent of the women who buy from wholesalers use credit which they repay in the next day or two. Such relationships provide working capital but can give wholesalers considerable power over the retailers, limiting retailers’ ability to bargain over prices, request specific types or sizes of fish, or shift between wholesalers for better terms. Further research is needed to examine any differences in returns based on different sources of fish and on the consequences of the credit relations between retailers and wholesalers. A frequently reported concern among women fish retailers relates to quality standards in fish storage and handling. There is a lack of refrigerated transport to bring fish from farms to wholesale markets. The retailers themselves also lack good cold storage equipment during 4 Kabeer, N. 2000. The Power to Choose. London: Verso. Kabeer, N. 2012. Women’s economic empowerment and inclusive growth: Labour markets and enterprise development. SIG Working Paper 2012/1. Ottawa: IDRC.
2
transport and at the place of sale. There is a lack of affordable ice, particularly in summer, to maintain fish freshness. They risk loss of fish due to spoilage, leading to reduced earnings. The poor storage and handling conditions, as well as poor quality sales environments including lack of toilets and running water, expose vendors and consumers to health and safety risks. Another reported challenge is finding affordable transport to wholesale markets to buy fish, and back to retail locations. Cost is one element of this challenge; another is the product itself. Due to the undesirability of traveling with fish expressed by mini bus drivers and other passengers, and the unwieldy trays in which many women transport fish, finding transport can be time consuming and problematic. Transport constraints can reduce margins as well as time available to sell fish. Women fish retailers tend to sell small sized fresh whole tilapia to poor consumers. Whether this market focus is by choice or due to gender-based constraints, e.g. related to women’s more limited access to capital and limited mobility to access ‘higher value’ consumers, remains to be seen. The limited buying power of these consumers means women fish retailers have few opportunities to add value to their products, limiting their earning potential. The assessment shows that women fish retailers are placed along a continuum from independently selfemployed to a situation of semi-dependence on wholesalers. Most work from undesignated or variable workplaces with minimal structures and have few amenities to maintain the quality of their fish or their own health and safety. These employment conditions place the women fish retailers at risk of low or variable incomes, loss of assets and social disapproval or a sense of shame related to their work outside of the home. The IEIDEAS project is engaging with the women retailers to test ways to overcome some of these problems. The next section identifies opportunities to improve the work conditions of women fish retailers. Policy and program options Three strategies identified by WIEGO to improve the employment conditions of street vendors include: 1) strengthening their voice in policy making; 2) strengthening their voice in relation to other actors affecting their work (e.g. family members, wholesalers, input suppliers); 3) improving their legitimacy by gaining legal status. Gaining legitimacy through legal status links with the first option because it often involves advocating for new policies and laws that secure vendors’ rights to space and legitimacy. Such advocacy can focus on local government bodies holding responsibility for land use and permits, and can achieve results in the short to medium term. Longer term strategies involve advocacy at national and international levels for more sweeping reforms and protections. The Self Employed Women’s Association in
India (SEWA – www.sewa.org), a union of female informal workers, is an example of an organization that has successfully advocated, in partnership with women vendors, for women street vendors’ rights to space and identity cards in India. It also has experience in national and international advocacy for street vendor rights, with the most recent example being successful passage of a bill in India’s parliament protecting the rights of street vendors in urban areas. One core aspect of SEWA’s local success is its membership structure; women informal workers themselves participate in bringing about change and through this can experience their own transformation processes. This demonstrates how collective organization is an important means through which street vendors can achieve voice in support of both policy level change and changes in relationships with other influential actors. These organizations may be worker groups, marketing collectives or savings groups. The form will depend on the context and what will motivate vendors to join together. Organizing informal street vendors can be challenging based on their long hours of work. Organizing women informal workers can add more challenges, related to their responsibilities for productive and reproductive work, and due to norms about women’s visibility and mobility. However, the wider benefits emerging from the solidarity found through collective action, such as women’s enhanced confidence and sense that their work is valuable and should be valued, makes overcoming these challenges important.5 These changes affect women’s voice in their work and can spill over into their relationships in the home, enhancing their willingness and ability to participate in family decisions, including those related to their time or income. Understanding the local context to identify barriers and opportunities for collective organization is an important first step in designing organizing strategies. In a context like rural Egypt, sensitivity to the location of group meetings and involving families in efforts to mobilize women’s participation may be necessary to ensure that women are able to participate outside of the home. The results of the situational analysis point to several interventions through which the IEIDEAS project can improve the employment conditions and outcomes of women fish retailers. CARE is pursuing some on a pilot basis to enhance women retailers’ voice, as well as directly addressing some of their practical constraints. A primary focus of the project is on developing the capacities of local retailer committees, based within existing Community Development Associations (CDAs). The retailer committees can serve as a conduit for service delivery to women retailers and represent women retailers’ interests to actors such as local governments. 5 Baden, S. 2013. Women’s collective action: Unlocking the potential of agricultural markets. Oxford: Oxfam International.
3
Through their representational role, retailer committees are able to negotiate secure vending space and improvements to the physical work environment of the retailers. Box 1 illustrates such a change in Fayoum, which was achieved with key inputs from the CDA and CARE. The project aims to replicate this achievement elsewhere. Other interventions CARE is implementing focus on enhancing fish quality through improved storage and handling practices. The aim is to reduce losses due to
spoilage. So far, the project has facilitated subsidized purchase of ice boxes to store fish and it has provided marketing and hygiene training. It is also exploring the provision of low cost ice through investment by retail committees or CDAs in a deep freezer facility. Another area where a focus on women retailers’ voice is needed relates to wholesalers. Ways to improve the women retailers’ position relative to wholesalers include:
Box 1: Establishing a marketplace in Ibshaway village, Shakshouk, Fayoum A joint effort of the Shakshouk CDA, CARE staff and women fish retailers led to the establishment of a fixed marketplace for women fish retailers. The local government was convinced to provide land for the market, with the CDA and women retailers asked to choose between two central sites. A link between the CDA and a local business, under a corporate social responsibility initiative, motivated the business to provide in kind support to the market’s development. It is an example of a successful public-private partnership. The selected site is close to where the women used to sit on the roadsides to sell their fish. The new market provides a concrete base and good drainage, meaning it is easy to keep the market clean. It also keeps the women and the fish from the dirt on the street, removes the risk of harassment by police and shopkeepers, and the potential confiscation of their fish. The market also has a roof so the women and fish are protected from the hot sun; a water tap was recently installed. The market is a success – it provides consumers with a clean and central place to buy fish and the women retailers report selling their fish more quickly each day, giving them more time for their other responsibilities. Source: interviews with CARE staff and CDA members
linking women fish retailers to alternative credit sources so they can buy fish from different wholesalers and increase competition among suppliers; supporting women fish retailers make bulk purchases to improve their bargaining power.
Conclusions Women fish retailers in rural Egypt operate under difficult conditions that make the job one of last resort. The IEIDEAS project is testing approaches that can improve their employment conditions with the aim of maintaining, and potentially expanding, current employment levels and increasing earnings. It is documenting how the different interventions work across locations and comparing their outcomes to learn which approaches suit different contexts and why. Also of interest is determining to what extent gender inequalities play a role in employment conditions and outcomes. An ongoing study comparing employment conditions and outcomes of female and male informal fish retailers will shed light on this. Both activities will inform recommendations to scale up successful interventions.
CGIAR is a global partnership that unites organizations engaged in research for a food secure future. The CGIAR Research Program on Livestock and Fish aims to increase the productivity of small-scale livestock and fish systems in sustainable ways, making meat, milk and fish more available and affordable across the developing world. The Program brings together four CGIAR centres: the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI) with a mandate on livestock; WorldFish with a mandate on aquaculture; the International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT), which works on forages; and the International Center for Research in the Dry Areas (ICARDA), which works on small ruminants. http://livestockfish.cgiar.org
This document is licensed for use under a Creative Commons Attribution – Noncommercial- Share Alike 3.0 Unported Licence.
December 2013
4
