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⁹ The “informal sector” as a concept was first introduced by Keith Hart in 1973 in his study of informal employment in Ghana to better understand the complexity of survival strategies of the urban poor (Hart, K., “Informal income opportunities and urban employment in Ghana,” Journal of Modern African Studies, 11 (1973): 61–89CrossRefGoogle Scholar.). Since then, a huge literature on the subject has developed and broadened the concept. Talk of the ‘informal economy’ stresses that it is not confined to a specific sector of economic activity but cuts across the vast and diverse range of informal employment activities and how they relate to formal sectors of society.The informal economy also encompasses issues such as informal housing and social security. In order to grasp the complex reality of burgeoning informality in the developing world it needs to be analysed in terms of locality and the struggle for urban space, of work and livelihoods, as well as land, housing and planning. See also Hansen, K. Tranberg and Vaa, M., eds., Reconsidering Informality. Perspectives from Urban Africa, (Uppsala, 2004)Google Scholar; B. Harriss-White, “Globalisation, Informal Economies and (In)Decent Work” (paper presented at the Conference on Globalisation Growth and (In)equality, Warwick University, March 2002); Chen, M., “Rethinking the informal economy,” Seminar, 531 (2003)Google Scholar.

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¹¹ Chen, M., Vanek, J. and Carr, M., Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in Poverty Reduction. A Handbook for Policy-makers and Other Stakeholders (London, 2004)Google Scholar; ILO, Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture (Geneva, 2002)Google Scholar.

¹² For some observers this trend leads to the “globalisation of insecurity” characterized by growing informality of work, money and politcs on a global scale. See: Mahnkopf, B. and Altvater, E., Globalisierung der Unsicherheit: Arbeit im Schatten, schmutziges Geld und informelle Politik (Münster, 2002)Google Scholar.

¹³ Rakodi, C. and Lloyd-Jones, T., eds., Urban Livelihoods. A People-Centred Approach To Reducing Poverty (London, 2002)Google Scholar; Kantor, P. and Nair, P., “Risks and Responses among the Urban Poor in India,” Journal of International Development 15 no. 8 (2003): 957–967CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Köberlein, M., Living from Waste. Livelihoods of the Actors Involved in Delhi's Informal Waste Recycling Economy (Saarbrücken, 2003)Google Scholar; Schütte, S., Urban Vulnerability in Afghanistan. Case Studies from three Cities (Kabul, 2004)Google Scholar; Chen, M., “Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with the Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment,” in Unlocking Human Potential: Concepts and Policies for Linking the Informal and Formal Sectors, ed. Guha-Khasnobis, B., Kanbur, R. and Ostrom, E., (Oxford, 2006): 75–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Beall, J. and Schütte, S., Urban Livelihoods in Afghanistan (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

¹⁴ Davis, M., “Planet of Slums,” New Left Review, 26 (2004): 25Google Scholar.

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¹⁷ Wood, G. and Gough, I., “A Comparative Welfare Regime Approach to Global Social Policy,” World Development, 34, no. 10 (2006): 1699CrossRefGoogle Scholar; see also Wood, G., “Informal Security Regimes: The Strength Of Relationships,” in Insecurity and Welfare Regimes in Asia, Africa and Latin America: Social Policy in Development Contexts, ed., Gough, I. and Wood, G., (Cambridge, 2004)Google Scholar.

¹⁸ Wood and Gough (op.cit.) place informal security regimes in a broader typology of welfare regimes, which serves as a framework for studying social policy in development contexts. Thereby, a welfare regime serves as a more generic term, referring to the entire set of institutional arrangements, policies, and practices affecting welfare outcomes and stratification effects in diverse social and cultural contexts. For an account of the specific types and characteristics of different welfare regimes, see G. Wood and I. Gough, “A Comparative Welfare Regime Approach to Global Social Policy”.

¹⁹ World Bank, Afghanistan. State Building, Sustaining Growth, and Reducing Poverty. A Country Economic Report (Washington, 2004): 5Google Scholar. The formalized economy in Afghanistan basically refers to recorded activities of the government (i.e. 3 percent of the GDP), the registered businesses of the country and activities of NGOs and international organisations.

²⁰ The findings presented in this paper are drawn from one-year longitudinal household-level research in the Afghan cities of Kabul, Herat, and Jalalabad and short-term case studies in the cities of Mazar-e Sharif and Pul-e Khumri. In the long-term study areas research teams worked with a permanent sample of 40 households in each site. These households were recurrently visited over the period of one full year, allowing for an in-depth investigation of change over time, as the urban environment evolved, and producing detailed evidence of livelihood and coping strategies carried out by different types of households (i.e. consisting of different ethnicities, female-headed households, returned refugees, and internally displaced persons). The research was carried out between 2004 and 2006 under the auspices of the Afghanistan Research and Evaluation Unit (AREU), an independent research organization based in Kabul; see: Schütte, S., Poverty Amid Prosperity: Urban Livelihoods in Herat (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar; Schütte, S., Searching for Security: Urban Livelihoods in Kabul (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar; Schütte, S., Gaining Some Ground: Urban Livelihoods in Jalalabad (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar; Schütte, S., Poor, Poorer, Poorest: Urban Livelihoods and Vulnerability in Mazar-i-Sharif (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar; Schütte, S., Dwindling Industry, Growing Poverty: Urban Livelihoods in Pul-e Khumri (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

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²² World Bank, Kabul: Urban Land in Crisis (Washington, 2005)Google Scholar.

²³ For instance, a study on winter vulnerability in Kabul showed that many urban poor and vulnerable have difficulties to sustain prolonged periods of hardship without assistance. See: Grace, J.: One Hundred Households in Kabul. A Study of Winter Vulnerability, Coping Strategies, and The Impact of Cash-for-Work Programmes on The Lives of The “Vulnerable” (Kabul, 2003)Google Scholar.

²⁴ Moser, C., “The Asset Vulnerability Framework: Reassessing Urban Poverty Reduction Strategies,” World Development, 26, no. 1 (1998): 1–19CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Schütte, S., Urban Vulnerability in Afghanistan. Case Studies from three Cities (Kabul, 2004)Google Scholar.

²⁵ Beall, J. and Schütte, S., Urban Livelihoods in Afghanistan (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

²⁶ Qutoe from 36-year-old man living in a squatter settlement of Kabul during a focus group discussion, 8 February 2004.

²⁷ A labor market survey carried out by the International Rescue Committee in 2003 estimated a countrywide unemployment rate of 32 percent, which is compounded by an underemployment rate of 33 percent (see IRC, Afghanistan: Labor Market Information Survey (Kabul, 2003): 69–70Google Scholar).

²⁸ This has been severely exemplified over early 2008 when sharply rising prices for wheat and wheat flour put the basic staple food in Afghanistan literally out of reach for poor populations.

²⁹ This is supported from survey data collected in further cities of Afghanistan. See Beall, J. and Schütte, S., Urban Livelihoods in Afghanistan (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

³⁰ An example is provided in Mazar-e Sharif, where the municipality imposed a ban on mobile vending in the city center in late November 2005, which severely disrupted one of the most important livelihood opportunities of the urban poor.The most advantageous areas to carry out a small vending trade around the Hazrat Ali Mosque in the city center are now prohibited for use, and people who are caught vending there can be harshly sanctioned. Many small vendors complained about repeated harassment, such as destruction of sale stock and forceful eviction, as well as significant income loss because of this recent policy decision.

³¹ Opel, A., Bound for the City: a Study of Rural to Urban Labour Migration in Afghanistan (Kabul, 2005)Google Scholar.

³² The significant value of regular work is obvious by example of the textile factory workers of Pul-e Khumri. Despite a period of production decline and heavy job cuts in the industry, the workers’ households stayed afloat and were able to provide higher educational standards for their children; see Schütte, S., Dwindling Industry, Growing Poverty: Urban Livelihoods in Pul-e Khumri (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

³³ Consider the case of carpet weaving: respondents in the city of Pul-e Khumri reported they receive payments of about 1000 Afghani (=20 US$) per meter of woven carpet, which needs three to four people working almost constantly for about two weeks to accomplish. In many other subcontracted work instances found in Herat, women do not earn more than 10 Afghani (=20 cents) for a full day's work.

³⁴ Schütte, S., Poverty Amid Prosperity: Urban Livelihoods in Herat (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

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³⁶ The general debate on urban livelihood security is largely informed by the “sustainable livelihoods framework” as laid out by the British govnernment agency Department for International Development (DFID). The framework is designed to address human agency and capability, to analyse the contexts influencing and determining livelihoods in terms of social vulnerability, as well as to examine the effects of institutional arrangements and policy environments on peoples’ livelihoods. See Bohle, H.G., “Neue Ansätze der geographischen Risikoforschung. Ein Analyserahmen zur nachhaltigen Lebenssicherung von Armutsgruppen,” Die Erde, 132, no. 2 (2001): 119–140Google Scholar; DFID, Sustainable Livelihoods Guidance Sheets (1998)Google Scholar, http://www.eldis.org/go/topics/dossiers/livelihoods/what-are-livelihoods-approaches/training-and-learning-materials. Accessed May 4, 2009.

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³⁸ Interview from February 2006.

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⁴⁵ This is referred to by the local term ograyi, a system of obtaining goods for trade on credit, which involves kind-instalments to be returned in cash. It is probably the most widely used form of credit for trade in Afghanistan, and virtually all mobile vending activities are channelled via ograyi. Mobile vendors obtain their stock through wholesale dealers, and only after selling do they pay for the sale items. Often this happens on a daily base, but can also take place weekly or monthly, as per prior agreements.

⁴⁶ Schütte, S., Poverty Amid Prosperity: Urban Livelihoods in Herat (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

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⁴⁹ See ibidem. The World Bank document also states that in spite of the high migration to the city and unprecedented population growth, only 0.5 percent of residents live in tent colonies or refugee camps. However, while it is true that most people have access to housing, this can be very makeshift and often fails to provide adequate and durable shelter. Many settlements only gradually improved from initial tent colonies into makeshift mud housing. In addition, living conditions tend to be very crowded, with an average of four to five persons having to share one room; see Beall, J. and Schütte, S., Urban Livelihoods in Afghanistan (Kabul, 2006)Google Scholar.

⁵⁰ The Land Policy of Afghanistan states: “It is national policy that the Government shall endeavor to upgrade the basic services of residential areas formed on public land occupied by homeless squatters on habitable land; and further: It is national policy that the Government gradually upgrades informal settlements formed on privately owned and environmentally tenable land as certified by the Ministry of Urban development and relevant municipality and endeavor to integrate them into the formal planning processes of urban areas. The government shall promote land tenure regularization in these areas in collaboration with relevant communities based on standards to be established by law”: Government of Afghanistan, Land Policy (Kabul, 2007).

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⁵⁴ It is estimated that 92 percent of the Afghan population do not have access to proper sanitation, and that every day preventable, mostly water borne diseases kill 600 children aged under five in Afghanistan; see IRIN, Afghanistan: Poor sanitation, Bad Toilets Cause Deaths, Misery (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2008)Google Scholar.

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⁵⁶ Constable, P., “Land grab in Kabul Embarrasses Government,” Washington Post, 16 September 2003Google Scholar.

⁵⁷ Ibid.

⁵⁸ The worrying situations examined in this paper have led many poor Afghans to consider re-emigrating to neighboring countries, where situations are perceived to be more favorable than at home, see IRIN, Afghanistan: Returnees May Become Refugees Again—Ministry (UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, 2008)Google Scholar.

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⁶⁰ Ibid.