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32 Comp. Lab. L. & Pol'y J. 311 (2010-2011)
Toward a Decent Work Regime for Informal Employment in Ghana: Some Preliminary Considerations

handle is hein.journals/cllpj32 and id is 315 raw text is: TOWARD A DECENT WORK REGIME FOR INFORMAL EMPLOYMENT IN GHANA: SOME PRELIMINARY CONSIDERATIONS Dzodzi Tsikatat I. INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND The expansion of informal work and with it livelihood insecurities as a result of over three decades of economic liberalization has generated renewed interest in the informal economy. While labor economists, lawyers, and sociologists have analyzed old and new kinds of informal work in global value chains of production and exchange from different disciplinary vantage points, they have raised issues that cut across disciplines. These include the implications of informalization for economic and social development and for the realization of citizenship rights, how to reduce the incidence and disadvantages of informalization, how to regulate the informal economy while maintaining its flexibilities, and how to extend social protection to all workers.' Informalization has been discussed in the literature as (a) the growth in size of the informal economy and a reduction in the size of the formal economy; and (b) systemic changes in labor relations from formalized to more informal arrangements.2 Informalization t Associate Professor, Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) and Head, Centre for Gender Studies and Advocacy (CEGENSA), University of Ghana. This article was produced under the auspices of the Labour Law and Development Research Network (LLDRN). The research was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Canada under the Think Tank Initiative. Thanks to Cassandra Asare for editorial assistance. 1. Kamala Sankaran, Protecting the Worker in the Informal Economy: The Role of Labour Law, in BOUNDARIES AND FRONTIERS OF LABOUR LAW 205 (Guy Davidov & Brian Langille eds., 2006); James Heintz & Robert Pollin, Informalization, Economic Growth and the Challenge of Creating Viable Labor Standards in Developing Countries (Political Economy Research Institute (PERI), University of Massachusetts, Working Paper Series, No. 60, 2003). 2. Lourdes Beneria, Shifting the Risk: New Employment Patterns, Informalization, and Women's Work, 15 INT'L J. POL., CULTURE, & Soc'Y 27 (2001); Jacques Charmes, Institute de Researche pour le Developpement, Paper prepared for the United Nations Statistics Division, The Gender and Development Programme of UNDP and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organising, Women Working in the Informal Sector in Africa: New Methods and Data (1998), available at http://www.wiego.org/papers/1informal.html (last visited Jan. 3, 2011); JOHN PAPE, GENDER AND GLOBALISATION IN SOUTH AFRICA: SOME PRELIMINARY REFLECTIONS ON WORKING WOMEN AND POVERTY (International Labour Resource and Information Group, Cape Town, 2000); Ruth Pearson, The Global Context: Home-Based Work and Policy Options. Mimeo. Home Workers Worldwide 311