About contemporary challenges of informal activities in Western Africa and Brazil (in Portuguese : A respeito de alguns desafios contemporâneos da informalidade económica...)

Abstract

This study data are based on several sources including official documents that are statistical or economical, as well as specialized literature and fieldwork investigations in collaboration with national university research teams. The present reflection reports on few western African countries and on Brazil characterized by the extent of informal phenomenon and its recent growth. Informal activities have been defined in different ways. The present document stresses on the problem and limits inherent to these definitions. Indeed although the informal phenomenon seems to be quite simple it is in fact complex and multidimensional. The main part of the article is devoted to two questions related to informal process knowledge and also to more concrete economical actions. First the structural importance of informal activities is signalled. Their extreme modernity is proved by nowadays increase due to neoliberal policies led by the governments for the last decades and is analyzed in the document. Second the most interesting challenges that authorities, administrations and specialized agencies have to face concerning informal activities are pointed out. The difficulties are about public policies and action programmes that deal with small business improvement situation as well as their integration in national economical formal channels.Economic Development, Informal economy, Public policies, Micro enterprise, SME, Brazil, Western Africa