Overview : The Covid-19 pandemic emerged at the time when the Namibian Economy is at the crossroads after experiencing setbacks in terms of stimulating diversification and realizing stability as a result of severe drought which saw agricultural output declining to 42% below previous 20 years productivity. These among others contributed to the fall in GDP and resulted in unemployment estimated in 2018 at a national rate of almost 33% of which 34.3% are female and 32.5% male. Efforts to reduce poverty have been hampered by the failure of the market to stimulate jobs and to curb unemployment. Namibia also faces key developmental challenges such as the growing informal economy, lack of decent and secure jobs and lack or insufficient social protection for workers. The Namibia Statistics Agency (NSA) from their Annual Labour Force Surveys of 2012-2014 reports that the informal sector created about 40% employment. The majority of the vulnerable women tend to engage in the informal sector to make a living from selling of basic items mainly food items in the informal markets, and streets as vendors to make a living. COVID-19 is therefore deepening pre-existing gender and socio-economic inequalities and exposing vulnerabilities in social, political and economic systems. Significantly, the effects of COVID-19 impact the vulnerable people especially women and elderly, small producers and informal small and micro enterprise owners whose livelihood depends on earning from the informal sectors. The informal sector in Sub Saharan African countries contributes about 55% of GDP and employs more than 50% of the labour force; while in Namibia it is estimated that the informal sector is represented by an estimated +/-300 000 informal economy operators, that accounts for approximately 12% of the GDP[1]. The significance of the informal economy in Namibia cannot be ignored as it provides livelihoods and incomes for large population of the country, most of them who are self-employed of which more than half are women. The informal economy is the means of survival for many fellow Namibians. This segment of the economy is characterized by actors who are at a great risk of losing their incomes/employment and have little to no savings to rely on or no social protection mechanisms to assist them. Thus, the informal sector is very unpredictable, risky with no security of labour or income with employment created in the informal economy sector reported to be largely exploitative and insecure. [1] https://www.unjobnet.org/jobs/detail/17946351#_ftn1 |