Women, Statistics and the Informal Sector in The Gambia

In The Gambia, statistics on the number of women employed in the informal sector are not available. Statistics are not even adequate for formal sector wage-earning employment. On the other hand, while we see the apparent interest in Gambia's informal sector, both the interest and the data have mainly been male-oriented. The viewpoint of, and implications for, women have largely been ignored and are only now beginning to come to light. The densest concentration of informal sector activities may, in no small extent, be found mainly in peri-urban areas. These businesses are in authorized and unauthorized market places and sidewalks. A large proportion of these activities are home-based, and this enables women to escape harassment from various authorities and also combine trading with domestic responsibilities. From these places, women and their children, in particular, female children, offer invaluable services to the population. There are issues of a lack of a favourable policy environment, general management skills, finance, access to credit, business records, problems concerning marketing, production, and to a limited extent, personnel management issues.