| Conclusion SFV: |
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| Written by Said Samir | |
| Sunday, 24 July 2005 | |
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Street
food vending is a full time occupation. It is closely bound to the area of
residence, and the vendors have deep roots in the local community. Street food
vending is also a highly competitive business and adjusts quickly to new
markets. In low income areas, particularly at the fast changing urban fringes
where the fonnal sector is not yet strongly present, the vendors play an
important role. As in the case of Matariya, they offer invaluable services to
the community. The needs of the customers for cheap food are being met within
these quarters by a highly flexible supply structure, ranging from mobile
vendors for beverages, sweets and snacks, to de facto locally established meat
and vegetarian food vendors. Each stall, for example, may serve an average of
approximately 100 customers per day, meaning that some 25,000 people are
relying on these vendors in Matariya alone.
The income of vendors ranges, on average, between LE 240 and LE 480 per month, and can be higher than wages in the formal sector. But, in contrast to the work of government and public sector employees, a vendors’ income can fluctuate; income from vending is insecure. And in case of sickness or other individual crisis, accidents, for example, nobody substitutes income losses; further, vendors must also cope with fines and damages due to harassments by the authorities. Vendors, therefore, seek out ways to reduce such economic risks in their daily “search for security”: a small group of them may combine different economic activities; they work, for example, in the morning for a low but stable amount of money as public employees, and work part time in the afternoon in the food business. Others cope with the lack of income security by trying to keep expenditures for commodities and infrastructure low. They may chose a specific career as a vendor offering candy cotton or tea. A larger group of the street food vendors apply the strategy of recruiting mostly female labor power from within the family, which is mainly unpaid. Wage laborers are subsequently only found in the meat sector, where high product turnovers are reached. In addition to providing ready-made foodstuffs to the community street food vending offers urgently needed employment for low-income groups. Almost three quarter of the vendors are heads of household who are supporting an average of six or seven dependents. And finally, in absence of sufficient social security systems, vending is an important opportunity to provide jobs and income, especially for more vulnerable groups, such as female-headed households. These findings clearly contrast with the picture which has been drawn by some scholars stressing that street food vendors live in uncertain housing conditions, that they are unproductive elements in the community, and are representing “a big loss in the national economy” (see EL-DIN 1991). Although the supply structure of street food
vendors is highly articulated beyond the local quarter, within the larger
metropolitan food system, most of the ingredients are bought inside Matariya
and the final food products are sold locally. This results in the circulation
of considerable amounts of money within a single urban quarter, and constitutes
what SANTOS (1979) termed the “lower circuit” of the
urban economy which is to be considered an asset rather than a loss. It is
becoming increasingly important - especially in the recent period when local economies are increasingly
penetrated by the global economic forces, and while urban problems are far from
being solved - to
identify measures which are able to build on and improve the resources of the
“local,” in terms of employment, income and services. Here, as in the case of
the street food vendors, the role of the state becomes crucial; enabling and
upgrading eveiyday practices at the local level demands, first of all, better
knowledge of those practices and a search for new approaches. Rather than being
bound in a dichotomous diagnosis of “informality” which connotes illegality,
what is required is; understanding the insecurity of vendors as the central
problem. Beginning at this point, the local govermnent could improve legal
security (i.e. issuing valid licenses); cooperate with street food vendors in
the development of a better cooperative security (i.e. creating vendor
associations); and, finally, work together with local institutions to establish
feasible social security schemes (i.e. pensions, insurances). Nongovernmental
organizations could contribute by bridging communicational gaps and initiating
a dialog between vendors and the local government (see LOZA 1991). |
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