Street Vending and Local Authorities in Addis Ababa City: Challenges and the Way Forward
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Date
2017-06
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Addis Ababa University
Abstract
The study was aimed to analyze the factor that challenges the street vendors as well the Addis
Ababa city authorities face to manage street vendors and keep the city in order. 140 street
vendors were chosen from five selected sub cities. Since no registered street vendors, the sample
size of the selected street vendors from the sub cities were taken based on proportionate of legal
registered traders In This study, four major challenging factors faced by street venders during the
operation of their task were identified to be financial constraints, problems of work environment,
problems of social security and environmental problem. Interestingly, according to this study,
street vendors create an enabling environment to improve one‘s livelihoods and to support the
family. In addition, they were found to offer low priced commodities for the poorer segment of
the society. Nevertheless, street vending was also found to create traffic congestions and hinder
free movement of the pedestrians. Besides they were attributed to weaken city‘s economy
because vendors do not pay trading tax. But, there are still conflict between authorities and
vendors over licensing, taxation and encroachment of public places and pavements. In spite of its
crucial role for providing employment and livelihoods to both urban and rural poor, its economic
importance was rarely recognized either in national poverty reduction strategies or in city
governance initiatives. Therefore, appropriately addressing the practical reality of the work
process and the role of vendors in the urban economy, and effectively protect vendors‘ basic
rights to livelihood and property. providing free-space, regulating the street vendors by issuing
license, providing training and credit, developing small-scale agro-industries in rural areas,
including permanent markets and working places in the master plan of a city were recommended.
Key Words: Street vendors, City Authorities, Challenging factors
Description
Keywords
Street vendors, City authorities, Challenging factors