The Challenge

Across Africa, the ‘informal’ economy is a critical lifeline, supporting livelihoods for millions. With 280 million facing food insecurity and 600 million lacking electricity, the informal sector is a key source of employment. By 2050, it is estimated that the population will reach 2.5 billion people with young people making up half of this. In Kenya, over 99% of firms are micro-enterprises, primarily in trade, employ five times more workers than the formal economy and create jobs at seven times the rate. Nearly half the workforce is aged 15-34, and over half are women, contributing $539 million monthly to Kenya's economy.

Despite its importance, the informal economy is often viewed through the narrow lens of formal vs. informal. However, donor organisations like TRANSFORM are shifting focus, recognising the need to support the majority of livelihoods within the informal economy. The key challenge they face is determining how to provide the right support without pushing formalisation, while identifying what is truly needed to contribute towards a better future of work and the unique role they should play in supporting this vision.‍

"What we’re talking about here really is the future of work. Not just in Kenya or in Africa, but around the world. You can see it where I am in the UK, where even corporates are experimenting with new flexible ways of working. This is about informal and formal to some extent, but it’s really about what people, mainly young people, want the future of work to be." - Hilde Hendrickx, TRANSFORM

WHAT WAS ACHIEVED

Through participatory approaches, we worked with a vast network of people to uncover ideas and opportunities for the future of work and prosperity in Kenya. By reframing the informal economy as the future of work (emphasising the need to address key issues like digitisation, affordable finance, and policy in a more holistic, person-centred way) this work challenged the narrow institutional view that strips dignity from workers, showcasing untapped opportunities for upward mobility.

We surfaced underfunded areas for investment such as farm-to-fork ventures, flexible sourcing, and finance hubs.

These insights have sparked new collaborations which were showcased at World Food Day 2024 through a multi-sensory exhibition, underlining the role of informal food systems in economic resilience.

HOW WE DID IT

In order to get to fresh and in-depth needs and understanding of these people, we knew we needed to work directly with them, using inclusive and participatory approaches. Our approach was rooted in the principle of "never without us about us," ensuring that those most affected by the challenges are actively involved in shaping the solutions. Core to this we:

Worked backwards from a desirable future. Too often, tackling challenges on the ground today, result in small and incremental change. The first phase of this work was to co-author a ‘better future’ together and then to determine what it would take for that future to be realised. This ensured the ideas would achieve bigger leaps of progress
Trained and onboarded citizen scientists across the country to work with us. This was critical as it provided deep, local insights into the lived experiences and visions for a better future of work.
Engaged, created with and listened to over 700, typically underrepresented stakeholders, ensuring the recommendations were grounded in the realities of the people who are typically left out of these conversations.‍
Created safe spaces for honest feedback. We did this through group discussions, ongoing conversations, storytelling, in dual-language and invested the time required to get to more and more honesty and direct dialogue as a group.

The story in more detail

With over 83% of Kenya’s total employment rooted in what is often referred to as ‘the informal economy’, its significance cannot be ignored.

As Africa's population is set to double by 2050, the economy will need to transform to meet not just local but global economic demands. It’s a space brimming with creativity, resilience, and possibility—but only if we come together to remove the obstacles that are holding it back.

It’s important to understand that the economy is a single narrative; it's a complex patchwork of diverse realities, each with its own set of challenges, dreams, and untapped potential.‍

“We’re talking about potentially a billion young people by 2050 across sub-Saharan Africa.In that case, we shouldn’t be talking about the informal economy of this continent, but rather, just the economy.”- Anuj Tanna, CEO & Co-Founder of MESH, one of our partners.

Through our work, we identified the aspirations of people working in food, agriculture, entertainment and more, who each helped us to understand what it might take to shape a better future. The vision? A future where livelihoods are respected, digital technology empowers, finance is friendly and affordable, and policies work for people, not against them.

Uncovering opportunities and insights

Through participatory approaches, we worked with a vast network of people to uncover ideas and opportunities for the future of work and prosperity in Kenya.

Revealed how fragmented funding fails to centre people. The need for information, digitisation, access to affordable finance and improved policy were unsurprising ingredients for a ‘better future’ imagined by our participants, but this time, the need to combine and address these issues together, with the person at the centre, was underlined. People told us these aspects were typically tackled separately and could have far greater impact in aggregate.
Reframed the ‘Informal economy’ as the ‘Future of Work’. Too often, funders and grantmakers approach these workers through the lens of ‘informality’ which is an institutional and legal way of looking at these people, stripping them of their dignity and reducing them to statistics. This narrow view misses the potential for real upward mobility and perpetuates a cycle of inequality. Most people create their livelihoods in this space. It is not a fringe activity.
Surfaced a series of underfunded areas for investment and energy, including:
- Farm to Fork: Investing in social ventures that directly connect agri-businesses with food service providers. This streamlined local food value chain strengthens local economies, enhances food security, and fosters sustainable growth.
- What Works Hub: Organising clusters around challenges like "Affordable & Friendly Finance" to run multivariate experiments across different contexts. This approach captures and shares evidence of what works, streamlining local solutions and preventing wasted efforts across the informal economy.
- Flexible Sourcing: Bridging the gap between corporates and talented micro-entrepreneurs by creating a mechanism for flexible collaboration. By partnering with social enterprises, businesses can unlock opportunities that traditional procurement processes often miss.

These recommendations were shaped with the direct input of over 700 stakeholders, ensuring they reflected the real needs and visions for the future of work in Kenya. These insights have sparked new local and global collaborations and are currently on tour where the food system insights will be showcased at World Food Day 2024 in a multi-sensory photo exhibition hosted by the Netherlands Food Partnership, highlighting the role of informal food systems in economic resilience.

How we did it

We built off existing work and partnered across the ecosystem

We built on our earlier research into Kenya’s Repair and Reuse Economy (2022), where we found that this thriving yet largely invisible part of the economy lacked crucial data, incentives, and clarity around livelihoods and work portfolios. Partnering across the ecosystem, we expanded this work to explore long-standing challenges like access to affordable finance — and surfaced new, underfunded opportunities to shape a better future of work.

We narrowed on three sub–segments

Kenya’s informal economy is vast, with a diversity of livelihood strategies across multiple sectors - from construction, manual labour, the green and waste economy, Jua kali (artisan manufacturing), trading, retail, and transport, to name a few. Each sector plays a crucial role, but to make a deeper impact, we needed to prioritise.Through our Partner & Learn events, we honed in on three areas where the ripple effect would be biggest:

Food Service Providers: Including mama mboga (fruit and vegetable sellers), kibanda operators (small food stalls), and those involved in the sale of pre-packaged food or beverages.
Agri-Livelihoods: Focusing on urban downstream activities, such as post-harvest aggregation, distribution, transport, and storage of agricultural products, as well as the sale of plants and flowers for domestic uses
Creatives & Entertainment: Encompassing dancers, actors, street performers, musicians, DJs, MCs, and social media content creators and influencers

We went beyond the obvious

Guided by our principle of "never without us about us", we didn’t just identify problems. We went beyond the obvious, and worked closely with all contributors to co-design practical and actionable recommendations for change grounded in the lived experience. This wasn’t about a hypothetical future, it was about driving real, tangible change from within the ecosystem.

Here’s how we turned that principle into practice:

Engaged, created with and listened to over 700, typically underrepresented stakeholders. We teamed up with our Kenyan partners Busara, Laterite, Ideas Unplugged, Procol Africa, and TRANSFORM, and we bridged the gap between academic research and practical application. Through joint workshops, partner and learn events, and community dialogues we brought over 700 informal entrepreneurs, community leaders, and policymakers into the conversation. The result? Recommendations built on what’s really happening on the ground.

“Some high profile organisations have interviewed us in the past but none have ever come back to try to work out a solution with us”
- Citizen Scientist

Empowering citizen scientists. We didn’t just consult experts - we empowered local ones. Citizen scientists worked with us, bringing their raw, unfiltered insights from the trenches. They made sure the solutions generated weren’t just theoretical - they were grounded in lived reality.

“I didn’t think such high profile organisations would be interested in the views of an ordinary small-scale trader.”
- Citizen Scientist

Leveraging behavioural insights and collective intelligence. We created safe spaces for honest feedback and broke down barriers by hosting dual-language sessions. By tapping into behavioural insights, we challenged biases and aligned strategies with social norms, so the collective ideas weren’t just relevant - they were real.

"To me ‘it was the best’ where ‘we our voices are being heard’ and participants from different sectors - today i’m happy and looking forward to another forum for the practical part of this research”
- Co-design meetup, Kisumu participant.

Celebrating the Future of Work in real life. Our launch event wasn’t just a presentation of findings - it was a celebration of the individuals driving Kenya’s informal economy. Through storytelling and photostories installations, we brought this vital part of the economy to life. Entrepreneurs like Jackson, Regina, and James didn’t just attend - they led the conversation. Their personal stories filled the Ardhi Gallery in Nairobi, transforming the research into a living, breathing dialogue that resonated deeply with all who attended. This wasn’t just about sharing insights - it was about creating a space for real voices to connect and shape the future of work in Kenya.

Looking ahead

We know the needs - information, affordable finance, supportive policies, and more. But tackling them in silos doesn’t work. Everything is connected, and fragmented solutions miss the bigger picture. That’s why we flipped the script. We broke down those silos and worked side by side with the people driving the informal economy. It’s not about replacing existing structures—it’s about empowering individuals. More needs to be done to support the future of work. As we look ahead, our journey is just beginning. We are launching a number of efforts focused on empowering women and youth across the continent, ensuring their voices and needs are central to the ongoing transformation of the economy.