What protection does the non formal sectors have?
Answers
Firstly, social protection programmes need to move away from schemes designed specifically for formal, full-time and life-long (mainly male) workers, and towards accommodating more dynamic work patterns that have evolved with the informalisation of work. For a more complex landscape, innovative policies and regulatory frameworks are needed. Informal workers need to be integrated into mainstream social protection programmes that go beyond short-term targeted interventions.
Secondly, access to social insurance schemes must expand beyond those that can contribute. However, self-employed informal workers do not have an employer that can co-contribute to social insurance schemes. Informal workers may have to pay a proportionally higher share of their income compared to formal employees to join such schemes. Payments linked to social protection provisions can be matched to both the status of the enterprise concerned and the ability of the worker to pay. In addition, coverage can improve by allowing informal workers to self-register.