Forced to Move: A Scoping Review of Research on the Vulnerability of Street Vendors in the Context of Urban Development in Sub-Saharan Africa

Abstract

Street vending is a prevalent feature of the informal economy in African societies. Despite its role in generating income opportunities and fostering affordability and accessibility to goods for impoverished urban residents, street vending is considered by many governments to be antithetic to modern urban planning or development and in violation of laws pertaining to the use of public spaces. Whereas there has been an increasing academic interest in informal street vending, this scoping review seeks to identify gaps in the academic literature with respect of how street vending is understood and how conflict between street vendors and public authorities is conceptualized. This review can identify pressing research needs and inform indigenous and sustainable approaches to social work practice at micro and macro levels. This scoping review maps empirical research reported in peer-reviewed literature over a period from 1 January 2010 to 31 May 2024. It addresses street vending in sub-Saharan Africa and seeks to explicate the nature of conflict observed between street vendors and public authorities, theoretical explanations of the problem of street vending and its potential solutions. Few concrete solutions are provided in the literature and there is a clear lack of social work perspective on this topic. We argue that more research from this perspective is needed to gain a better understanding of the lived experiences of conflict faced by women street vendors.