Going entrepreneurial: the dark side of donors and trade union support to informal workers in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

This article analyses donor-funded aid programmes to support trade unions’ work in the informal street food sector in Accra, also known as ‘chop bars’. It reviews the programmes that this aid entailed, against the back-drop of socioeconomic stratification in the sector. The article reviews the achievements and blind spots of such initiatives and underlines the disconnect between donors’ aid and the reality on the ground. It argues that this is rooted in the market fundamentalist notion of the informal economy being promoted through such aid, with its focus on small-scale enterprises. The article shows that the supply-side solutions to support chop bar operators, under the broad umbrella of the promotion of entrepreneurship, are unfit to address the structural barriers caus-ing the employment crisis in African cities. The study also stresses the neglect by such programmes of wage workers in chop bars, the most vulnerable category of workers in the industry.