Conceptualizing the Survival Sector

in Madagascar
Stefan G ossling
School of Business and Economics, Linnaeus University and Department of
Service Management, Lund University, Sweden;
stefan.gossling@msm.lu.se
Kim Philip Schumacher
Institute for Spatial Analysis and Planning in Areas of Intensive Agriculture,
University of Vechta, Germany;
kschumacher@ispa.uni-vechta.de
Abstract: This article calls for the recognition of a subsector of the informal economy,
which is conceptualized as the survival sector. Based on empirical evidence from
Antananarivo, Madagascar it is suggested that beggars, street children and other
marginalized people constitute a separate, non-productive subsector of the economy,
which is also distinguishable fromformal and informal economies because of other aspects,
such as the character of its social and economic networks, survival strategies, patterns of
social and physical mobility, and the social and public spaces occupied. Given the vast
number of marginalized people in the world, it seems useful to consider a survival sector
of its own that is, despite interlinkages, fundamentally different from other components
of the informal economy.
Keywords: beggars, marginalized people, informal economy, Madagascar, street
children
Introduction
The informal sector has received considerable attention as a research eld since
the early 1970s when the distinction between formal and informal sectors was
rst suggested by Hart (1973), and subsequently adopted by the International
Labour Ofce (ILO) (Portes and Schaufer 1993; Sethuraman 1976). Focusing on
the urban economy of Ghanas capital Accra, Hart, a social anthropologist, sought to
describe the economic activities of the low-income section of the urban labor force
(Hart 1973:61), concluding that the formal economic sector, characterized by wage
employment, should be seen in juxtaposition to an informal sector, characterized by
self-employment. In subsequent publications, the informal sector has usually been
dened in contrast to businesses in the formal sector, which are licensed, pay taxes,
and are eligible for state funding (eg Chen 2006; Wahnschafft 1982). Consequently,
it has come to be understood as inversely mirroring the formal sector in terms of
being unregulated, unregistered and untaxed, that is, as being outside the modern
economy (Tokman 1989; see also Daniels 2004). Timothy and Wall (1997) added to
this that formal and informal activities may have other distinguishing characteristics.
Formal economies have higher barriers of entry, may be organized as corporations,
Antipode Vol. 44 No. 2 2012 ISSN 0066-4812, pp 321342 doi: 10.1111/j.1467-8330.2010.00838.x
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322 Antipode
operate at comparably larger scales, are capital-intensive and based on formally
acquired skills. Informal economies, on the other hand, are easy to enter and
rely on indigenous resources, family ownership, small-scale of operation, labor
intensiveness, skills acquired outside the formal school system, part time labor,
locally-based ventures, and unregulated and competitive markets (Timothy and
Wall 1997:320).
More recently, the informal economy has seen renewed interest by labour
organizations, academics and politicians, acknowledging the role of employment
status and gender in social security and vulnerability structures (eg Chen,
Vanek and Heintz 2006; Lloyd-Evans 2008; see also Tokman 2007). Specically,
this has included a focus on employment relationships rather than enterprise
structures, considering segmentation based on location of work, production
system and employment status (Chen and Carr 2002; Lloyd-Evans 2008). Notably,
employment status distinguishes skilled entrepreneurs, own-account workers,
industrial outworkers and home-based producers, unpaid family labour and a wide
range of casual and wage employees who have no formal contracts, benets or
social protection (Lloyd-Evans 2008:18921893; see also Chen, Vanek and Heintz
2006). Of importance in the context of this article, these employment categories
would not seem to comprise a considerable share of people such as beggars or
street children, however.
As Chen (2006) observes, formal and informal are points in a continuum of
economic relations (see also Etzold et al 2009), but attempts have been made over
the past 35 years to frame and differentiate these relations out of political, economic
and social perspectives. G erxhani (2004) provides an overview of criteria used to
dene the informal sector in studies in developed and less developed countries
(Table 1). With regard to social aspects, it is noteworthy that most studies include
a survival criterion, even though this criterion seems only prevalent in studies in
developing countries; it is missing or explicitly excluded in studies of the informal
sector in developed countries. For G erxhani (2004:284), survival is a crucial
element of participation in the informal sector: because the informal sector is
mainly a survival sector, it is labor intensive and yields little accumulation (see also
ILO 2002a; Sindzingre 2006). Overall, most authors discussing informal economies
appear to base their denitions on a selection of several of the criteria presented
in Table 1, often including the survival criterion. However, survival is a complex
condition that deserves further discussion (see also Gonz ales de la Rocha 2007),
in particular with regard to employment status. As will be argued, the notion of
survival eventually justies the characterization of a survival sector as a subsector of
its own within the continuumof the informal economy. This relationship is visualized
in Figure 1 above.
Turning back to the early writers on the informal sector, it is of interest to note
that Hart (1973:69) distinguished formal and informal income opportunities, but
further divided informal activities into legitimate and illegitimate ones. Formal
income opportunities include public and private sector wages, as well as pensions or
unemployment benets. Legitimate informal income opportunities include: primary
and secondary activities (eg farmers, tailors); tertiary enterprises with relatively
large capital input (eg housing, transport, commodity speculation); small-scale
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Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar 323
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Figure 1: Overview of formal/informal sector attributes
distribution (eg petty traders, carriers); other services (eg musicians, shoe shiners);
and private transfer payments (eg gifts and similar ows of money and goods
between persons, begging). Illegitimate income opportunities include services
(eg prostitution, smuggling), and transfers (petty theft, larceny, gambling). This
indicates that begging (legitimate) and crime (illegitimate) have been understood
by Hart (1973) to be parts of the informal sector, even though they can be seen
as non-productive economic activities, in that they are not contributing directly to
the production of goods or services (cf ILO 1983). Again, this does not include
or address the role of illegally produced goods such as marijuana, which may be
productive in an economic sense, as recently outlined by ILO (2002a:12):
The informal economy should not be confused or conated with the criminal economy.
While production or employment arrangements in the informal economy are often semi-
legal or illegal, the informal economy produces and distributes legal goods and services.
In contrast, the criminal economy deals in illegal goods and services.
Consequently, the role of begging and crime such as theft appears to have never
been discussed in studies of the informal economy, even though both could clearly
be considered as being different from other activities in the informal economy
precisely because they are non-productive and because they would not appear to
be comprised in employment status categories. This is illustrated in Figure 1,
distinguishing between formal and informal economy, legal and illegal, as well as
productive versus non-productive activities.
With regard to beggars, few studies appear to exist, even though their numbers
are large in many countries. For instance, a study by the University of Delhi (reported
in The Economist 14 June 2007) counted more than 58,500 beggars in Delhi,
India. One third of adult beggars were found to be disabled, 88% reported to
have no skills, and almost all had turned to begging because they could not nd
work. In this context, a study on work-disabling illness in the slums of Dhaka,
Bangladesh also found that illness led to begging, reecting collapsed livelihoods
in the respective households (Pryer, Rogers and Rahman 2005). Even though not
necessarily representative, these two studies would thus indicate that begging
may be a no-choice reality for many people in the developing world, that is,
one that is usually only taken up when all other options for regular work have
been exhausted. In addition, beggars may largely be uneducated and physically
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Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar 325
or mentally disabled people, making it difcult for them to carry out productive
work in the informal or formal economy (cf Hart 1973; Kassah 2008). Regarding
street children, another vulnerable group in many countries, UNICEF reported as
far back as in 1992 that there were 100 million street children worldwide (UNICEF
1992, cited in Epstein 1996), a number that may not have declined in the past
15 years. In fact, given the reasons for children living on the street, including
poverty as a result of ination, economic recession, ruralurban migration, loss of
parents through disease, war, violent conict or family separation, or physical and/or
mental abuse (Birch 2000; Jones 1997; Jones and Nelson 1999; Mann 2002; Minujin,
Vandemoortele and Delamonica 2002; Mufune 2000), street children numbers may
rather have increased. The fact that no newer global ofcial gures on street children
appear to be available also attests to the marginality of the problemin the perception
of policy makers.
Schneider and Enste (2003) reported that the informal economy accounted for
44% of the GNP in Africa, 39% in Latin America and 35% in Asia in the early
1990s, with up to 65% of the GNP in countries like Nigeria, Egypt or Thailand (see
also Tokman 2007 for an update on Latin America). In the case of Madagascar,
the informal economy employs 57.5% (corresponding to 3.9 million people) of
the ofcial labor force in 1995, accounting for 27% of the ofcial GNP (Institut
National de la Statistique de Madagascar 1995). Given this substantial size of
informal economies in developing countries and Madagascar in particular, as well
as the difculties faced by governments in dealing with the informal economy (cf
Owusu 2007; see also UN Millennium Goals, UN 2010), the question arises of
whether a productive and non-productive segment of the informal economy
should be distinguished, or even a survival subsector. This latter term would more
adequately seem to capture the share of people living in the informal economy on
a day-to-day survival basis, that is, in a state of continuing to live or exist (Oxford
Dictionary 1987), and could help to address the socio-economic problems of people
living in this sector more strategically. Moreover, such a distinction could help to
capture those people seemingly not comprised in employment status denitions
as currently used by the ILO and others (cf Chen, Vanek and Heintz 2006; Lloyd-
Evans 2008). In the following, evidence fromAntananarivo, Madagascar is presented
in support of this proposition.
Methods
Qualitative eldwork in Antananarivo involving a convenience sample of participants
in the informal economy was carried out in May 2003, focusing on people active in
the informal economy. In total, 20 interviews were conducted with street children
of up to 14 years of age, 10 interviews with adult beggars, and another 10
interviews with street vendors, the most prominent group of people working in the
informal economy in Antananarivo. Interviews included approximately even shares
of male and female respondents. Interviews were semi-structured and focused on
survival strategies, income levels, social and economic networks, movements, and
housing situation. Interviewees were approached with the help of a local translator,
who made the rst contact and explained the purpose of the interview (living
conditions). Interviews lasted between 30 and 60 min. Interview content was
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recorded as eld notes. All interviews were carried out in public places, such as
markets, plazas, or in front of hotels and restaurants.
Adult beggars are easily identied in Madagascar, due to their ragged
appearance and conspicuous presence in public spaces. Beggars in Antananarivo
consist almost entirely of handicapped or crippled people, as well as mentally
disabled people. An exception are mothers of small children living on the street, who
have no income opportunities and send their children to beg, while occasionally
trying to beg from passing tourists themselves. No ofcial data on total beggar
numbers in Antananarivo or other Malagasy cities are available, but we estimate
that there are several hundred people living and sleeping on the street in the centre
of Antananarivo. This is only the visible portion of the survival sector in the centre of
Antananarivo, and does not include those conceivably living in slum areas, or those
living in other cities.
Another distinct group interviewed consisted of street children. Street children
in Antananarivo are not organized in groups, and their interaction could rather
be described in terms of a loose, unhierarchical social organization. According
to M edecins Sans Fronti ` eres there were 873 children sleeping on the streets of
Antananarivo in 1999, and another 160 living in simple shelters (Belanger 2000).
The United States Department of Labor (2009) reported that an estimated 430,000
children, that is, 23% of Madagascars children aged 614, are engaged in the worst
forms of child labour, including, in urban areas, commercial sexual exploitation and
forced labour in vending, prostitution and domestic services. The main activity
of street children, particularly those living and sleeping on the street, is begging.
Sometimes street children make attempts to sell items such as postcards, or to carry
goods, and they may also engage in pick-pocketing. Children in the city centre
beg mainly from tourists, while children in the market areas focus on locals. Street
children may also get occasional jobs from local salesmen to carry away garbage,
to fetch drinking water, or to run errands. The survey focused on street children
between 5 and 14 years, as teenagers were rarely observed begging: success rates
decline rapidly for older children due to the non-acceptance of begging in Malagasy
society (G ossling et al 2004; Morelle 2007).
With regard to data collection and analysis, a modied grounded theory approach
was used, that is, the comparative analysis of data to derive theory (Glaser and
Strauss 1967). Interview content was evaluated to distinguish further themes that
would support differentiation of a survival subsector of the informal economy,
using a theoretical saturation approach (Strauss and Corbin 1998:143). This point
was reached after 20 interviews with street children and 10 interviews with adult
beggars, at which eight distinguishing themes for a survival sector had been
identied. Interviews with street vendors were conducted to gain an understanding
of the informal economy more generally. The following sections discuss themes
corroborating the existence of a survival sector.
Distinguishing Categories of the Survival Sector
Analysis reveals several aspects supporting a distinction of formal and informal
economies, and the survival sector as a distinctive subsector of the informal economy
(Table 2). The salient themes emerging from the empirical data can be discussed
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Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar 327
Table 2: Differences between formal and informal economies and survival sector,
Madagascar
Formal economy Informal economy Survival sector
Formal socio-economic
networks
Informal socio-economic
networks
Informal socio-economic
networks, but more focused
on family
Social security systems,
economically resilient
Informal social security
systems, some degree of
vulnerability
Strategies to reduce
vulnerability, but generally
highly vulnerable
Productive, employment
status
Productive, employment
status
Economically non-productive,
no employment status
Work outside home Work at home/outside home No physical home
Work in corporate, private or
public environments
Often work in public spaces Work and live in public
spaces, often day and night
Homework movement Often considerable
movements between
various places
No or short daily movements
Moderate to substantial
accumulation of material
wealth, public sector or
market dependence
Minor to moderate
accumulation of material
wealth, market dependence
No accumulation of material
wealth, dependence on
private payment transfers
(donations from tourists)
Social mobility: change into
informal or survival sector
possible
Change into formal economy
possible
Change into formal economy
generally not possible, but
eventually into informal
sector
Core of society At the margins of society At the margins or outside
society
Examples Examples Examples
Teacher Street vendors (retail) Beggars

Shop owner
Tour guide
Musicians, guards,
prostitutes (services)
Street children

Primarily including very old, handicapped or crippled people, mentally disabled, mothers of street
children.
Source: own eldwork.
under the inter-related categories of: economic aspects and vulnerability structures;
social and public spaces and their use and functions; and social mobility.
Economic Aspects and Vulnerability Structures
There is arguably a considerable difference between begging and other activities
in the informal sector, in that begging is not contributing to the production of
goods or services. Clearly, this is a denition of productivity in relation to the
formal economy, and does not reect broader sociological or anthropological
dimensions of the concept (for a discussion, see eg Brennan 2006). Some authors
such as Owusu (2007:452) have pointed out that there is an active productive
role even of poor people in the informal economy. Likewise, Schneider and Enste
(2003:11) have shown that small rms in the informal economy produce a large
share of the economic added value in developing countries (see also Daniels 2004;
Meagher 1995). However, beggars asking for money will not usually make such
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a contribution, unless one considers the purchases made with donations as a
contribution to economic growtheven in this case, productivity would rather
relate to the donor than the beggar. Productivity versus non-productivity may thus
be one of the most central criteria justifying the conceptualization of a survival sector.
Begging can, from an economic point of view, rather be seen as an occupation than
employment, and certainly not as a strategy for employment (Escher 1999:659). As
Chen, Vanek and Heintz (2006:2134) outline, employment status is a criterion of the
informal economy, in line with denitions developed during the International Labour
Conference in 2002 and the International Conference of Labour Statisticians in 2003,
and including informal enterprises hiring, among others, unprotected employees,
own account workers, casual labourers, or unpaid family workers. Those in the
survival sector would however not seem to fall into these employment categories
(sensu ILO 2002b).
Healthy begging adults are perceived as lazy and irresponsible people in
Malagasy society (G ossling et al 2004:143), and consequently only very old,
handicapped, crippled, blind, or mentally disabled people can be observed begging
in Antananarivo, that is, people who generally have no other options to access
money (as noted earlier, mothers of small children are an exception). Even though
their work is not productive in an economic sense, beggars themselves consider
begging equivalent to carrying out work (cf Kassah 2008). For instance, one crippled
beggar with paralyzed legs pointed out that he had to work in order to provide food
for his family, a young woman and their baby. Earning money by moving on his
hands between cars on the main road, in the midst of thick exhaust fumes, the man
reported to work 6 days per week from morning to evening to provide enough
food for the family, a situation he seemed to perceive as normal. As many beggars
reported long begging hours, this activity may be seen as a work-like, economically
non-productive occupation (though productive in the sense of raising children and
providing sustenance to the family).
While beggars are tolerated in Malagasy society as long as they are severely
impeded from carrying out economically productive work, the attitude is different
with regard to street children. Residents see children rather as victims of misguided
policies or the failure of parents to provide food and shelter (G ossling et al 2004).
As children are treated with great respect in Malagasy society, with one national
idiom being lenfant est le roi (the child is king), there is considerably greater
understanding and acceptance of their begging. Even more so, it is often felt
that children deserve help. People working in the informal economy, in particular,
reported a considerable level of solidarity and support.
There are various linkages between the informal economy and the survival
sector. For instance, a crippled beggar was observed sending a street child to buy
cigarettes. This would be an example of the interaction between non-productive
work in the survival sector (begging) contributing to productive work in the
informal economy (services/retail). Such linkages between the survival sector and
the rest of the informal economy can also be observed in other domains, for
instance when beggars buy food from small stalls. Beggars may even interact
with the formal economy, for instance when buying items from a shop, even
though this was not observed or reported during eldwork. Beggars primarily ask
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Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar 329
for money, but in cases where nancial donations are denied, they will also ask
for clothes and/or medicinesitems that will subsequently be sold again. A few
beggars may also try to be occasionally active in the informal economy by selling
goods and offering services, and thus combine productive and non-productive
activities. This appears to be rare, however. In conclusion, there are interconnections
between the sectors, but the economically non-productive character of work in
the survival sector, as well as the lack of an employment status (cf Chen, Vanek
and Heintz 2006) would differentiate the latter from the formal and informal
economies.
With regard to income, the formal economy does not necessarily allow for higher
income than the informal economy in Madagascar (see also Castells and Portes
1989). For instance, one vendor selling fried bananas reported that she earned
more with this job than with her employment in the formal economy, where she
worked as a teacher. Differences in income levels appear more distinct between the
informal economy and the survival sector. For instance, street children and beggars
reported income levels of 813 and 3545 per month respectively, compared
with income levels in other subsectors of the informal economy of 45145 per
month. Importantly, income levels do not involve identical working times. While
people in the formal economy usually work 5 days per week (with the right of an
annual holiday), this may sometimes be 5, usually 6 and sometimes 7 days per week
in the informal economy, and usually 7 days (sometimes 6 days) per week in the
survival sector (without holiday).
Income in the survival sector also uctuates. Single donations to beggars or street
children can be high, as in one case where a street child was observed being given
FMG (Franc Malgache) 25,000 ( 3.68) by a tourist, an extremely high sum in
Madagascar. This needs to be seen as a rare exception, though. Living costs are also
comparably high. A rice-only meal on the street costs for instance FMG 500 (0.07),
or FMG 1500 (0.22) with some vegetables, meat and sauce. Daily average income
of street children, in comparison, is FMG 20003000 (0.290.44), and there are
days when the children receive no donations at all. Furthermore, children have to
use public toilets at FMG100250 (0.010.04), while washing takes place in public
fountains, as taking a shower or washing clothes in public places designed for this
purpose is costly at FMG 500 (0.07).
The results indicate that people may earn an income in both the formal and
informal economy and that income levels in the informal economy can be higher
than in the formal economy. In contrast, the survival sector is characterized by very
low incomes with high volatility. On average, these incomes may be sufcient to
survive, but they are not sufcient for the accumulation of even modest levels of
material wealth.
Another difference concerns monetary ows. Without exception, all interviewed
street vendors reported occasionally giving small amounts of money to street
children. Often this may be because they have been street children themselves
earlier in their lives, as reported by several respondents, or as a reection of a more
general informal economy ethic of mutual support. As one street vendor put it,
the rich are supposed to help the poor, an ethic that appears to be commonly
accepted among those working in the informal economy, as similar viewpoints
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were expressed by several respondents. Consequently, there is a ow of economic
support from the informal to the survival sector, but not vice versa.
With regard to the sources of income, many street children and beggars
reported receiving money from tourists. Respondents stated that tourists and
local residents would donate equally often, but tourists give substantially higher
sums. Beggars and children also beg for food and clothes, and children may
also ask for sweets and other donations. Non-monetary donations such as clothes
may often be sold again, and add to the income of children and beggars.
Such non-monetary donations are almost entirely made by tourists. Overall, the
survival sector in Antananarivo can thus be said to be largely dependent on
tourism (cf G ossling et al 2004), while the rest of the informal economy is
not.
Yet another distinction concerns socio-economic networks. It is generally accepted
that informal economies are characterized by various forms of cooperation to reduce
risks imposed by free markets. For instance, Schneider (1999:663664, authors
translation) suggests that As the absence of legislation [addressing social security
in the informal economy] is a continuous threat . . . various culturally specic social
networks, structures and mechanisms have developed, which aim at reducing and
limiting destructive market forces. Socio-economic networks are widespread in the
informal economy, as exemplied by various co-operations. For instance, rubber
stamp makers in the centre of Antananarivo reported to work in small groups with
two to three members, guarding their respective locations and sharing the money
earned. Likewise, beggars often have share systems, which however are usually
restricted to the family, and often individuals, such as brothers or sisters. In one
case, a street child reported not to share money with her brothers, who, standing
close by and listening, conrmed this, calling her an egoist, indicating that such
behaviour is unusual and not accepted. Share systems can also include larger groups.
For instance, some women reported that they shared the income from begging and
selling postcards with other women in a group of about 20 participants, that is,
a combined system of two income strategies. Overall, this indicates similarities
in the structure of socio-economic networks in the informal economy and the
survival subsector. However, these networks appear more narrowly focused on
family members in the survival sector, even though further studies need to conrm
the importance of kinship relations.
The survival sector is generally characterized by a high degree of vulnerability.
Low incomes are only sufcient for day-to-day survival, and the need for health
care is a permanent threat. Occasionally, beggars will go hungry, even though
provisions with basic foods appeared stable for most beggars at the time of the
study. While the French organization M edecins Sans Fronti ` eres provided emergency
health care for children at no cost (up to 2005, when the organization closed
its operations in Madagascar; M edecins Sans Fronti ` eres 2005), adults had to pay
moderate prices for treatment, which can nevertheless be substantial for people in
the survival sector. Several beggars were encountered with toothache, but given the
cost of tooth extraction (FMG 10,000, corresponding to 1.45), they had to live
with the pain, sometimes turning to cheap painkillers. There is no population-wide
health insurance in Madagascar, even though health care programs exist for certain
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classes of state and private employees. There are also private insurance companies,
but insurance does not usually exist in the informal economy, where private savings
have to be used in case of illness. Government-subsidized clinics also provide a form
of health care, but people in the survival sector may often have to refer to NGOs
because of difculties to accumulate even modest amounts of money. Health care
is thus a key vulnerability issue in the survival sector.
Given the daily struggle to provide for basic needs, the survival sector is
characterized by complex strategies to reduce vulnerability. For instance, a family
living under a bridge not far from the city centre reported that they combined
income from begging activities (children) and work in the informal economy
(adults), focusing on the collection and sale of tin cans found in garbage dumps
(strategy 1: economic diversication). Children went begging only once a week,
however, and attended school during the rest of the week (strategy 2: capacity
building). The family also reported sharing food with other families (strategy 3:
spreading the risk of food insecurity among the larger group), even though money
was only shared within the family. When the family was able to accumulate small
amounts of money, these were saved and used to buy food in times when their
income was low (strategy 4: nancial savings). This strategy was combined with
excess money being invested in value items, such as an additional cooking pot
or a blanket. In times of hardship, the cooking pot or blanket would be sold again
to free resources for purchases of food (strategy 5: non-monetary savings). When
the situation was getting more difcult, the family would extend begging times
to the late evening (strategy 6: extended begging times). Finally, when all of these
strategies would not guarantee sustenance, discarded food would be collected from
garbage piles (strategy 7: food scavenging). This nal strategy needs to be seen as
the last resort, as it is a trade-off, that is, the risk of starvation needs to be weighed
again the risk of food poisoning, as the consumption of food found in garbage
dumps can lead to serious illness and disease. While strategies 15 may also be
found in the informal economy, strategies 6 and 7 appear to be characteristic of the
survival sector.
Street children were observed to have various strategies to increase their begging
success. For instance, small children (56 years) were observed to carry younger
sisters and brothers, knowing that the image of two such small, ragged and dirty
human beings is a heartbreaking sight for many tourists. Other children presented
themselves as orphans, even though they lived with their mother. More generally,
small children are the most vulnerable. When mothers are no longer physically
or psychologically able to care for their children, they may sometimes leave them
outside other poor peoples homes. In one case, a begging woman reported that
she had taken care of a baby whose mother was unknown. The benet is in this
case mutual, as the baby, hardly able to walk, helps to arouse the pity of tourists,
and thus increases the begging success. In yet another similar case, a street child
(13 years old, taking care of her younger sister, 3 years old) reported that she knows
her parents, also meeting them, even though she lives her own life and is entirely
on her own nancially, also taking care of her sister. Even in this case, the small
child can help to increase her begging success. Another woman selling postcards
explained that she had found a child outside her door, whom she believed to be
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2 years old. She said that she would take care of the child until it was old enough to
beg. Again, such relationships and patterns of taking care of each other would seem
characteristic of the survival sector, but not the informal economy more generally.
The examples also indicate that people in the survival sector are more vulnerable
than those in the informal and formal economies. Strategies to reduce risk include
socio-economic networks, multiple income sources on the household level (begging
and informal work), inter-family or inter-group co-operation, savings mechanisms,
strategies to arouse pity, and emergency strategies, such as begging into the night at
new locations or using food from garbage dumps. Risk-minimizing strategies in the
informal economy are common even in rural areas in Madagascar (eg Gezon 2002),
but they appear to be more complex in the survival sector than in the informal
economy.
Social and Public Spaces and their Use and Functions
Social space has been dened as to represent a distinctive (and more or less
bounded) type of space which is dened by (and constructed in terms of) the lived
experience of people. As such, places can be seen as fundamental in expressing a
sense of belonging for those who live in them, and providing a locus for identity . . .
(Hubbard 1987:43). The social spaces of beggars and street children are open public
spaces. There may be several reasons for this. First of all, begging activities have to
be performed in public places to reach donors, but public places are also safe
social spaces, as they offer protection against abuse. While people in the informal
economy will be able to retreat to a form of physical shelter, often located in the
outskirts of town, people in the survival sector seem drawn to open public spaces
in the city centre, because any form of privacy, such as a dark corner behind a
house, increases their vulnerability. In interviews, some children and beggars were
also asked about their biggest dream. Virtually all mentioned a house, indicating
that public spaces are occupied out of necessity, and in the absence of other options
to stay. Several respondents also mentioned that they had at some stage in their
life lived in some kind of physical shelter, but became for various reasons homeless
(for instance lack of money to pay rent). In contrast, all respondents in the informal
economy reported having a home, which they either owned or for which a rent was
paid.
Public spaces are also economic spaces, on which vendors, beggars and street
children are dependent for survival. In Antananarivo, these include specic public
locations owned by actors in the informal and survival economies. Others cannot
take these spots, which are often strategically located, that is, customers know
that a certain street vendor can be found in a certain location, securing returning
customers (note that informal payments may have to be made to the police),
while beggars guard strategic positions, such as those outside hotels or restaurants.
Begging children will also follow people asking for money, but only to a certain
geographical boundary, beyond which they will not continue. As one begging
mother explains, everyone has his/her area. Conicts may arise when begging fails
to provide any income or food and beggars extend begging into the night, for
instance by asking for donations outside discotheques, which means intruding into
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Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar 333
Figure 2: Daily movements in the survival and informal sector
the areas regularly occupied by other beggars. Public spaces can be of higher or
lower economic value, as income is primarily related to the ow of tourists.
The use of public spaces is restricted for various reasons. For instance, beggars
and street children have to use public pay toilets, which puts considerable strain
on their economic budgets. Access to public spaces may also be restricted at times,
with one beggar reporting that there had been attempts by government to remove
marginalized people from public spaces, a continuation of at least a decade of efforts
to clean up Antananarivo that commenced with the Jeux de la Francophonie, an
international sporting event between French-speaking countries in 1997 (Razafy
1999), and continued when Marc Ravalomanana became Antananarivos mayor in
1999 (ISN ETH Zurich 2009). The exclusion from public places or tourist areas is
however a major threat to survival strategies, particularly for those in the survival
sector. Overall, there is a clear difference in the social and public spaces occupied
by people in the informal economy and those in the survival sector, as well as their
use and functions.
Mobility patterns are another distinctive criterion. People in the formal economy
will usually have a physical home as well as a job in a given locality, and daily mobility
will largely consist of travel between home and place of work (Figure 2a). In the
informal economy in Antananarivo, mobility is generally following more complex
patterns. Even though many people working in the informal economy will have a
xed location, which they occupy in the morning and leave towards the evening,
mobility patterns appear to be more complex for the majority of them. For instance,
movements can involve several xed locations, which are occupied during various
periods of the day [for example, sales of owers (predominantly to locals) or spices
(predominantly to tourists); Figure 2b]. At least some of the ambulant vendors of
owers or fruit are constantly mobile, moving after a comparably short period of
time from one location, for instance a plaza, to another location, for instance a
crowded street, and then on to yet another location without ever stopping in any
location for a longer period of time (Figure 2c). This may also be a strategy to avoid
harassment by the police, with vendors reporting occasional seizures of all goods
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by policemen. In the survival sector, movements appear to be more limited. For
instance, street children were observed to always remain close to the place where
they sleep, which is usually no more than a piece of cardboard at the side of the road
in a public place. This allows them to attend to their belongingswith even a piece
of cardboard having value to protect against cold in the nightwhile simultaneously
being able to beg for money, clothes or food (Figure 2d). As Strassman (1987)
points out, partial immobility may exist in the informal economy when work is
carried out at home, such as baking or the production of handicrafts, which are
then sold in public places (see also Chen, Vanek and Heintz 2006; Lloyd-Evans
2008). The character of this immobility appears, however, to be fundamentally
different from the survival sector, and movement patterns could thus be considered
as another criterion distinguishing informal economy and survival sector.
Social Mobility
It seems generally difcult for beggars to leave the survival sector, mostly because
they are physically and mentally unt to join the informal economy. The lack of start-
up capital or education may also be important, however, particularly for women.
For instance, several begging women with small children reported that they did not
have the money to buy goods for retail, even though they hoped to quit begging
at some stage and to enter the informal economy. In another case, three women
worked as successful vendors of spices, after having been given the start-up money
[FMG 250,000 (37.86) each] by a tourist, who told them he would be back to see
what they had done with the money (the tourist came back after 1 year and the
women proudly presented their business to him). In yet another case, an 11-year-old
girl explained that she could not work in the informal economy, because for this
one has to be able to count and calculate properly. People in the survival sector
therefore cannot generally be seen as a labour reserve for the formal economy,
as suggested by G erxhani (2004:280) for the informal economy. This is because
they cannot carry out economically productive work due to their age, illiteracy, or
occupation with very small children, or physical or mental disabilities. An exception
may be a share of women forced by other circumstances to live as beggars on the
street, who, provided with the start-up money, may be able to join the informal
economy.
Street children appear to generally have better options to leave the survival sector,
and may at some stage even be forced to earn money, that is, when they become
too old for begging, while they would still not have small children of their own.
For instance, a woman selling postcards reported that she used to be a street child.
This would indicate a potential social mobility between the survival sector and the
informal economy. However, the permanency of some peoples situation became
evident in interviews with representatives of one group of six families. These families
had lived under the same bridge for 20 years, with one respondent stating that his
parents had already lived under the same bridge.
Findings thus indicate differences with regard to social mobility between the
informal economy and the survival sector. These include the impossibility of joining
the informal economy for adult male beggars in general, as well as various obstacles
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Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar 335
for begging women with small children more specically. Street children may
eventually join the informal economy, as their begging success will decline with
increasing age. It remains unclear, however, how obstacles such as their illiteracy are
overcome, and which positions they subsequently occupy in the informal economy.
Begging is only accepted in Malagasy society if the beggar is unable to perform
any kind of economically productive work. This limits the number of beggars, but
also places them socially at the margins of society, where they have to live with
different forms of hardship. For instance, beggars sleeping outside the railway station
reported waiting until 2:00 am in the morning before going to sleep, because by
then the police had made a last control visit (the police would otherwise chase them
away). As discussed earlier, beggars also have to pay for using public toilets, which
puts considerable strain on the little money they have, as they appear truly afraid
of the consequences of being seen by the police using other places, and forcing
many to go to the toilet just once a day. The police also harass people in the survival
sector, with one begging woman reporting that she was taken to jail once, where
she was held for 3 days. In another case, the police reportedly took clothes and
a cooking pot with rice from a mother on the street. Occasionally, this may also
happen in the informal economy, with one vendor of fruits reporting that the police
had taken all of his fruit twice within one year, while several other vendors reported
that they had to pay bribes to policemen in order to keep their sales spots.
In particular, female beggars and street children may thus be seen at the margins
of society, or even outside society, as there is little political interest in their situation:
their labour force is not needed, and they do not play a signicant role as consumers
or producers. Social marginalization may thus be another criterion distinguishing
the informal economy and the survival sector.
New Perspectives on Poverty Structures
The review of the literature on the informal economy has indicated that there are
many denitions and perspectives, which are usually adapted with a view to a
specic situation and with a focus on enterprise structures rather than employment
relationships. However, neither studies seeking to distinguish formal and informal
economies, nor those analysing employment situations, seem to adequately capture
a share of the population that is characterized by specic survival strategies and a
higher degree of vulnerability and associated poverty risks (sensu Chen, Vanek and
Heintz 2006). This population may live in what could be termed the survival sector,
notwithstanding the empirical specicity of this case study.
One of the survival sectors most distinguishing criteria is its non-productive
nature in an economic sense, and its dependence on productive work in the
formal and informal economies (Table 2; note that the survival sector is highly
productive from a social point of view). Furthermore, the results indicate a higher
degree of vulnerability in the survival sector and specic strategies to deal with
risk, which are fundamentally different from formal and informal social security
systems. Specically, this relates to the incapability of people in the survival sector
to accumulate signicant nancial resources or to access health care systems.
Other distinguishing criteria pertain to distinctions of home, with those in the
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survival sector not having a physical home (rented or owned), as well as working
environments predominantly located in public spaces, and working times that are
considerably longer than in the formal and informal economies. Results also indicate
differences with regard to social mobility, social spaces, and social status.
These ndings would be relevant with regard to current perspectives on poverty
risks and the formulation of labour policies, because the survival sector appears
to be an urban phenomenon involving considerable numbers of human beings.
This is supported by other studies (cf The Economist 14 June 2007; UNICEF 1992
cited in Epstein 1996). As Nelson (1999) points out, large capital cities in Africa
have grown by 78% per annum between 1960 and 1990, and possibly as
much in recent decades, making it impossible to provide low-income housing,
urban services, or employment for a rapidly growing number of human beings.
Modernization processes, on the other hand, which may have been initiated by
structural adjustment programs, have resulted in cuts in social welfare programs,
with concomitant negative effects on marginalized population groups (Dieke 2000).
In Malagasy cities such as Antananarivo, Antsirabe, Fianarantosa and Tamatave,
the presence of street children can be explained out of developments with
interrelated and interacting economic, political and social dimensions, including
economic recession, population growth, food insecurity and rural poverty, leading to
ruralurban migration (Zeller et al 1999). Since the 1970s, there has been a slow, but
continuous decline of living standards in Madagascar, reinforced by political crises
affecting the country in 1972, 1991, 2002, 2008 and 2009, causing a substantial
part of the population to live in absolute poverty. Madagascar is now one of the
poorest countries of the world with a per capita GDP of US$923 in 2005 (US$
purchasing power parities), and ranking 143 in the Human Development Index of
the United Nations (of 177 nations; UNDP 2008). Waltisperger and Mesl e (2005)
outline that GDP per capita has declined by 45%between 1971 and 1996; and while
the population almost doubled in the period from 1960 to 2000, food production
only rose by 38%, leading to growing pressure on food resources. In the early
1990s, more than two thirds of the Malagasy population consumed fewer calories
per day than the minimum considered necessary to support a normal life (Dostie,
Haggblade and Randriamamonjy 2002). As seasonal variations in food prices in this
period were three times as high in rural areas (2002:495), food availability and
affordability is likely to be an important factor leading to ruralurban migration,
a situation facilitated by dissolving community relations caused by an increasingly
difcult economic situation: the root cause of the decline in Malagasy community
life is economic hardship. People do not associate with one another because they are
too busy trying to eat (Marcus 2008:86). In line with these ndings, Minten and
Barrett (2008:818) identied agricultural productivity as a key factor in addressing
poverty: The empirical evidence strongly favors support for improved agricultural
production as an important part of any strategy to reduce the high poverty and
food insecurity rates currently prevalent in rural Madagascar.
These insights can be discussed in the context of recent plans to lease 1.3 million
hectares of arable land to South Korean company Daewoo on a 99-year basis for corn
(pig feed) and palmoil (biofuel) production (Engelhardt 2009). The deal, comprising
more than half of Madagascars arable land, was planned with the explicit goal
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Conceptualizing the Survival Sector in Madagascar 337
of ensuring South Koreas food security (Jung-a, Oliver and Burgis 2008). Agreed
upon by former president Marc Ravalomanana, it was cancelled in March 2009 by
new president Andry Rajoelina (Burgis and Blas 2009). The situation nevertheless
illustrates the global neoliberal conditions now affecting food production and
availability in some of the poorest countries, as well as their consequences for
poverty structures. Women and children in particular are victims of such processes
(eg Chant and Pedwell 2008; Chen, Vanek and Heintz 2006), and their situation can
be exacerbated, for instance, in situations where teenage Malagasy women living
on the street become pregnant, or choose to prostitute themselves because of a lack
of work (Stoebenau 2009; UNICEF 2000). Discrimination against women is another
complex and multi-faceted phenomenon in Madagascar, with women largely being
excluded from political decision-making (UNICEF 2000).
The size of the survival sector seems dependent on the overall economic
development of a country or region. Economic and political crises, declining
food production or availability, natural hazards or (civil) wars leaving displaced
and crippled human beings behind will lead to growing numbers of beggars
and street children. As this survey has shown, living in the survival sector is
characterized by extreme hardship, that is, situations where social relationships
are uprooted, where children go hungry at times, where basic health care is not
guaranteed, and where harassment by authorities is a norm. A characterization of
the survival sector may thus help to more specically develop policies to improve
the living conditions of these marginalized people, also because they do not
seem to be adequately captured in employment status categories. For instance,
Chen, Vanek and Heintz (2006) developed income and poverty risk pyramids
(or icebergs), showing that the informal economy is differentiated by income
level as well as the formality of income, which are gendered social and economic
hierarchies (see also Chant and Pedwell 2008; Kabeer 2008). Chen, Vanek and
Heintz (2006) concluded that poverty risk is highest in households with only
informal income sources as well as in those cases where casual informal wage
employment and domestic work are the primary source of income. Vulnerabilities
are thus greatest for these groups and, within these groups, women are more
vulnerable than men. Research presented in this article suggests that the survival
sector constitutes, in terms of hierarchies of risk and vulnerability, yet another level
the bottom levelof Chen, Vanek and Heintzs (2006) poverty risk pyramids. This is
because income in the survival sector is dependent on the performance of the
formal and informal economy, and because there are generally no choices for
alternative economic activities. A distinction of a survival sector would thus also
be useful in terms of enterprise versus work-centred perspectives, and in particular
with regard to the situation of what Lloyd-Evans (2008:1895) calls subsistence
workers.
To improve the situation of those living and working in the survival sector,
three aspects appear to be of particular relevance: the external conditions (political
stability, food production) affecting work, income and food availability in the formal
and informal economy; health care access as the most important vulnerability issue;
and the implementation of mechanisms for empowerment, addressing issues such
as illiteracy or the lack of micro-credits to initiate entrepreneurial activities (see also
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Benera 1992; Olufemi 2000). Considering the characteristic poverty structures in
the survival sector as presented in this article could thus help to better address the
situation of marginalized people in regulatory and policy frameworks, by focusing on
the key vulnerability issue in the survival sector (health care), the need of strategies
to address the specic situation of street children (see G ossling et al 2004; Morelle
2007), and the considerable potential to empower women in the survival sector;
but also accepting the need of social security systems for those unable to engage in
economically productive work.
The ndings also open up for new research demands. Generally, the situation
of marginalized people such as beggars is poorly understood in the context of
developing countries (Abebe 2008; Kassah 2005; Lu 2005), and further insights in
this part of the survival sector could be gained from studies in other cultural or
geographical contexts. Importantly, the role and situation of women in the survival
sector would deserve further study, because there is considerable debate regarding
their marginalisation (eg Chant and Pedwell 2008), and clear evidence that female
workers constitute the larger part of informal employment relations. According to
Lloyd-Evans (2008) women make up a growing percentage of the global labour
force but are concentrated in the informal end of the labour market where working
conditions are least secure. Evidence of the marginalisation of womenand street
childrenis also clearly visible in Madagascar (cf Stoebenau 2009; United States
Department of Labor 2009), even though a better understanding of their situation
is warranted in the light of the research ndings presented in this article. Finally, the
role of criminal activities in the informal economy and the survival sector deserves
further study, as it has potentially important repercussions for social security, money
ows, and poverty risk more generally.
Acknowledgements
We would like to express our sincere gratitude to David Weaver for invaluable discussions of
the topic and manuscript, as well as Philipp Weckenbrock for comments on an earlier version
of the paper.
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