Is the informal economy in Sub-Saharan Africa organized? And if so, how? Figure 7.1 Organizational density 80% 70% 70.5% 60% 50% 40% 30% 29.5% 20% 10% 1.82 0% Senegal 55.5% 44.5% 58.0% 42.0% 64.0% 36.0% 1.41 Zambia 1.14 Kenya Organized 1.23 Benin Non-organized 55.2% 44.8% 1.63 Côte d'Ivoire 66.4% 33.6% 1.85 Ethiopia 10.00 9.00 8.00 54.3% 7.00 45.7% 6.00 5.00 4.00 3.00 2.00 1.51 1.00 0.00 6-country average Groups per person Many people are members of several groups at the same time. Multiple membership is particularly widespread in Sen­egal and Côte d’Ivoire, where over half of all respondents belong to more than one group. The informally employed show a distinct preference for certain types of groups. Figure 7.2 provides a breakdown by type of organization. 2 On average throughout the six coun­tries, savings clubs are the most popular, at 26.7 per cent, followed by religious associations(25.8 per cent), neighbour­hood groups(19 per cent), and cooperatives(including credit unions; 13.8 per cent). Those will be called the»Big Four« as they are the predominant type of organization in all six countries. Political parties, cultural groups and other types lag far behind, representing five per cent or less. While the Big Four overshadow the others by far, the relative importance of these four groups varies strongly. Savings clubs are most prevalent in Kenya and Benin, whereas in Zambia and to a lesser extent in Senegal, Ethiopia and Côte d’Ivoire, religious groups attract most members. Coopera­tives are more prominent in Zambia than in Senegal and even in Kenya. 3 Côte D’Ivoire, Senegal and Ethiopia count more neighbourhood groups than Zambia, where they are almost non-existent. 7.2.2 A brief introduction to the»Big Four« A savings club or a rotating savings and credit association is an association whose members agree to make regular con­tributions to a common fund, which is disbursed, in whole or in part, to each contributor in rotation. If ten members contribute the amount of 10 US dollars each per month, then each member would receive 100 US dollars when it is their turn. More sophisticated ROSCA derivates exist, but do not need to be discussed here. In many instances, ROSCAs operate an additional social fund to assist members in an emergency. ROSCAs are widespread not only in sub-Saharan Africa, but in many other parts of the world. A religious group is, as its name implies, a group formed by members of the same faith, who, however, often share additional common bonds, such as gender, location or age group. The main function of these groups is the organization of collective worship, often followed by a social gathering. In addition, many religious groups operate social assistance funds, or organize care and support if a member falls sick. In many African countries, religious groups or faith-based organizations(FBOs) play a key role in providing health care; in Kenya, for example faith-based organizations operate 74 hospitals and 808 health centres(Oliver et al. 2015). As religious groups belong to a faith represented by a national umbrella organization(for example, the Presbyterian Church) they may play a role in local or national politics. Cooperatives correspond to a universal definition contained in ILO Recommendation No. 193(2002) on the Promotion of Cooperatives:»The term ›cooperative‹ means an autono­mous association of persons united voluntarily to meet their common economic, social and cultural needs and aspirations through a jointly owned and democratically controlled en­terprise«. Cooperatives create, first and foremost, economic opportunities; they are seldom involved in the provision of social services, unless specifically established for that purpose (such as health care or housing cooperatives). Cooperatives may play a societal/political role(empowerment) when organized in horizontal networks and/or vertical structures (see below). Credit unions(or savings and credit cooperative organizations, SACCOs), which are also cooperatives, have often evolved out of ROSCAs. 2 In the first two surveys(Kenya and Benin), sports associations were listed as an option; those were replaced for the remaining countries with neighbourhoods or residential groups as a more popular type. 3 This is in stark contrast to the data published by the Kenya Bureau of Statistics, which in 2016 reported a total of 10.8 million cooperative members in the country – equivalent to 39 per cent of the population in the age bracket 15 to 64 years of age. Neighbourhood associations are probably the most difficult to define because they exist under many different names (farmers’ associations, village associations, urban market associations and so on), and serve many different purposes, including solid waste management, community develop­59