A Study Of Cottage Industries In The Urban Informal Sector

Abstract

The problem of the urban informal sector activities development emerges as a thorny issue in urban planning in developing countries. The study is an attempt to trace the evolution of these activities in Nairobi, Kenya, with a subsequent intent to replan them. The general background to the study reveals that the present state of the informal activities in Gikomba Belt Neighbourhood, Nairobi, is as a result of a number of intermingling forces inherent in the political, socio-economic and legal setting. The recommended solutions to the study therefore have, as their basis, a consideration of these political, socio-economic and legal factors. The study which is also an assessment of the plight of the informal sector operators in Gikomba emerges with the conclusion that the major inimical forces presently hampering the development of the informal sector are:- lack of suitable operation spaces, unfavourable institutional organization of the activicies and difficulties in obtaining sufficient operating funds. It is therefore observed that the major preoccupation of the study recommendations is to ease these retardive forces to such a level that che informal activities may be able to operate in a more favourable environment. The proposed Gikomba Special Enterprises Zone is an attempt to translate the study findings into physical environmental planning in Nairobi.