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Reuters
KIAMAIKO, Kenya
Dressed in a white apron and black gum boots, 24-year-old Osman Idris waits patiently outside a Nairobi slaughterhouse as scores of customers stream past in search of fresh meat.
A delivery man, Idris is just one of many residents of Kiamaiko, a slum 12 kms northeast of the Kenyan capital, who is making a decent living from its thriving trade in goat meat.
Unlike the majority of Kenyan slums where unemployment, insecurity and crime are rife, Kiamaiko has seen more jobs and small businesses flourish as a result of the goat market.
"Most of us here depend on these slaughterhouses for a living, it's our daily hustle," said Idris, his eyes searching for clients who might need his services.
Nearly 1 billion people live in slums where their survival often depends on the informal economy - activities such as hawking clothes, food and other goods on the street that do not fully comply with tax or labour market regulations.
The United Nations says improving transport, sanitation, hospitals and schools is imperative in slums, but authorities must also work to integrate shanty towns and their informal economies into their cities.
Success will require policies to address the problems faced by slum dwellers and their businesses including a lack of documents to prove land or property ownership which allows re-sale or loans, according to a senior official at the United Nations Economic Commission for Africa (UNECA).
"Given its size and importance, the informal economy is a fundamental element of accelerating Africa's long term vision for development," said Edlam Abera Yemeru, a UNECA specialist on urbanisation policies.
UNECA estimates that overall nearly 70 percent of workers in sub-Saharan Africa are engaged in the informal economy.
Increasingly, African governments are exploring new ways to slash red tape and help legalise micro-businesses to give slum dwellers a legitimate income to invest and improve their lives - while creating a new taxation stream for city administrations, experts say.
Africa's population of slum dwellers is expected to rapidly increase in the coming years with United Nations projecting that around 187 million more Africans will live in cities in the next decade, boosting both formal and informal urban economies.
In Kiamaiko residents say the goat market has transformed the sprawling slum - once notorious for guns and young, violent thugs - and even attracted investment.
"The slum used to be very risky," Idris told the Thomson Reuters Foundation.
