An Analysis of the Formalisation Policies Regarding Street Vending

Policies on street vending can play a significant role in inclusive urban governance via securing the livelihoods of the urban poor and hence reducing poverty, and by considerably reducing the budget that is annually spent on managing or relocating street vendors,. Therefore, this paper analyses the formalisation policies of street vending, which have been a dominant discourse among national and city authorities during the past five years in the country. This paper studies two types of suggested programs, which are in line with formalization policies: 1. Licensing street vendors; 2. Relocating street vendors to formal commerce centres. This study employs WPA as its analytical framework for policy analysis and adopts content and discourse analysis, using Atlas.ti as its methods of data analysis. This study also looks into similar policies and programmes and their impacts in twenty one countries in the global south. The results show that by overlooking the interwoven relationship between ‘formal policies’ and ‘informal policies’, the formalization of policies often fail to achieve their objectives. In particular, these policies and programmes fail to target and assist the most vulnerable groups. Furthermore, they fail to plan or take into consideration numerous street vendors, who do not benefit from these programmes and have no other way in which to earn their livelihoods. As a result, with most vendors coming back to urban spaces, these policies and programmes are likely to waste the country’s budget and make street vendors even more vulnerable than before.