Coping mechanisms and sources of resilience

Luwum Street at a daily rate of 10,000 UGX and a requirement for all street vendors to have uniforms for easy identification. The government had also provided alternative spaces/markets where all vendors are required to operate at a fee, including Wandegeya (about 1200 workspaces), USAFI market (about 2000 workspaces) and Busega (about 1400 workspaces). However, these are still not yet enough to accommodate all the over 10,000 vendors and the vendor fees are also too high for the average street vendor selling fruits or clothes to afford.

To-date, women street vendors struggle to bring in sufficient income to meet basic survival needs. The majority have been denied licenses to operate including those who were previously eligible to have licenses, like the mobile money operators. Their small kiosks/shops were demolished and they were forced to find space within the designated market spaces, which are too expensive. Furthermore, the majority has been forced into the street because they lost their source of livelihoods during the lockdown and do not have any other alternative to earn a living. Selling things on the streets has enabled them to survive the serious economic crisis posed by the pandemic and it is their only source of livelihood.

Female vendors, whose merchandise was considered non-essential, found other means of survival during the lockdown. “I was actually dealing in secondhand clothes and also events management. So, when the lockdown came in, they stopped vending these secondhand clothes, events were stopped. So, we were actually … virtually I was stuck. I had to begin selling food items.”52

At the beginning of the lockdown, the price of lemon, garlic, and ginger shot up as Ugandans self-medicated. Street vendors bought these items and tried to hawk them through the streets of Kampala. Others became itinerant laundresses, walking from home to home inquiring if the inhabitants had clothes to be washed.

“So, I started washing clothes because the capital got finished. I could go door-todoor, asking, “Do you have some clothes? I need to have something to eat.” So, some people gave me, and I washed. That is how I managed. They would give me a big basin of clothes to wash, and pay me only UGX 5,000, which is not enough to buy food for a family of four.”53

After the initial months of hindrance by a ban on transportation and two lockdowns (2020 and 2021), CSOs supported vulnerable people with personal protective equipment (PPE) and food relief. With the gradual lifting of restrictions, CSOs have continued to support women in the informal sector by giving them knowledge on how to manage their businesses and homes. Others are empowering women market and street vendors by providing seed capital to their cooperatives, where women can get low-interest credit to revive their businesses.

52 Jane Akwero, market vendor, Driwala Market, Arua City 53 Molly Wambi, street vendor, Kamwokya, Kampala City