The informal markets of Africa are stereotypically seen as chaotic and lackadaisical.
人们通常对非洲的非正式市场抱有成见,认为此类地摊混乱又懒散。
The downside of hearing the word "informal" is this automatic grand association we have, which is very negative,
可惜的是,人们听见非正式这个词所产生的联想普遍为负面的,
and it's had significant consequences and economic losses,
也因此造成了重大的影响与经济损失,
easily adding -- or subtracting -- 40 to 60 percent of the profit margin for the informal markets alone.
轻易为非正式市场添加--或减去--40%至60%的利润率,这还不包括其他市场。
As part of a task of mapping the informal trade ecosystem,
为了勾绘出非正式市场的生态系统,
we've done an extensive literature review of all the reports and research on cross-border trade in East Africa, going back 20 years.
我们浏览了近20年内大量对与东非跨境贸易有关的研究与报告。
This was to prepare us for fieldwork to understand what was the problem,
这是为我们接下来的实地考察做准备,去尝试理解问题在哪,
what was holding back informal trade in the informal sector.
非正式贸易的阻碍是什么。
What we discovered over the last 20 years was, nobody had distinguished between illicit
我们发现在这20年间从未有人区分过违法行为,
which is like smuggling or contraband in the informal sector -- from the legal but unrecorded, such as tomatoes, oranges, fruit.
例如非正式行业内的走私与非法倒卖--与合法但无登记记录的商品,例如番茄,橘子之类的水果。
This criminalization -- what in Swahili refers to as "biashara," which is the trade or the commerce,
这样的定罪--贸易在斯瓦希里语中被称为“biashara”,
versus "magendo," which is the smuggling or contraband, this criminalization of the informal sector, in English,
而不是“magendo”或走私--在英语中如此定罪于非正式行业,
by not distinguishing between these aspects,
只是因为英语并不区分两者,
easily can cost each African economy between 60 to 80 percent addition on the annual GDP growth rate,
这就轻易排除了60%到80%的非洲经济年均GDP增长率,
because we are not recognizing the engine of what keeps the economies running.
因为我们正在忽略维持经济发展的引擎。
The informal sector is growing jobs at four times the rate of the traditional formal economy, or "modern" economy, as many call it.
非正式行业内职位的增长是传统正式经济或许多人称为的“现代”经济的四倍。
It offers employment and income generation opportunities to the most "unskilled" in conventional disciplines.
它根据传统条框为最“无技术群体”提供了任职与收入机会。
But can you make a french fry machine out of an old car?
但是你可以把一辆旧车改造成薯条机么?
So, this, ladies and gentlemen, is what so desperately needs to be recognized.
所以,女士们先生们,这就是急需被认可的东西。
As long as the current assumptions hold that this is criminal, this is shadow, this is illegal,
只要现有设想认为这是犯法,见不得光,非法的,
there will be no attempt at integrating the informal economic ecosystem with the formal or even the global one.
就没人会尝试将非正式经济生态环境与正式的,甚至全球的市场结合起来。
I'm going to tell you a story of Teresia, a trader who overturned all our assumptions,
我要给你们讲一个故事,主人公是一个名为泰雷西亚的商人,她改变了我们的设想,
made us question all the stereotypes that we'd gone in on, based on 20 years of literature review.
并使我们反思了一开始所有根据20年间文案研究形成的偏见。
Teresia sells clothes under a tree in a town called Malaba, on the border of Uganda and Kenya.
特雷西亚在一个叫马拉巴尔的小镇树下卖衣服,那里位于乌干达和肯尼亚的交界处。
You think it's very simple, don't you?
你是不是觉得这听起来很简单?
We'll go hang up new clothes from the branches, put out the tarp, settle down, wait for customers, and there we have it.
我们只需要在树枝上挂上新衣服,铺开地毯,坐着等待顾客,这就够了。
She was everything we were expecting according to the literature, to the research,
她与我们根据文献和研究所产生的所有预期相符,
right down to she was a single mom driven to trade, supporting her kids.
贴切到她开始做生意的原因,一个单亲妈妈补贴家用。
So what overturned our assumptions? What surprised us?
那么是什么改变了我们的设想?什么是我们预料之外的?
First, Teresia paid the county government market fees every single working day for the privilege of setting up shop under her tree.
首先,特雷西亚每个工作日都会给乡政府交摊位费,就为了能在树下搭建她的小商铺。
She's been doing it for seven years, and she's been getting receipts. She keeps records.
她从事这个工作已经有七年之久,而且她保留着所有收据。她的账目很清晰。
We're seeing not a marginal, underprivileged, vulnerable African woman trader by the side of the road -- no.
我们现在看到的不是一个边远的、贫困的、无助的非洲路边商妇,完全不是。
We were seeing somebody who's keeping sales records for years;
我们看到的是一个维持了销售记录多年的人,
somebody who had an entire ecosystem of retail that comes in from Uganda to pick up inventory;
一个售卖来自乌干达的商品,在零售生态系统中运作的人,
someone who's got handcarts bringing the goods in, or the mobile money agent who comes to collect cash at the end of the evening.
用手推车进货,或者是在一天结束后,以流动财富代理身份收钱的人。
Can you guess how much Teresia spends, on average, each month on inventory -- stocks of new clothes that she gets from Nairobi?
你能猜到特雷西亚平均每月花多少钱从内罗比进购新品吗?
One thousand five hundred US dollars. That's around 20,000 US dollars invested in trade goods and services every year.
1500美元。也就是说每年有2万美元被投资于商品及劳务。
This is Teresia, the invisible one, the hidden middle.
这就是特雷西亚,无形的、被隐藏的群体中的一员。
And she's only the first rung of the small entrepreneurs, the micro-businesses that can be found in these market towns.
而且她只是这些贸易小镇里随处可见的微生意、小企业家里的第一级。
At least in the larger Malaba border, she's at the first rung.
至少在整个马拉巴尔边界,她处在最底层。
The people further up the value chain are easily running three lines of business, investing 2,500 to 3,000 US dollars every month.
再往价值链上走,人们轻松运营着三项业务,每月投资2500到3000美元。
So the problem turned out that it wasn't the criminalization;
也就是说,问题并不出在定罪上,
you can't really criminalize someone you're charging receipts from.
你并不能给一个纳税商定罪。
It's the lack of recognition of their skilled occupations.
问题的关键在于他们的技术职业并没有被承认。
The bank systems and structures have no means to recognize them as micro-businesses,
银行机构无法认可它们为微商,
much less the fact that, you know, her tree doesn't have a forwarding address.
更不用说她的那棵树并没有转递地址。
So she's trapped in the middle. She's falling through the cracks of our assumptions.
所以她被困住了。她被遗弃于我们构想的漏洞中。
You know all those microloans to help African women traders?
你们知道那些帮助非洲女商人的小额贷款吗?
They're going to loan her 50 dollars or 100 dollars. What's she going to do with it?
它们只会给她50到100美元。她能用这些钱做什么?
She spends 10 times that amount every month just on inventory
她每个月单是花在进货上的钱就是这个数字的10倍,
we're not talking about the additional services or the support ecosystem.
并不包括额外服务和支援性生态系统。
These are the ones who fit neither the policy stereotype of the low-skilled and the marginalized,
这些人既不符合政策框架,也不符合低技术或边缘化人才,
nor the white-collar, salaried office worker or civil servant with a pension that the middle classes are allegedly composed of.
更不符合朝九晚五的白领或是有铁饭碗的公务员这一系列大家心目中的中层阶级群体。
Instead, what we have here are the proto-SMEs these are the fertile seeds of businesses and enterprises that keep the engines running.
我们所看见的实则是中小型企业原型,这些是含苞待放的生意、行业,是使经济引擎运作的根本。
They put food on your table. Even here in this hotel, the invisible ones
他们让你桌上有食物。甚至在(屏幕上)这所宾馆内,那些看不见的
the butchers, the bakers the candlestick makers -- they make the machines that make your french fries and they make your beds.
屠夫,面包师,烛台师傅,他们搭建了炸薯条的机器,还帮你制作床架。
These are the invisible businesswomen trading across borders,
这些是被忽略的女企业家进行着跨边界交易,
all on the side of the road, and so they're invisible to data gatherers.
她们的生意通通都在路边,所以她们的贡献不被数据统计者囊括。
And they're mashed together with the vast informal sector
她们还被粗略概括在广大的非正式行业内,
that doesn't bother to distinguish between smugglers and tax evaders and those running illegal whatnot,
这个范围并没有对走私者、逃税者以及其他违法犯罪者,
and the ladies who trade, and who put food on the table and send their kids to university.
与做贸易的女士们、养家糊口、供孩子上大学的人做出合理的区分。
So that's really what I'm asking here. That's all that we need to start by doing.
这便是我的诉求。是我们全部的行动起始点。
Can we start by recognizing the skills, the occupations?
我们能从承认这类技术与工作开始吗?
We could transform the informal economy by beginning with this recognition
我们可以改变非正式经济,首先承认他们的身份,
and then designing the customized doorways for them to enter or integrate with the formal, with the global, with the entire system.
接着为它们定制加入或合并于正式、全球化的整个系统的计划。
Thank you, ladies and gentlemen.
谢谢各位女士们,先生们。