What are the difficulties faced by small-scale producers in the developing world?
Around the world there are millions of people running or considering running small businesses to increase their incomes and improve their lives. The simple fact is that formal employment in the industrial, retail or public sectors is scarce, while the potential labour force increases year on year with population growth. The majority of people – ranging from 55% of the population in Latin America to 75% in sub-Saharan Africa – must make ends meet through their own enterprise, in the subsistence economy or the ‘informal private sector’. Although small scale production can provide secure livelihoods under the right conditions, small scale producers face many constraints and barriers to success. This is especially the case now that ‘globalisation’ has created an aggressive market-based economy, which stretches into almost every neighbourhood in the world. This rapid, sweeping change has outstripped the capacity of ordinary people’s existing technology to provide them with secure livelihood
