Household microenterprises with Selina Pasirayi and Rollins Chitika

“This is kind of a hub, if you will, that's bringing in goods and services to the wider group of people in the informal settlements. And you can think about anything that you need in your life, in your home. So things to do with food, clothes, anything that you need in your house or maybe maintenance of your house – carpentry works, metal works, hardware. For people that are in the informal settlements, they access all this through the HMEs.”

In this episode, Ademola Omoegun talks to two city-based researchers from the neighbourhood and district economic development domain – Selina Pasirayi (Harare) and Rollins Chitika (Lilongwe) – about the critical role that household microenterprises (HMEs) play in African cities.

Drawing on their research in Harare, Lilongwe and Lagos, they discuss the centrality of HMEs in the lives of informal settlement residents, the blurring boundaries between formality and informality, challenges around accessing finance and critical infrastructure, and how neighbourhood and district economic development intersects with the seven other domains being explored by ACRC.

Selina Pasirayi leads ACRC's neighbourhood and district economic development domain research in Harare. With research interests in urban social movements, urban informality and urban development, she has also worked as a practitioner for civil society organisations and NGOs around resilience work, climate change adaptation and disaster risk reduction.

Rollins Chitika leads ACRC's neighbourhood and district economic development domain research in Lilongwe. He is a consultant with Equip Consulting Group and has a background in private sector development, project management and research.

Ademola Omoegun is a postdoctoral research fellow at the African Cities Research Consortium, working in the neighbourhood and district economic development domain.

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Music: Brighter Days | Broke in Summer

Sounds: Zapsplat

This podcast presents the views of the speakers featured and does not necessarily represent the views of the African Cities Research Consortium as a whole.

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