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Whose Solution is It? Development Ideology and the Work of MicroEntrepreneurs in Caribbean Context by Marina Karides, Florida Atlantic University An economic leader in the Caribbean, the Republic of Trinidad and Tobago has incorporated micro-business development as one of its main strategies to alleviate poverty and unemployment and to spawn economic growth since the late 1980s (ILO 1991, 1998, Ministry of Finance 1996). Although the discovery of natural gas in the early nineties catapulted Trinidad’s economic growth rate to four percent per annum, unemployment and poverty continue to affect a large portion of the population. The majority of the population has not benefited from Trinidad’s economic growth. Thus, the government has attempted to create “a nation of entrepreneurs” in order to relieve some of the inequality that defines the society (Ministry of Trade and Industry 1997). Trinidad’s expansion of micro-enterprise programs reflects an international trend. Endorsed by non-governmental organizations, private financial institutions, international development agencies, including the World Bank, many scholars and development practitioners also view microenterprise assistance as a panacea for Third World poverty (Johnson and Kidder, 1999; Mosley and Hulme, 1998; Dignard and Havet, 1995; Grosh and Somolekae, 1996; Rakowski, 1994). Micro-enterprise development programs generally consist of training in business skills or providing small loans or credit to micro-entrepreneurs (Dignard and Havet, 1995; International Labour Organization, 1995; Rakowski, 1994). These programs typically target self-employed individuals or businesses with five or fewer employees both of which are characteristic of the informal sector. The micro-enterprise strategy for development is gendered. Not only do micro-enterprise programs often target women, but even when not targeted, women have been more likely than men are to use these programs (Johnson and Kidder, 1999; Rodriguez, 1995; Rakowski, 1994; International Labour Organization, 1991; Everett, 1989). Supporters of microenterprise development argue that poor or low-income Third World women, independently engaged in unregulated and undocumented work, have influ-

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enced the international economic development agenda (Dignard and Havet, 1995; Everett, 1989; Charlton, Everett, and Staudt, 1989). Advocates also suggest that along with increasing women’s access to credit, microenterprise programs assist women in managing their domestic and income earning responsibilities (Rodriguez, 1995). As one development agency claims, micro-enterprise is “the surest way out of poverty for poor women and their families.” (FINCA, 2000). Indeed, self-employment has been an integral part of Caribbean women’s economic strategies. Much research has documented the historical place of African-Caribbean women as independent income earners most visibly as street traders (Freeman, 2000; Massiah, 1986; Mintz, 1974). The combination of race and gender discrimination experienced by AfricanCaribbean women in the formal labor market has also provoked their involvement in micro-enterprises (Reddock, 1994). African-Trinidadian women have a long record of engagement in self-employment, with many preferring autonomous labor conditions to the strictures of formalized labor. Although limited, there has been recent expansion of scholarship challenging micro-enterprise development as a “win-win” strategy for alleviating poverty, unemployment, and gender inequity (Poster and Salime, 2002; Morduch, 2000; Ehlers and Main, 1998; Johnson and Kidder, 1998). Critics contend that micro-finance programs increase women’s indebtedness and labor (Scully, 1997); that the international embrace of microenterprise development as a cure-all for poverty neglects distinct cultural and economic conditions of diverse post-colonial regions (Johnson and Kidder, 1999); and that micro-credit is commonly distributed on the basis of political patronage (Everett, 1989). Examining the values and assumptions underlying the microenterprise development strategy may also help to explain some of the limitations of these types of programs. Post-colonial critics emphasize that economic development strategies are created based on prefigured conclusions about Third World nations and people. This research attends to the ideological factors informing the implementation of micro-enterprise programs in

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Trinidad and contributes to the investigation of how economic development is shaped by value-driven policies. Focused on the Caribbean island of Trinidad, I examine microenterprise professionals’ notions of women micro-entrepreneurs and the needs and experiences of these women. African-Caribbean women—the primary constituents of Trinidad’s micro-enterprise programs—have a long history of self-generating income for economic survival. Yet much of these women’s experiences and concerns seem to be absent from the rhetoric of micro-enterprise professionals. By attending to the way micro-enterprise development is enacted in a particular context, this paper contributes to an incipient literature focused on the ideological aspect of how internationally driven development policies often miscalculate the needs of their target population (Escobar, 1995:48). In the following section, I briefly review Caribbean development with a particular focus on how women and micro-entrepreneurs have been conceptualized in development theory. Then, I present themes developed in the analysis of interviews with micro-enterprise “professionals” – in microenterprise programs, government ministries, and national and international non-governmental organizations – and with women street vendors, the quintessential micro-entrepreneurs. Comparing and contrasting these two sets of appraisals and reflections builds toward the concluding section which concentrates on drawing out the theoretical implications of the Trinidadian case of micro-enterprise development. Gendered Development Strategies in the Caribbean Implemented in the 1950s and 1960s, the first strategies of development after independence focused on industrialization and the employment of men in the new industries (Misra, 1999; Acosta-Belen and Bose, 1995). Guided by modernization theory, development actors gave little attention to the economic contributions of Third World women (Ward and Pyle, 1995; AcostaBelen and Bose, 1995; Kabeer, 1994). Even in the Caribbean, where, historically, large numbers of women have been household heads as well as economically autonomous in conjugal relationships, initial modernization

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programs failed to recognize women as workers (Freeman, 2000; Barrow, 1986; Massiah, 1986). In these first decades of development, the ethnocentric and patriarchal perspective of Western development agencies included assumptions that all Third World women were homemakers and caretakers and dependent on men’s earnings (Ward and Pyle, 1995; Kabeer, 1994). These programs disempowered women economically as well as politically by focusing on the economic advancement of men only (Misra, 1999; Acosta-Belen and Bose, 1995; Kabeer, 1994). While men were being incorporated into the expanding formal labor market, women experienced discriminatory policies that blocked them from joining the formal labor force (Reddock, 1994). Forced to continue economic practices existing under colonialism, that is, creating their own means of employment, many women engaged in “income generation projects” or “micro-enterprises” to finance household survival (Freeman, 2000; Portes, Dore-Cabral, and Landolt, 1997; Rakowski, 1994; Reddock, 1994; ILO, 1998; Reddock, 1994). Initially, women’s self-employment strategies did not garner much attention or support from development actors. Micro-enterprises were considered to inhibit rather than contribute to economic growth (Cross, 2000; Itzigsohn, 2000). Lewis (1954), a leading modernization theorist influential in Caribbean development, was particularly skeptical of economic activity that was not part of the industrializing sectors. He identified small-scale economic activity, such as petty trade, as “parasitic” and detrimental to Caribbean modernization. Foreign investment, export-led development, and large-scale industries would bring the region out of its “backwardness” and create a modern economy (Mandle, 1996; Barriteau, 1995; Lewis, 1954). Perceiving local capitalists as lacking the skills and experience necessary for business development, Lewis placed particular emphasis on the tutorial role foreign capitalists would play for local entrepreneurs (Mandle, 1996). Modernization theorists like Lewis argued that the development of nations after colonialism depended not only on economic reforms and industrialization, but also – in his view, more so – on the incorporation of “appropriate” or Western cultural values (Inkeles, 1969; McClelland 1961).

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They assumed local capitalists and informal, self-employed workers embodied cultural characteristics that hindered Third World development (Mandle, 1996; McClelland, 1961). Culminating in Oscar Lewis’s “culture of poverty” thesis, Third World communities were characterized as lacking a work ethic, achievement motivation, and discipline (Bayat, 2000; McClelland, 1961). Modernization theorists considered informal or independent economic activities particularly unproductive as they underutilized resources. Micro-enterprises were indicative of people concerned with earning just enough to get buy rather than those interested in building businesses (Cross, 1998; Sanyal, 1991; Geertz, 1963). Almost twenty years after the first programs of modernization were implemented, Third World women finally were appreciated as potential contributors to economic development—but not as micro-entrepreneurs. When women were recognized as economic actors by mainstream development thinkers, they were thought of only as recruits to the industrial labor force (Misra, 1999; Ward and Pyle, 1995: Boserup, 1970). In the Caribbean, where women were involved in informal income-earning strategies, Lewis advocated early on that women use their skills and join the formal workforce in garment and food-processing industries to contribute to the mission of modernizing the region’s economy (Malaki, 1996). The expansion of women’s micro-enterprises as a strategy for economic development was not a consideration during the 1970s era of Women in Development. Although some attention was given to women’s “income-generating projects” as a form of “social assistance”, such activities were deemed economically nonviable and viewed as an extension of women’s household duties (Prugle and Tinker, 1997; Reddock, 1994; Hart, 1973). Currently, women’s self-employment is hailed by development agencies as offering the most promise for employment creation, poverty alleviation, and economic growth (Johnson and Kidder, 1999; Mosley and Hulme 1998, Portes et. al., 1997; Dignard and Havet, 1995; Grosh and Somolekae, 1996; Rakowski, 1994). Grounded in the supposition that self-employment or micro-entrepreneurship is flexible in terms of time and schedule, some feminist researchers argue that it provides women the possibility of manag-

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ing household duties and earning income (Dignard and Havet, 1995; Rodriguez, 1995). Advocates suggest that micro-enterprise assistance is a means of lifting women out of poverty and giving them control over their own income making them less dependent on men and the state (ILO, 1998; Rodriguez, 1995). The practicality of micro-enterprise development is emphasized by its supporters. They maintain micro-enterprises can be started using women’s household skills and provide a path for upward mobility to women with limited education; further, micro-enterprise programs open a source of capital, other than usurious moneylenders, for poor women (ILO, 1998; Everett, 1989). Scholars and development practitioners focusing on ideological shifts in development thinking argue that emphasis on micro-enterprise programs demonstrates women’s incorporation into mainstream development thought (Issereles, 1999; Rakowski, 1994). They suggest that the expansion of these programs indicates Third World women finally have influenced national and international economic development policies (Everett, 1989; Charlton, Everett, and Staudt, 1989). Increasingly, micro-enterprise development has been challenged as a vehicle for women’s empowerment. Feminists taking a more critical perspective argue that rather than increasing women’s economic opportunities, micro-enterprise programs reinforce gender stereotypes while using the language of empowerment (Issereles, 1999; Ehlers and Main, 1998). For example, women are provided loans because of the greater likelihood that they will pay them back and contribute the income they generate to pay for household members’, especially children’s needs. This not only profits lenders but reifies women as household guardians and mothers; at the same time women’s labor and responsibility for economic survival are expanded (Issereles, 1999; Freeman, 1993). Other scholars criticize state sponsored micro-enterprise programs for deepening women’s dependency on and exploitation by the state and subjecting them to capitalist domination (Freeman, 1993; Everett, 1989; Issereles, 1999; Cross, 1998). Micro-enterprise programs stand accused of creating an increase of exploited workers who

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earn little income and are overburdened by debt—“shoeless women lifting themselves up by their bootstraps” (Aslam, 1997: 1)! Post-colonial scholarship has delivered a stinging assessment of mainstream development strategies (Escobar, 1995; Mudimbe, 1988; Said, 1978). Western approaches toward development assume that the entire Third World is characterized by a deficient culture context, distinct from the West (Said, 1978). Not only is cultural variance dismissed or rendered unimportant, but also inherent in this development project is Western ethnocentrism (Mohanty, 1997). Post-colonialists propose that “development” is a Euro-centric concept, a form of cultural imperialism designed to entrench Western dominance (Escobar, 1995). The cultural traits attributed to the Third World serve to legitimize the exploitation and poverty of Third World peoples (Yelvington, 1993). The increasingly unequal relationship between “developed” and “less developed” nations is not just a matter of the inevitability of global economic forces. It is the persistence of socially constructed “otherness” that continues to reinforce the hierarchical relationships among racial groups and geographies (Alexander and Mohanty 1997). The lack of economic development in formerly colonized regions such as South Asia, Africa, Latin America and the Middle East was attributed to the similar culture traits modernization theorists initially assumed characterized all formerly colonized regions. Yet variation in economic advancement among these regions required modernization theorists to reformulate their assessments—which they did on the basis of cultural biased assumptions. Racial stereotypes were employed—the success of East Asia’s newly industrialized countries has been explained by the docility of Asian women laborers, while the plight of Africa stems from the lack of constraint of its political leaders. In other words, how a region, nation, or ethnic/racial group fares in the global economy is explained by cultural factors embodying racism rather than the structure of the global economy. The promulgation of a racist ideology that creates distinctions among human beings was essential in legitimizing the destruction and exploitation of the Caribbean initiated by European colonialists (Arendt 1973). The

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stereotype of the Caribbean as a culturally backward region is rooted in its colonial heritage (Thompson 1997, Yelvington 1993, Klack 1998). Inevitably, development strategies implemented in the Caribbean Basin are infused with assumptions of the nature of Caribbean people—although the ethnic diversity of the region essentially challenges these characterizations. Biased development discourse guides concrete practices that often fail to address the problems of the post-colonial world (Escobar, 1995). In many cases, Western guided development strategies have exacerbated conditions of poverty and economic stagnation (Escobar, 1995). While postcolonial scholarship addressing micro-enterprise development per se is limited, the emphasis in post-colonial analysis on Western ideological biases that devalue Third World cultures suggest that culturally biased racial/ethnic and gendered assumptions inform the mainstream support for microenterprise development as well. The analysis presented here seeks to unpack the assumptions organizing micro-enterprise development programming, in particular, the degree of congruence that exists between the perceptions of professionals involved with such programs and the experiences of women micro-entrepreneurs supposedly served by them. To the extent the international development agenda is imbued with race/ethnic and gender biases and they – rather than the history and current reality of African-Caribbean women’s selfemployment – are driving Trinidad’s micro-enterprise development policy and practice there is cause for concern about the possibilities this agenda has for creating sufficient economic opportunities for women entrepreneurs in Trinidad. Interviews with Micro-enterprise Professionals and Working Microentrepreneurs In the course of research on local and global political economic interactions that shape micro-enterprise development and street vending in Port of Spain, Trinidad, I conducted interviews with micro-enterprise policy / program professionals and with working micro-entrepreneurs, that is, street vendors, in January through March, 2000. The analysis of the semistructured interviews, presented below, has been informed by field observa-

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tion on the streets of Port of Spain as well as documents produced by the various micro-enterprise programs. Among the forty-four micro-enterprise professionals I interviewed were individuals who were currently working in – or had worked in – various capacities in government ministries, international non-governmental organizations, private institutions, or local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) dedicated to micro-enterprise development in Trinidad or the Caribbean. The majority of interviews (sixty percent) were conducted with state officials, a quarter were conducted with NGO representatives, and about fifteen percent took place with professionals in private financial institutions. The distribution of interview participants is proportional to the distribution of the micro-enterprise development program types. In other words, the majority of programs are state-run, followed by non-governmental programs; private financial institutions represent the most recent and least active of the actors engaging in micro-enterprise development. The questions framing the interview were designed to provoke reflection on the strategy of micro-enterprise development generally and the success of the particular program the participant was associated with. Open-ended questions such as, “What do you think are the primary needs of people in micro businesses?” provoked evaluation of the program’s constituency. Finally, as one of the primary objective of the study was to understand local-global linkages I asked interview participants to comment on the role, if any, of international agencies and organizations in micro-enterprise development in Trinidad and in their program specifically. Half of the interview participants were heads of programs with responsibility for the administration and direction of those programs – for instance, vice-presidents, directors, or chief executive officers. A quarter of interviews were conducted with heads of programs who were also active in the field and directly involved with persons who sought program funds or training. Another quarter of the interviews were conducted with field workers. An overwhelming proportion of micro-enterprise professionals spontaneously cited street vendors as examples of micro-entrepreneurs or as pro-

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gram participants. In these interviews, reference was made to vendors more than to any other type of micro-entrepreneur, and micro-enterprise professionals estimate that vendors comprise between ten to twenty-five percent of their program participants. I conducted semi-structured interviews with forty-five self-employed street vendors – two thirds of whom were women, representative of the general population of approximately 400 street vendors who work in downtown Port of Spain. I draw on the interviews with the women street vendors in the analysis below. I also surveyed 140 street vendors. The majority of vendors surveyed were African-Caribbean women (61 percent) followed by AfricanCaribbean men (31 percent); Indian-Trinidadians compose less than ten percent of the vendors surveyed." Information from the survey provides a backdrop for considering the interviews with the women vendors. For example, 70 percent of vendors surveyed are the primary or sole income earners in their households, and an additional 13 percent share income earning responsibility equally with another member of the household. African-Caribbean women vendors are more likely than any other group to serve as main or sole income earners. The high percentage of vendors who are main income earners indicates that street vending is not casual work, but that it provides many families with a regular source of income. Most street vendors (63 percent) are in their 30s or 40s – ages at which labor force participation is most active – also suggesting that individuals engage in vending as regular and stable employment. In addition, most vendors have been vending for a considerable period of time: 24 percent of those surveyed have been vending for eleven to twenty years; 29 percent have been vending from six to ten years; 20 percent have been vending from three to five years. Moreover, street vendors work steadily, and they work long hours. The vast majority of vendors surveyed (83 percent) work five days or more. Most street vendors (58 percent) also work more than eight hours a day. Vendors who work in downtown Port of Spain engage in regular practices. One routinely sees the same vendors in the same location on the streets of downtown Port of Spain. Although vendors’ earnings are comparable to the

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earnings of formal sector employees, vendors generally work longer hours and more days than the latter and, of course, have no social security benefits.# The survey information demonstrates that street vending is a long term and regular form of employment. This contrasts with the interviewed professionals’ representation and perception of Trinidad’s street vendors. The Misperceptions of Micro-Enterprise Professionals Micro-enterprise professionals’ perceptions of micro-entrepreneurs distinguish the ideologies guiding program policies. I first present the themes developed in my interviews with micro-enterprise professionals and then turn to interviews with street vendors. By juxtaposing micro-enterprise professionals’ perceptions to the actual experiences of micro-entrepreneurs, I demonstrate that micro-enterprise professionals’ have misjudged microentrepreneurs and that the legacy of Caribbean women’s self-employment is not appreciated nor does it inform current micro-enterprise programs. The following section present three themes that came to light in my analysis of interviews with micro-enterprise professionals: women’s double duty, deficits in culture, and racial bias. When compared with the practices of street vendors, these themes illustrate the ill-conceived ideological assumptions informing development strategies. Women’s Double Duty For the most part, African-Caribbean women’s over-representation in programs was attributed to their higher unemployment level. When considering the relationship of women and micro-enterprise development, state leaders argued that micro-enterprises are an income earning strategy that facilitates women’s dual role of workers and mothers. As the Minister of Gender and Culture stated in a public address:
Given women’s social and gender role responsibilities, coupled with the need for income, women are finding small or micro-enterprise retail activity a sound avenue for survival, and for some, personal and economic development.

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What is striking in this comment is the lack of historical context. Globally and especially in the Caribbean, women have used or turned to self-employment to manage care-taking and income earning. Yet the emphasis by micro-enterprise professionals was that micro-enterprise assistance was a recent and an innovative strategy for addressing Trinidad’s high unemployment among women and assisting them in their care-taking role. As an official in an international development agency explains:
Well [micro-enterprise development] works very good. Because most [women] can operate out of their homes, and they earn in their homes, and they can take care of their kids at that same time.

More than half of the micro-enterprise professionals interviewed presented micro-enterprise development as serving double duty—a solution for women’s role as income earner and caretaker. Internationally, microenterprise development is not only being heralded as an economic development strategy but also as a solution to gender inequity. The research on micro-enterprise development largely argues that women achieve empowerment through the economic independence (i.e. no longer dependent on spouses or men partners) offered by successful micro-enterprises. Yet these studies do not suggest that self-employment fosters gender equity in the division of household labor (see for example The Virtual Library on Microcredit and Microfinance, http://www.gdrc.org/icm/index.html). Evidently, women’s informal self-employment does not lead to an increase in men’s share of household and care-taking responsibilities. Deficits in Culture African-Trinidadian women have served dually as income earner and caretakers for many generations. Despite the cliché of African-Caribbean women as savvy market traders and the international acclaim of women as responsible micro-credit borrowers, the micro-enterprise professionals I interviewed assumed that the African-Trinidadian women in their program were devoid of business and financial skills. Micro-enterprise professionals used cultural and racial characterization of micro-entrepreneurs to explain what they feel is a failure of micro-entrepreneurs to “graduate” from the in-

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formal sector. The business practices of women micro-entrepreneurs were criticized for lacking entrepreneurial forethought. For instance, an employee in a state micro-enterprise program suggests that the reason for the lack of economic advancement of the numerous informally self-employed lies with financial mismanagement. He argues:
They start something, they get income, but they cannot, they haven’t developed the capacity to use that income properly. So the slightest opportunity that comes up, they see that they have the resources now, and they will spend it on a new car, new home, whatever, without realizing that they have to put most of that profit back into the business. You know, they have to be disciplined in how much they cream off for their non- business activities.

Micro-enterprise professionals believe that micro-entrepreneurs do not have the necessarily skills or cultural values to sustain a business. A leader in a state-run women’s unemployment retraining program expresses the following about the women in this program:
You have to be prepared to have a sacrificial attitude, you have be prepared to set goals. For these women, it is going to take a long while for them to establish businesses.

Many of these officials assume that micro-entrepreneurs earn and spend their income on a daily basis. A director of a private development agency discussing the vendors outside his office in Port of Spain states:
I have branded the vendors; I call them survival ventures. They are just making enough money day to day to survive; those are your vendors you see on the street. They don’t have motivation, a very small percentage of microenterprises graduate.

The above statements capture the assumptions made by microenterprise professionals regarding the practices of micro-entrepreneurs. Micro-enterprise professionals identify instilling micro-entrepreneurs with an appropriate value system as one of the main functions of micro-enterprise programs. By improving the culture of micro-entrepreneurs, these professionals believe they can contribute to Trinidad’s economic development.

Volume 25 Number 1/2 2005 Racial Bias

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Underlying some of micro-enterprise professionals’ commentary on microentrepreneurs business skills were racist arguments on the lack of business capacity among African-Trinidadians. One example is this statement by a director and field worker in a credit union’s micro-enterprise program. She explains:
It happens most with African people. The business has started and they will see funds in the business and they will take that fund out, use it on their own things, and neglect the business, because they are seeing cash, they feel that the business is making money. That is because they don’t keep records. Because if they were keeping records, they will know “I can’t touch this money.”

In Trinidad, the characterization of African-Trinidadians as “lazy and irresponsible” originated during its colonial period (Yelvington, 1993). Racial stereotyping of business practices extends beyond the borders of Trinidad and Tobago—people of the African Diaspora have long been pigeonholed as poor business practitioners (Oliver and Shapiro, 1997; Ryan, 1994; Mudimbe, 1988). The following statement, by an NGO officer, captures the stereotype of people of the African Diaspora embedded in micro-enterprise professionals’ discussions of Trinidad’s micro-entrepreneurs.
What happens is that there is an attitude problem, a serious attitude, a cultural problem. Certain races in this country, the African race, it’s a question of attitude, which really depends on your mind. Here’s to say if I make $500 [$83 USD] I could blow out, and I want to spree the night. I don’t want to have, to spend it on my family, or business or something, just a question of attitude.

Rather than the structural and racist features of the capitalist world economy, the impoverished conditions of members of the African Diaspora in the Caribbean are ascribed to deficient business skills and limited foresightedness in financial dealings. A survey of the sociological literature demonstrates the falseness of these racial typecasts by providing more substantial explanations for black business success and failure (for some examples see Ryan and Stewart, 1994; Oliver and Shapiro, 1997; Henry, 1993).

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Micro-enterprise professionals argue that self-employed informal workers lack the necessary discipline and willingness to sacrifice for advancing their micro-businesses. They employ racial stereotypes to affirm their programs’ worth. A major focus of micro-enterprise programs is to inculcate informal micro-entrepreneurs with a work and savings ethic. The assumption is that vendors do not understanding finance and investment. As this final statement made by another government program director summarizes:
It’s not a now-for-now sort of activity, of just growing some garden produce and selling it in the market. Then you get income, you buy your food, you buy your books for you children, you pay your school fees, you pay your water rates, whatever, that is the basic stuff. But then it’s about putting some of that aside, investment, right, and savings. And it’s about building that mindset, even though it might be a miniscule amount, but it begins with the change of thinking, that we need to invest some of our income for that time when things might change.

One would think that managing to provide for food, rent, and children’s educational expenses not to mention the care and housework involved in raising a family as a single parent might deserve applause. Micro-enterprise development professionals’ assessments of microentrepreneurs are colored by ideologically driven assumptions that the poor and low-income residents are culturally deficient. Most micro-enterprise professionals seem to have very little sense of women’s historical use of informal self-employment to make ends meet and take care of family needs. Their lack of appreciation of women’s economic activity confirms that biased gender ideologies, just as racist ones, influence economic development strategies. Caribbean women’s independent economic activity in many ways is viewed as an extension of their household duties rather than the actual operation of a business. While some proponents of micro-enterprise development argue that the informal income earning strategies of the poor and marginalized are finally being recognized as innovative and entrepreneurial, theses finding suggest otherwise.

Volume 25 Number 1/2 2005 Street Vendors Do Business

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Street vending is an important source of income for a number of Trinidadian families. The evidence garnered through interviews (as well as the survey, observations, and time spent) with African-Caribbean women street vendors suggests that these micro-entrepreneurs are serious about their business practices and actively strategize to increase financial gains. Many vendors indicated that their reason for selling illegally on city streets is because it is the only affordable location from which to market their goods. While the regularity of work schedules and years of commitment to street vending presented above signifies systematic business practices, the following statements encapsulate the enterprising activity of street traders. For instance, Roma, who has been selling a variety of mass produced items for ten years, explains what you might start off selling as a vendor with limited capital:
You buy a box of pens, its one-dollar for a box, but what I am saying it has fifty pens. You’re making four dollars on a box, you sell more than one box you make some money, and later you can buy other things to sell.

Interviews with vendors demonstrate that they make practical financial decisions. Lila has been selling undergarments for 14 years. She explains to me how she chooses the products she vends:
You have to have what is in demand, what people need. You sell things people run out of – like socks, you can sell socks. People wear them all through the year. You look for things they are wearing all through the year, like t-shirts. But I don’t sell t-shirts anymore, you keep selling them but you don’t see no profit. Like the business people only getting the [profit] and you ain’t getting nothing.

Giselle, who is helped by her teenage daughters, has been vending for eighteen years. Like many of the vendors who sell mass-produced items, Giselle travels to nearby islands such as Curacao and Margarita (Venezuela) where they can purchase their goods tax-free and at a lower cost. She decides to travel abroad according to the following factors:
Once every two months, according to how the sales go, because you ain’t want to pop out all your money and material and you don’t bring in cash. So you can’t over travel. Like if you put out $260 [US] dollars and things go all right you can make $130 [US] dollars profit. You go by your sales. Once you get an

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ease up from the police and you don’t have to break down and close up shop or stay away for some days, once you get a flow you make it in a month.

The previous statements suggest that vendors are savvy in their business decisions, using rate of sales as a measure by which to purchase more goods and determining profitable products for investment. In addition, vendors also calculate variables such as patterns of police interference and weather in their estimation of earning and investment that are specific to the conditions of conducting business on the street. During interviews I also discussed with vendors the amount of savings or capital they had accrued. The more successful vendors had large sums of cash at their disposal that they used to purchase goods when they traveled abroad. For most vendors, however, excess capital depended on the extent that police or rain interfered with their opportunity to make sales. Even when strained with slow sales, most vendors tried to put a portion of their earnings into their business. As Estelle elaborates:
I am an independent person; I don’t depend on nobody. If I have one and one, I make one and one. I make that two work, and I develop with that two until it grows. All the money is going into my business. If I make $500 [$83 USD], I take the $300 [$50 USD], and I put the $300 back in business. I take part home, I eat, I will spend $100 in food, I put aside a part.

Grace, who sells drinks and snacks out of a shopping cart, relates her decision to accumulate savings. She explains to me, “I always wanted to be able to borrow from the bank, so, after Christmas, I put $1000 [US] in the bank right here. Since then, I’ve never touched it. Now I can go to the bank and borrow money.” Vendors, like Grace and the others worked regular hours, kept track of their profit margins, and used saving for household needs and to expand their business. Micro-enterprise professionals’ assumptions that micro-entrepreneurs tend to misspend earnings or are irregular in their business practice are shortsighted. The inculcation of “entrepreneurialism” that defines the mission of many of Trinidad’s micro-enterprise programs has little to offer street vendors. Traders generally displayed savvy business tactics learned

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through their years of practical experience as well as through the casual mentoring and assistance of other vendors. The Duel Workload The promotion of micro-enterprise development by micro-enterprise professionals as a solution to women’s dual role of caretaker and income earner comes without evaluating the concerns of Trinidad’s micro-enterprise programs’ main constituency. While promoters of micro-enterprise claim that “trading and small-scale food processing, handicraft and textile activities allows [women] to balance family and childcare responsibilities with economic necessity,” my interviews with vendors suggest that this is a very difficult balancing act. Micro-enterprise programs may be increasing the number of exploited workers who earn little income and are overburdened by household responsibilities. For instance, Rebecca has been selling snacks from a shopping cart for ten years. She is hoping that one day she can earn most of her income strictly through importing goods rather than street trading so that she may spend more time with her child. She explains:
Yeah, I am tired. What I want to do is just trade wholesale. But now everyday I come out here and open late. More so I have a daughter. She was eleven last Thursday, right. I want to be home for her. She is an A student, she is doing very well. And later down, I don’t want her coming down here. You know she comes here after school so I can see her and then she has to go home. She don’t see me till next morning, it’s hard.

While street vending provides many women a means for earning an income, it is a challenge to meet both business responsibilities and family needs. Many women vendors expressed a similar sentiment to that of Rebecca’s. Despite the argument that self-employment makes it easier for women to manage both income earning and childcare, the experiences of many street vendors suggests that it is an arduous task. As a gendered development strategy, micro-enterprise programs seem to reinforce women as caretakers, rather than increase the economic opportunities of women. Solely responsible for the welfare of her ten year old daughter, Sondra, a diabetic, held my shoulder and explained:

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Look at me, look at me, I tell you its rough girl, I tell you rough. The only thing that keeps me here is good faith. Faith keeping me right here, many days I eat less. I need 100 to send my child to school. I’m a spinnin’ top in mud.

When I asked Sondra if she was familiar with the government small business loan program she responded: “I don’t want the loan, I need assistance.” Sondra, whose street trading micro-enterprise is her sole source of income, is hoping for some kind of government aid to assist her in managing her illness and caring for her child. Experiences with Micro-Enterprise Programs Street vendors were familiar with Trinidad’s various micro-enterprise programs. A few vendors approached these programs for training in specific skills, such as flower arrangement or preparing pepper sauces, but many went for a small loan. Generally, vendors were dissatisfied with the microenterprise programs they contacted. Julia, a clothing vendor, explains the purpose and outcome of her visit:
I went to the small business development. I went there, I go in and look for a little thing and to see if I could get a little place. But I couldn’t reach the requirements, in order to make the program. Financial, I don’t remember the amount right now, but for what I wanted I had to show up to seventy percent. I did not have the percentage of the amount I wanted.

Many vendors who had experiences with micro-enterprise programs conveyed to me the difficulty in meeting the programs’ requirements. While recognizing that micro-entrepreneurs are limited in their capital assets, many of the programs that offered loan assistance required a cash deposit to secure a loan. And this was usually at a percentage rate that is untenable for many micro-entrepreneurs. Programs attempting to cater to poorer microentrepreneurs instituted sponsorship terms in lieu of cash deposits. In one case, the borrower had to find three persons willing to sign for the loan in the event she defaulted. One vendor commented that if she could find three persons capable of taking that risk, she would not have needed to turn to the agency for assistance.

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In addition, vendors also complained that the application process and non-financial requirements were unnecessarily arduous. Josephine tells what happened to her application:
Well they turned it down; they say we didn’t fill out [the form] properly. Because it is a difficult thing with them, they are not very easy to get along with. Because, you see the way they have the thing, it is sort of difficult.

Even when vendors did manage to fill out paper work necessary to secure a loan, their applications often were hampered by other factors. This vendor relates her experience:
When it first came out I tried it; I did all kind of documents, and all kind of things. That’s a waste time, I waste my time. I go through all the papers and I carry documents and this and that and the other. I ain’t bother with that again, cause I heard its a kind of, who you know then.

Most vendors chose not use micro-enterprise assistance. First, many vendors felt that their experience and business knowledge went well beyond the skills training imparted by the programs and often required before a loan imbursement. Second, many vendors felt that the loans provided by these programs, with their hidden cost and high interest rate, had nothing to offer but debt.#Vendors were very conscious of the problems caused by debt, especially since they do not have the security of a legal business venue. When I asked one vendor whether she had approached a micro-enterprise program for a loan she astutely replied:
Well you can get loans, ok, you can go to a small financial business, or whatever they call theirselves, and them giving you a loan. But then you come in here, you are borrowing a loan from them, you are coming out, and the police are running ya. How you going to make back the money to pay back the loans? It’s best you leave them people with the loan.

Vendors experiences with micro-enterprise programs reinforces how disconnected these programs are with the needs and conditions of their constituency. Their careful assessment of the pros and cons of program services, requirements, and interest rate, further attests to street vendors’ business skills.

International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy Conclusions

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For close to half a century regional leaders have implemented internationally driven development strategies to lift the Caribbean from its peripheral economic position and increase employment. Yet poverty and unemployment continue to prevail in the region. The themes presented above support the argument that development strategies, uninformed by local context and experiences fail to solve the problems they seek to address. This research supports post-colonial analyses that suggest cultural, gender, and racial stereotypes contribute greatly to the misdirection of development programs (Escobar, 1995; Mohanty, 1991). African-Trinidadian women, who make up the majority of both program participants and street vendors, engage in self-employment as an economic strategy in a discriminatory and tight formal labor market. Many of these women provide the main source of income for their households and are also the primary caretakers. Yet because of the stereotypes connected to their racial grouping, they are not commended for simultaneously managing two time-consuming activities: running a household and running a business. The racial and culture stereotypes embedded in micro-enterprise professionals’ understanding of the purpose and necessity of micro-enterprise programs blinds them to African-Caribbean women’s historical involvement and relative success in micro-entrepreneurship. The culture of poverty thesis, rooted in the modernization project, clouds micro-enterprise professionals’ ability to see the unrealistic expectation they are placing on micro-entrepreneurs. Trinidad is promoting micro-enterprises to address unemployment and spawn economic growth. At the same time, many micro-enterprise professionals advocate micro-enterprises as a woman empowerment strategy. As discussed earlier, development scholars and practitioners identify selfemployment as an ideal method for women to meet their dual role as income earners and caretakers. Surely, in working this double duty, women cannot devote all their time to business expansion (ILO, 1998). While Trinidadian men and youths are increasingly turning toward self-employment for lack of available formal employment, the majority of Trinidad’s micro-

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entrepreneurs are women. The injudicious expectation that women’s informal business should evolve to larger formal businesses while they continue as primary caretakers is indicative of misinformed development. Although micro-enterprise professionals could outline internationally popular arguments of the advantages of micro-enterprises for women, they did not appreciate the work and difficulties inherent in simultaneously running a household and a business. Instead, explanations for the lack of business expansion in the informal sector are couched in biased cultural or racial arguments and not in terms of extant practical and structural limitations. Post-colonial analyses have sharply addressed the ideological leanings of international development strategies (Escobar, 1995). The interpretations of race and ethnicity, nationality, or region are neither idiosyncratic nor arbitrary (Yelvington, 1993). Yelvington (1993:10) explains:
Ethnic identity formation in Trinidad has occurred in a context of an increasing commodification of labour, which has been intimately connected to the objectification of ethnicity. The objectification process involves for Trinidadians the reification of ethnicity whereby individuals and groups are weighted with cultural values and their identities are seen as having an essential existence.

The objectification process that Yelvington (1993) refers to is evident in the comments made by micro-enterprise professionals on the quality of business practices among African-Trinidadian entrepreneurs. Business capability is linked to racial categories. Blaming culture, particularly as it is circumscribed by race, occurs on an international scale and has been used to legitimize the gross inequalities apparent between various world regions. The promotion of micro-enterprise development relies on cultural assumptions about Third World people that hearken back to the arguments made by McClelland (1961) and other modernization theorists. The foundations of international development strategies contain assumptions of the economic inferiority of Third World populations. The contribution of post-colonial analysis in understanding the nature of the global development is to highlight the role of ideology. Neither macro-economic nor structural explanations find favor with micro-enterprise professionals in understanding the limits of micro-enterprises; however, cultural explanations do precisely be-

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cause they have been made integral to the conceptualizations of the Third World. By promoting micro-enterprise development the Trinidadian government prescribes for women’s unemployment the same tactic women have been utilizing for years. If micro-enterprise is to be a successful development tactic, then it must be informed by the real concerns and needs of practicing micro-entrepreneurs including: benefits such as healthcare and childcare and a legal and safe place to conduct business. Making It Work What would it take for micro-enterprise programs to meet the needs of micro-entrepreneurs successfully? The recent expansion of microenterprise programs in Trinidad is shaped by globalization’s neo-liberal policy and not by the appreciation of the innovative strategies of microentrepreneurs adapting to unsupportive socio-economic conditions. To meet the needs of micro-entrepreneurs effectively there must be an ideological shift in international development thought. Development policies driven by the agenda of multi-national capital cannot also meet the needs of smallscale micro-entrepreneurs. Establishing micro-enterprise programs that could assist the large number of informally self-employed workers would require several changes in state policy. First, street vendors are savvy enough entrepreneurs to realize that borrowing funds without having a secure and legal place to sell their goods is a financially suspect business strategy. The state must assist microentrepreneurs with their problem of location by either subsidizing microentrepreneurs who choose to rent a privately owned stall or store front or by constructing more vending locations on government property and charging low rents as was done previously. An alternative possibility, suggested by many vendors, was for the state to charge vendors a license fee or tax for conducting business on city streets. Interested in maintaining a central and lucrative location, many vendors remain unconvinced of the economic viability of vending malls and prefer the street as a business venue. Whether one or all of these solutions are implemented, government agencies interested in assisting micro-entrepreneurs must communicate with vendors di-

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rectly to fully appreciate the factors that contribute to the success or failure of their business practice. Second, in Trinidad the loans provided to self-employed informal sector workers are usually at a higher interest rate than those provided by commercial banks. The assumption that current micro-enterprise programs lend funds at a low interest rate is misplaced. Reinstating the state as a direct lender to micro-entrepreneurs through various programs at nominal interest rates could help micro-entrepreneurs – if not by providing microentrepreneurs the means to increase the size of their businesses, at least by keeping them from accumulating insurmountable debt. Next, the state’s role in redressing social inequality must be restored. The poverty and high unemployment that plagues the Third World cannot be redressed solely through micro-enterprise development. Even if street vendors engage in commendable business practices, are given low interest loans, and are granted a low cost business location, the survival and success of a business enterprise is not guaranteed. Assisting micro-entrepreneurs cannot successfully replace government social and unemployment programs. Rather, government social programs must be expanded so that all workers have the security of knowing that their basic needs will be met even when they cannot attend to their businesses for reasons such as health problems or childcare. Recognizing women’s household labor as work and financially compensating them for it will assist women socially and economically. Incorporating this classic feminist argument in the development of micro-enterprise programs could assist women micro-entrepreneurs whose simultaneous management of business and household deconstructs traditional definitions of work. Trinidad is one of fifteen nations scheduled to assess the value of women’s unpaid labor to the GNP. Realization of women’s economic contribution to the GNP via their household labor may altogether alter approaches to employment creation and development in the Third World. Finally, Trinidad’s expansion of micro-enterprise programs has not been systematically implemented. Rather, new programs are instituted that often overlap with services already offered in other state programs or serv-

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ices that do not meet the needs of micro-entrepreneurs. Greater communication between micro-entrepreneurs and micro-enterprise professionals needs to occur for programs to achieve the goal of micro-enterprise development. By understanding the real needs of micro-entrepreneurs and appreciating the drive necessary to maintain self-started businesses, micro-enterprise professionals can develop and organize programs to meet the needs of their constituency. Ultimately, the success of micro-enterprise development relies on incorporating social and economic justice as primary goals of the process. Giving credit and shaping culture are the basis of micro-enterprise as a development strategy. Yet if culture is not the problem and credit is no guarantee of financial security, responding to the poor as they struggle to survive requires vast changes in the structure of the international economy and the ideology that guides it. Otherwise, the strategy of micro-enterprise development is destined to be another gender-biased development tactic that relies on the extension of women’s gender-prescribed duties and is based on faulty racial and cultural stereotypes. Acknowledgements The author kindly thanks the American Association of University Women for funding the completion of this manuscript and is indebted to the Port of Spain vendors and micro-enterprise professionals who graciously participated in this study. Joya Misra, Ivy Kennelly, Linda Grant, Cynthia Hewitt, and Gay Young’s comments and suggestions on earlier versions of this manuscript are greatly appreciated.

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1 This research focuses specifically on the Trinidadian context. Although Trinidad and Tobago were forged into one nation as a result of colonial/post-colonial politics, the history and conditions of the islands are distinct and deserve separate analysis (Brereton, 1981). 2. The expansion of micro-enterprise development to low-income communities in the US and other developed regions demonstrates the conviction many development actors hold regarding the economic promise of microenterprises. Revelatory, also, is the fact that micro-enterprise programs are somewhat less gendered in these settings, appealing to men as well as women. 3. The Grameen Bank, initiated in Bangladesh in 1983, is credited with spawning the international fervor over micro-enterprise development. The highly praised Grameen Bank has also been denounced. Critics of the spread of micro-enterprise programs argue that the Grameen Bank has served only to put women into debt and increase the amount of their daily work. They criticize micro-enterprise advocates for measuring success in terms of the repayment rate of women borrowers, which may be attractive to banks but does not imply improved conditions for these women. Women may increase their income but still remain well below the poverty line (Everett 1989). 4. While the vast majority (approximately 85 percent) of the street vending population of Port of Spain is African-Caribbean, across the nation, both Indian and African-Trinidadians can be found street vending. 5. The vendors in downtown Port of Spain trade in a variety of goods that target the consumer needs of Trinidad’s low-income population. The largest proportion of vendors (approximately 37 percent) sold mass-produced items such as clothing, watches, and shoelaces. Many vendors (approximately 22 percent) sold fruits and vegetables they purchased from either local producers or wholesalers, who specialize in importing produce. Vendors with snack carts selling cigarettes, nuts, cold drinks, and candy – also mass produced – were equally common as the fruit and vegetable sellers. Approxi-

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mately 12 percent of the vendors sold newspapers and lottery tickets, and a small number of vendors sold independently produced goods such jewelry, clothing, and leather shoes. 6. The interest rates for loans made to micro-entrepreneurs are market rates and typically not subsidized. Moreover, because they are regarded as high-risk borrowers, micro-entrepreneurs pay higher interest rates than other commercial borrowers.

Volume 25 Number 1/2 2005 References

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