1. Economic Activity and Energy
Key Idea 4.3
Informal Employment
Economic Activity and Energy
Informal Sector
Lesson 4 of 4

2. Lesson Objectives Describe how sectoral balance has changed over time
Use of a CS of sectoral shift in one HIC and one LIC
Explain the causes of informal employment and its characteristics.

3. Development Pathway Presentations
Grade criteria
Group peer assessment
Whole class peer assessment
Extended writing task
“With reference to named examples, explain
how the development pathway can enable
countries to become wealthy and why this isn't
the case for Low Income Countries”. (20 marks)

5. Life Working in the Informal Economy of Colombia
Story Time…
Life Working in the Informal Economy of Colombia

6. These are two men involved in the informal economy of Colombia
These are two men involved in the informal economy of Colombia. The man on the left owns the cart and runs the operation, the one on the right is his employee who goes out into the streets and sells coffee and beverages.

7. How would you define the Informal Sector?
Types of work that are not officially recognised and are taken up by people working for themselves on streets of LIC cities.

8. Causes of the Informal Sector
With the person next to you, discuss what you think are the reasons for the causes of the informal sector.
Refer to page 98 for help.

9. Create a table to show the costs and benefits of the Informal Sector

10. Main Task
Write a letter to a government minister outlining the problems and abuses of informal employment. Complete for Homework

11. Is child labour a bad thing?
In one of the first films on the ‘other side’ of the debate, award-winning journalist Ron McCullagh reveals that for many children “child labour” is the best hope they’ve got of escaping absolute poverty. Titu is fourteen and he’s worked for over half his life. He works in a hot and fume-filled battery factory in Dhaka, an unhealthy place for any worker let alone a child. Yet with his earnings Titu pays for a tutor, school books and part of the rent for his family home. He works, he tells us, because he wants to get a good job and make sure his children will have a better childhood than the one he is experiencing.