Urban Development and Employment in Abidjan.

Abstract

The city of Abidjan in the Ivory Coast has grown physically economically and demographically at rates exceeding all reasonable expectation. Yet as in many other development nations the employment generated by Abidjans rapid economic expansion has failed to keep pace with the increase in working population it has attracted. Consequently economic success has been accompanied by a variety of social strains. Some of these have been discussed in earlier issues of the International Labour Review by Louis Roussel. This discussion expands on Roussels earlier treatment by focusing more specifically on several facets of the urban employment problem created by the rapid growth of Abidjan. Attention is directed to labor supply and employment factors affecting migration foreign Africans in the Ivory Coast labor force; the urban informal sector; urban infrastructure and development; social problems of population pressure; employment policy options (current government policies and other policy options); and general issues and policy alternatives (motivations for rural urban migration smaller urban centers as alternative growth poles and distributing the gains from development). Several essential features of the employment problem stem from the rural urban distribution of the workforce. The rural labor force including temporary seasonal workers from the savannah countries to the north remains more or less in balance with increasing rural employment opportunities since the migration of Ivory Coast nationals to the cities is balanced by the inflow of foreign workers. In contrast the influx of migrants into urban areas has led to a more rapid increase in the urban labor force than in urban employment with a consequent rise in unemployment. In 1970 the Abidjan rate of open unemployment was probably around 20%. At this time most peoples idea of a desirable job is one in the formal sector of the urban economy. If there is to be any hope of an eventual balance between expectations and reality it must be realized that an increasing share of the urban labor force will have to end up in the informal sector. Different attitudes towards work in the informal sector are needed on the part of both young people entering the labor force and of government policy makers. The latter should be seeking ways to increase productivity and incomes in the informal sector rather than for ways to destroy it. Current government policies include the training and educating of nationals to replace foreign technicians and managers increasing the attractiveness of the rural milieu by the promotion of cooperatives attempts to reform the land tenure system the supply of electricity to villages and the introduction of educational television; and adapting the educational system and technical training programs to the needs of the economy.