Infrastructure, citizenship and informal vendors’ (non)access to state support during COVID-19 in Accra, Ghana

Abstract

The COVID-19 pandemic disproportionately affected informal workers in the global South, including market and street vendors, who faced severe income losses during the crisis. In some contexts, governments moved to support vulnerable populations, particularly those whose livelihoods were gravely affected by restrictions introduced to stop the virus. In Ghana, the government introduced support schemes that officially included informal vendors. However, based on qualitative research in Accra, this paper reveals a stark disconnect between policy intent and market and street vendors’ lived experiences of accessing state support. Drawing on the concepts of infrastructural citizenship and grey space, we argue that informal vendors’ exclusion from relief was rooted in long-standing state neglect, particularly the marginalisation of these groups from public infrastructure. Despite this neglect, most vendors complied with state-imposed restrictions, relying on self-made infrastructural solutions and social networks. We conceptualise these practices as forms of ordinary citizenship, rooted in everyday acts of survival and belonging, yet embedded within broader structures of social order. The pandemic, however, exposed the limitations of vendors’ social collaboration under the weight of a widespread crisis. This underscores the importance of the state in redistributing resources and providing public goods to vulnerable groups, especially in times of emergency.