NIMBLE COMMERCE


NIMBLE COMMERCE

Street vendor lays out his merchandise at a bus stop around the Mexico roundabout. He looks to instigate impulsive purchases from pedestrians through a shifting marketplace. The Addis Abeba Trade Bureau is drafting regulations that restrict the type of products sold by street vendors. High levels of urban unemployment fueled in part by elevated rural-urban migrations contribute to the thriving informal sector. Recent estimates of the informal sector are around t 69pc in the capital compared to the national average, which lies below 15pc.While the term informal often sparks a raised eyebrow a majority of the economic activity in urban areas in developing countries is conducted through such channels. The informal sector currently accounts for over half the global employment, involving an estimated 1.8 billion people as compared to the 1.2 billion of the formal sector according to data from the International Labor Organization(ILO).

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In-Picture

WAITING HOOVES

A donkey “parking lot” along Dejazmach Mekonin Demisaw Street in Sebategna, Mercato, hosts a patient line of beasts ready for their next load. Each animal seems to carry more than goods, they bear memories of an era when hooves, not wheels, ruled the streets. Passersby rush past in the busy market, half-smiling, half-reflecting, as the scene whispers stories of grit, patience, and the slow rhythm of life that machines have since hurried past. Somewhere between nostalgia and necessity, these...


In-Picture

CROOKED PASSAGE

A once newly structured railway fence leans over to the side to let passersby have a way to cross the street rather than walking to a Zebra crossing, hinting at urban ingenuity, or stubborn shortcuts, where everyday life finds its own paths, no matter how crooked. In its sagging frame, the fence tells a story of compromise between order and habit, of city planning meeting human impatience. It is a small rebellion against rigid design, a reminder that the pulse of the city often beats in the spac...


In-Picture

CONTROLLED RUIN

A construction worker, headset firmly in place, pushes a concrete cutter along Ras Desta Damtew Street near Addis Abeba Stadium, carving a trench for new underground cables. The machine tears into otherwise smooth asphalt, leaving a temporary scar on a well-served road. Pedestrians flinch at the grinding noise, drivers sigh, yet beneath the disruption, silent wires quietly stitch the city's connectivity together also hinting the unpredictable plan changes of the city design...