A Year in Street Vendor Trends, and What To Watch in 2025

Climate change impacts threaten street vendor livelihoods

2024 was the hottest year on record. As outdoor workers, street vendors experience some of the harshest impacts of climate change. This year, street vendors from scorching Delhi, India, to the historically temperate Portland, USA were impacted by extreme heat. In India, the National Hawkers Federation partnered with Greenpeace to assess heat impacts on vendors, spotlighting severe impacts on vendors’ health and earnings. WIEGO and allies called for the inclusion of street vendors in heat action plans and climate preparedness.

In southern Brazil, devastating floods displaced hundreds of thousands of people, killed hundreds and destroyed infrastructure. StreetNet affiliate UNICAB estimated that 3000 street vendors were impacted in the city of Porto Alegre alone.

At the same time, membership-based organizations (MBOs) of workers in informal employment innovated to protect their members. The Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), for example, developed Extreme Heat Income Insurance that automatically compensates workers for income loss when temperatures reach over 40 degrees celsius.

High-profile, violent eviction campaigns continue in some African cities

Street vendors in African cities have long been subject to large-scale evictions, often driven by high-profile politicians, notably  “Operation Clean Sweep” in Johannesburg in 2013, and  “Make Accra Work Again/Clean Your Frontage” in 2022.

In 2024 this trend continued. In Abidjan, in advance of the African Cup of Nations and in the name of “cleaning up the city,” the governor launched the “Brigade to Fight Urban Disorder.” Itinerant trade was banned and armed forces were used to clear vendors, with many incidents of police brutality.

Street traders in Zimbabwe have long faced particularly acute and relentless harassment. In 2024 the government initiated a new round of evictions, with street trading being banned across both rural and urban areas in a coordinated campaign. StreetNet’s affiliate, the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Association, said their members were left ‘traumatized’.

Street vendors in the Global North see the reversal of past gains

In the United States, street vendors have been subjected to new bans and punitive actions. In New York City, vending enforcement was largely suspended during the pandemic, and vendors  secured a victory – a lift on the cap on licenses. However, in 2024, despite commitments to remove the police department from vending enforcement, police were once again evicting vendors. Ticketing now exceeds pre-pandemic levels. In November 2024, voters approved measures to expand enforcement, signaling a likely intensification of harassment in 2025. Similar rollbacks were evident in Californian cities. Across the United States the news reflects multiple incidents of assault against street vendors, likely related to rising anti-immigrant sentiment.

Corporations continue to leverage self-employed street vendors for distribution

Corporations have long benefitted from street vendors’ access to low-income customers and hard to reach local markets. Nestlé, Coca Cola and Unilever are just a few of the companies who use street vendors as ‘last mile’ distributors, downloading risks, but not providing support or social protections. This year, analysis of street vendor news revealed a continuation of this trend, as well as the use of street vendors in corporate advertising through the provision of branded products like umbrellas and carts. In Ghana, FanMilk launched an “academy” for thousands of vendors involved in the sale of their products, ostensibly to support them in becoming independent business owners.

New efforts to limit and tax vendors

Ten years ago, Bangkok initiated a street vendor ban that destabilized both household and entire neighborhood economies. In 2024, the Bangkok Municipal Authority introduced new measures to limit street vending – requiring that all vendors and their assistants be Thai nationals and earn no more than 300,000 (+-USD 9000) Baht annually. Vendors must also prove they are paying taxes on their income.The effort is both anti-vendor and anti-immigrant, and has the potential to become a reference point for other cities in the region.

In the post pandemic era, there is an intensified focus on taxing the informal sector, with market traders and street vendors a key target for tax authorities. For example, the African Caucus of the IMF and World Bank called on African governments’ to “enhance domestic

resource mobilization” by “formalizing the informal economy.” Many African governments have  introduced new taxes on mobile money. WIEGO research however suggests that informal sector operators already pay a range of taxes and fees. Research in Ghana, shows that tax burdens fall disproportionately on market traders and street vendors and low income earners.

Street vendor power combats punitive measures

This year, in the face of polycrises – climate, cost of living and harsh governance – organized street vendors exercised their power and secured important gains. Multiple street vendor evictions were reversed after vendors mobilized to engage in collective action. For example, in Brasilia, street vendors joined hands with allies from other social movements to successfully reverse a street vending ban at a popular Sunday market.

For vendors in the Comas district of Lima, Peru, 2024 started with a devastating overnight eviction. Their vending spaces were destroyed and street and sidewalk infrastructure  was bulldozed, making it impossible for vendors to return. Street vendors responded with a massive mobilization, which generated significant media attention. They succeeded in deterring the municipality from the continued use of violent tactics.

In Casablanca, Morocco, street vendors formed an organized resistance movement called “No to the liberation of the public domain without alternatives” after a major effort to evict vendors and restructure markets in the city.

Street vendors from San Diego, USA to Cali, Colombia filed individual lawsuits against eviction. In Colombia, this lawsuit was successful, resulting in a constitutional court ruling that established the right to work for street vendors as a higher-order priority than the protection of public space alone, with potentially far-reaching implications for street vendor evictions in the future.

What to look out for in 2025

Without government action to protect street vendors during and after extreme weather events, vendors will continue to be impacted by the changing climate, especially extreme heat and flooding. In addition to long-standing street vendor demands around infrastructure upgrades, SEWA’s heat insurance provides one innovative model for protecting livelihoods.

Trump’s victory in the United States will likely empower and inspire right-wing politicians globally, including at the local level. Evictions driven by strongmen politicians seeking a platform to show their power and authority may well intensify. Street vendors across geographies need to prepare for continued repression, sectarian measures and a willingness by governments to invisibilize the poorest communities by means of “cleanup” campaigns. Alongside these political trends, climate events, armed conflicts and the increasing use of artificial intelligence threaten economic volatility, loss of jobs and increased migration, all of which could impact on the size of the sector and working conditions.

However, as 2024 showed, street vendors are organized in cities all over the world and they are growing increasingly strong as an international movement through StreetNet International. The ability of street vendors to resist increased threats will be strengthened by joining forces with environmental, women’s rights and pro-democracy groups, as well as other labour movements. Street vendors are increasingly experimenting with bottom-up approaches to formalization, such as social and solidarity economy alternatives. Through organising and innovating, street vendors can increase their leverage and disrupt the troubling trends we saw impacting street vendors in 2024.