As part of its mission, ITCILO provides participants with practical tools and approaches to promote the transition of informal entrepreneurs and own-account workers to formality, at local/community level with a view to improve, through a rights-based approach, productivity, income and protection for this important segment of society. The Road to Informal Economy game is part of a training package for ILO Tripartite constituents and other stakeholders such as business development service providers, local business communities, social solidarity associations, and other private enablers.

Informality is a broad and complex phenomenon that covers diverse situations and manifests itself in different ways across countries and levels of economic and institutional development. There is no standard path that can be followed.

The motivation behind the development of this board game is to involve participants of the face-to-face training course in playing a game-based assessment where they are asked to review the training content through team collaboration and competition.

The Road to Formalization game illustrates, through game-based dynamiques, the challenges and opportunities that could be faced by different Informal Economy actors while trying to achieve formalization. Players are divided into different teams playing the role of an Informal Economy actor, thus enriching the game with multiple perspectives. The road to formalization presents challenges in form of “falling rocks” and opportunities in form of “bridges”. It is up to the different teams to handle the different situations and achieve the end of the path.