In this month, we will dive into the topic of universal basic income, or UBI. In South Africa, the government has recently announced the intention of implementing this policy in the country, which was regarded as a very important step. To help us understand more about universal basic income, its debates and how it is taking in the South African context, we invited Isobel Frye. Isobel is the director of the Studies in Poverty and Inequality Institute, she is also a commissioner at National...

In this month, we go back to the ground to understand how the livelihoods of informal workers are being affected in two of the countries in Latin America most hit in the region by the Covid-19 crisis: Mexico and Peru. We invited two guests who are working closely with informal workers. From Mexico, Tania Espinoza, Mexico City Focal City Coordinator at WIEGO. And from Peru, we bring Carmen Roca, Lima Focal City Coordinator, also from WIEGO. They will analyse the main challenges on the...

En este mes, volvemos al terreno para comprender cómo se están afectando los medios de vida de los trabajadores del sector informal en dos de los países de América Latina más afectados en la región por la crisis de Covid-19: México y Perú. Invitamos a dos especialistas que están trabajando estrechamente con los trabajadores informales. De México, Tania Espinoza, Coordinadora de la Ciudad Focal de la Ciudad de México en WIEGO. Y de Perú, traemos a Carmen Roca, Coordinadora de la Ciudad Focal...

And in this episode, we bring you the third and last part of the especial mini-series on social protection for informal workers in the context of the Covid-19 global pandemic. We will look more closely on how governments around the world are responding to the global crisis in order to address to the urgent social protection needs of vulnerable people, in particular, informal workers. To help us understand the main challenges and concrete issues policy makers are facing as the first...

In this second episode of the mini-series, we will hear the concrete impact on the lives of informal workers in cities around the world, with brief updates from the ground from WIEGO team members who work closely with informal workers. We also bring the account from two workers leaders themselves, on how the lockdown is affecting their lives and those of their comrades. I talked to 11 people from 9 cities around the world. From Delhi, India, to Portland, United States, passing through...

In this month, we start a especial mini-series on social protection for informal workers in the context of the Covid-19 global pandemic. This global health crisis has brought many countries, cities and states to a halt, as authorities try to slow down the spread and “flatten the curve”.This unprecedented lockdown has also deep social and economic consequences, and impact the lives of billions of workers. In this opening episode of the series, we invite Sally Roever to discuss how this health...

In this International Women’s Day episode we will discuss a very important topic for women informal workers: child care. As women are most often the primary responsible for looking after their children, without quality child care services, they either have to forgo paid work or are less productive because they have watch their children while trying to work. Child care is vital, especially in the poorest households, as the earnings of women informal workers often represent a large share of one...

In the first episode of the year we will discuss numbers! Statistics are a powerful tool to shed light on the informal economy, and to make informal workers visible in policy arenas. In order to help us understand better the linkages between social protection and statistics, the challenges, limitations and the most recent research on the field we invite two special guests: Françoise Carré and Francie Lund. Françoise is the WIEGO’s Statistics Programme Director, and Research Director at the...

In this episode, we invited Christina Behrendt. Christina, head of the Social Policy Unit at the ILO, to talk about the relations between the Future of Work and the challenges to extend social protection to the so-called “missing middle”, the informal economy workers. We discussed how policies to provide social protection to informal workers can help the debate around forms of work associated to the so-called gig economy, and whether universal basic income might offer an alternative to this...

Dans cet épisode, nous vous apportons un entretien avec Komi Kessouagni. Komi est le Coordinateur du Point Focal Régional StreetNet pour l'Afrique de l'Ouest et du Centre. On a parlé sur les défis des travailleurs informels au Togo pour avoir l’accès à la protection social, aussi bien comme les initiatives des travailleurs eux-mêmes, pour offrir des services de soins à ceux qui ne sont pas couvert par l’état, à travers de la création de mutuelles de santé géré par les travailleurs. Note...

In this episode, we bring you an interview with Liliane Napoe, of the Danish Trade Union Development Agency. Liliane is the International Adviser and Head of the West African sub-regional office, based in Lomé, where she has been supporting informal workers in their effort to expand social protection and in their attempt to form a coalition to push for social rights for informal workers. We talked about the struggle of informal workers in Togo to have access to social protection, the latest...

In this month, WIEGO’s Social Protection programme director, Laura Alfers, was in Thailand for the Association of South East Asian Nations People’s Forum, or ASEAN People’s Forum for short, where civil society organizations representatives have gathered, in Bangkok, to prepare for the ASEAN Summit that will happen from 31st of October to November 4th also in Thailand. The regional network of home-based workers, HomeNet South East Asia hosted an event at the People's Forum on their new...

In 2015, the ILO’s International Labour Conference adopted the Recommendation about the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy, the R204. To help us understand what is the R204, what is the importance of it, what has been done until now and the challenges ahead, we will talk to Jane Barrett Jane is WIEGO’s Organization and Representation programme director and she has been leading the R204 process at WIEGO in South Africa. Resources • WIEGO’s perspective on “Formalizing the...

Who should bear the main burden of social service: is it the state, the private sector, NGOs, communities or individuals? This is a very complex discussion, so central to questions of rising inequality. In order to contribute to this debate, Laura Alfers has published a paper for the UNRISD Conference “Overcoming Inequalities in a Fractured World: Between Elite Power and Social Mobilization”, which took place in Geneva, last November. Laura’s paper is concerned with how informal workers’...

La violencia y el acoso en el lugar de trabajo afectan a muchos trabajadores en todo el mundo, especialmente a las mujeres. Es un fenómeno tan generalizado que se incluyó en el orden del día de la próxima conferencia internacional del trabajo, que tendrá lugar en los próximos días en ginebra, donde la cuestión será objeto de una segunda ronda de debates, con vistas a la adopción de un convenio de la OIT. Es importante tener en cuenta que la violencia y el acoso en el lugar de trabajo también...

Violence and harassment at the workplace affect many workers all over the world, especially women. It is such a pervasive phenomenon that it was included in the agenda of the next International Labour Conference, which will take place the coming days in Geneva, where the issue will be up for a second round of discussions, with a view to the adoption of an ILO convention. It is important to bear in mind that violence and harassment at the workplace also affect in distinct ways different...

Child care is often regarded as part of the education policy, centred around early childhood care and development. But child care is also the provision of a service that has a close relation to social protection and women economic empowerment. Informal women workers' low earnings mean they work long hours to secure their family livelihood, often times leaving little time for them to care for children living in their households. But children require care, and without the provision of...

Em abril é comemorado o Dia Mundial Da Saúde e o Dia Mundial da Saúde do Trabalhador. Para marcar essas datas, este episódio irá discutir uma questão muito importante: saúde e segurança no trabalho. As medidas de saúde e segurança no trabalho desempenham um papel importante na qualidade de vida dos trabalhadores e na sua capacidade de garantir meios de vida estáveis e sustentáveis. E isso é ainda mais crucial para os trabalhadores informais, muitas vezes deixados de fora das regulamentações...

On April 7th is celebrated the World Health Day. In order to mark this date, this episode will discuss a very important issue: occupational, health and safety. Health and safety measures at work play an important role on workers quality of life, and their capacity of having a steady and sustainable livelihood. And this is even more crucial for informal workers, often left out of regulations that assure them a safe work environment. It was thinking about this questions that the Cuidar Project...

March is the month when the international women’s day is celebrated across the world. And it is also when the United Nations commission on the status of women, CSW, holds its annual session, in New York. And this year, the chosen priority theme is: “Social Protection Systems, Access to Public Services and Sustainable Infrastructure for Gender Equality and the Empowerment of Women and Girls”. To help us understand more about this topic and talk about the linkages between social protection,...

And in this opening episode, we will discuss some of the more fundamental and general issues about social protection and informal employment. Having access to social protection is crucial to shelter workers against risks to their incomes and help them cope after an event or shock. Informal workers are one of the most vulnerable working group, but are often left out of the reach of social protection systems. To talk about the linkages between social protection and informal employment we...

Globally, 2 billion people work in the informal economy. This means that 61% of workers rely on work that offers little pay and few protections. Women informal workers, such as domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors and waste pickers are at the base of the economic pyramid with the highest risk of poverty. Public policies and social protection schemes often do not consider these workers, leaving them vulnerable to income losses and struggling to cope after an event or shock....