Lusaka, Zambia
"Social protection is about providing for those in society unable to provide for themselves, the poor, the incapacitated, the unemployed, those not supposed to work such as children and women during maternity. Social protection thus deals with life's contingencies and provides a floor or safety net to keep people from falling into poverty." (FES Zambia, 2013)
While informal workers should have the same benefits/rights or legal and social protection as formal workers, more often than not, workers in the informal economy either have no access to social protection or are inadequately protected.
FES-Zambia, WIEGO and The African Regional Organisation of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC-Africa/ALRN) organised a Rights-Based Social Protection Workshop in Lusaka, Zambia from October 8-10, 2018.
The primary objectives of this workshop were to:
- Share experiences of negotiating for workers' social protection as membership-based organisations (MBOs) of informal workers and trade unions of formal workers
- Strategize on how to take up work-related social protection in countries as a joint struggle of all workers in the formal and informal economy
- Develop negotiation skills for multi-level negotiations among ourselves as formal and informal workers and with policy decision makers in our countries
- Begin the process of documenting what is happening around social protection for workers in Africa
Laura Alfers, Director-Social Protection Programme; Vanessa Pillay, ORP Programme Officer; Pamhidzai Bamu (PhD), Law Programme Regional Co-ordinator (Africa); and Cyrus Ashfar, Social Protection Programme Officer represented WIEGO at this activity.
More information
Learn more about WIEGO's Social Protection Programme