For each of its five work programme areas, WIEGO commissions issues papers to identify programme, research and policy priorities. It then convenes workshops of grassroots, research and policy actors. Collaborating institutions and individuals undertake component activities.

• Urban Policies
  The WIEGO Urban Policies Programme works to correct the public policy bias against street vendors and establish their right to vend. The programme also works to improve services for street vendors and helps them to organize themselves and present their concerns to city planners.
  
  
• Global Markets
  The Global Markets Programme analyzes the impact of globalization and trade liberalization on women workers and producers, particularly home-based workers, to highlight where threats can be minimized and new economic opportunities seized.
  
  
• Social Protection
  Recognizing that most informal sector workers have no access to social protection systems, WIEGO's programme promotes innovative approaches, such as micro-finance, to provide social protection to women workers in the informal sector.
  
  
• Organization and Representation
  WIEGO works with grass roots organizations and international networks of informal workers, such as Home Net and StreetNet to strengthen organizing capacity and and to increase the visibility and voice of women in the informal economy. WIEGO also works with international trade union organizations and tries to put informal sector workers on the agenda of governments and international organizations.
  
  
• Statistics
  WIEGO has been working closely with the United Nations Statistics Division and ILO Bureau of Statistics on this programme. It sponsored the preparation of papers for the international Expert Group on Informal Sector Statistics and commissioned the report on "Informal Sector, Poverty and Gender" for the World Development Report (2000). It is also working with the Economic Commission for Africa to produce estimates of the informal sector for national accounts in African countries. It works with SEWA on a project to estimate the size and economic contribution of the informal sector in India and with national statistical institutes in Africa, Asia and Latin America.