WIEGO E-NEWSLETTER
JANUARY-JUNE 2007
WIEGO TURNS TEN
2007 is a special year for WIEGO as it marks the 10th anniversary
of our founding.
In April1997, a group of ten experts on the informal economy - activists,
practitioners, researchers, and statisticians – met at the
Rockefeller Foundation Study and Conference Center in Bellagio,
Italy to discuss how to better support the working poor, especially
women, in the informal economy. That meeting gave "birth"
to the WIEGO network. Attached you will find our original vision
as articulated by Ela Bhatt of SEWA and our original conceptual
framework as summarized and depicted in a graph by William (Biff)
Steel.
In May 2007, the staff and Steering Committee of WIEGO, as well
as representatives of our core donors, met at the Rockefeller Center
in Bellagio to review and assess WIEGO’s first decade and
to plan WIEGO’s next decade. Among the 25 persons who met
at Bellagio in May 2007 were five of the original founders: Ela
Bhatt and Renana Jhabvala of the Self-Employed Women’s Association
(SEWA) in India, Jacques Charmes of the Institut de Recherché
pour le Developpement (IRD) in France, Marty Chen of Harvard University
in the USA, and William Steel of the University of Ghana in Ghana.
We feel fortunate to have been able to hold our founding meeting
at the Bellagio Center and to have been invited to return to the
Center on two occasions to renew our vision and to review our strategies:
in 2002, to mark our 5th anniversary and, again in 2007, to mark
our 10th anniversary. We would like to pay special thanks to the
Rockefeller Foundation for hosting us at their Center on these three
important occasions in WIEGO’s life cycle. There is little
doubt that the remarkable facilities of the Rockefeller Center,
the magical setting of the lake and mountains, and the extraordinary
quality of the surrounding light helped to inspire us and our deliberations.
We would also like to thank our core donors – the Ford Foundation,
the International Development Research Centre (IDRC), and the Swedish
International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida) – for
their sustained support to WIEGO. Without their core support and
encouragement, the WIEGO network would not have grown and flourished.
In preparing for the Retreat, we carried out an internal and external
assessment of our accomplishments, gaps, strengths, and weaknesses:
circulating feed-back survey questionnaires to our Members, all
Retreat participants, and selected outsiders. During our 10th Anniversary
Retreat at Bellagio, thanks to the feed-back we received and the
many background documents prepared by WIEGO staff, the WIEGO Steering
Committee was able to:
1. Re-affirm our original vision: to increase the visibility (through
research and
statistics) and voice (through organisation and representation)
of the working poor,
especially women, in the informal economy.
2. Assess our accomplishments and strengths, including:
• accomplishments: increased visibility and voice of the working
poor, especially
women, in the informal economy; re-conceptualization of the informal
economy,
improvement of statistics on informal employment; influence on policy
and
theoretical debates on labour markets and informal economy; formalization
and
registration of WIEGO network with Constitution, Members, and governance
structure; recruitment of effective staff and development of efficient
operational
structure; and
• strengths: clear direction and focus; bridging and building
on comparative strengths of three constituencies (membership-based
organisations of informal workers; researchers and statisticians;
staff of development agencies); diversity and scope of programme
activities; brand name recognition for research, statistical, and
policy work; flexibility and responsiveness of operations; leadership
of staff; growth and diversity of network membership; ability to
forge collaborations and partnerships
3. Assess our gaps and weaknesses, including:
• gaps: insufficient communication and outreach to membership-based
organisations (MBOs) of informal workers; in particular, limited
contact with cooperatives and other non-union forms of MBOs of informal
workers; lack of progress in compiling national statistics on specific
categories of informal workers; insufficient analysis of national
data on informal employment; insufficient dissemination of research
and statistical findings; need to prepare more and better case studies
of good practice examples
• weaknesses: under-staffed (full-time equivalent of only
5 persons); competing pressures on existing staff; uneven coverage
and contacts (geographically, types of institutions); insufficient
communication skills, including limited ability to deal in multiple
languages, translate materials into user-friendly formats for MBOs
of informal workers, and develop media strategy; limited staff time
and capacity to raise funds; dependence on fiscal sponsors (Tides
Center and Harvard University) for managing funds; insufficient
staff time and capacity for research and data analysis
4. Assess the future opportunities and threats facing:
• informal workers: threats to livelihoods of the working
poor from a) rapid
changes in skills, technology, and markets; b) risks and volatilities
associated with economic growth and trade liberalization; c) non-inclusive
planning models of the economy at large and cities in particular;
and d) increasing imbalance of power between large corporations
– especially multi-national corporations – micro-enterprises,
labour, and governments.
As Ela Bhatt of SEWA concluded: “The government bails out
large corporations and banks when they fail or are threatened by
global forces but no one shares the risks of the working poor.”
• organisations of informal workers: opportunities for organizing
given
a) increasing acceptance by the formal trade union movement of the
need to
organize the informal workforce; b) general acceptance of the need
for social dialogue and the right to inclusion and representation;
and c) internationalization of issue-based and labour-based movements.
Threats to organizing given a) poverty and isolation of informal
workers; b) weakness of membership-based organisations of informal
workers; c) weakness and/or elite-ism of formal trade unions; d)
corruption and backlash of government and private sector; and e)
anti-trade union and anti-labour regulation bias of mainstream economists.
• WIEGO: opportunities and threats facing informal workers
and their organisations
present new opportunities and threats to WIEGO; in addition, the
twin facts that “productive employment and decent work”
are now on the global agenda and that there is renewed interest
in the informal economy represent new opportunities (for collaboration
and influence) as well as new threats (of distortion or appropriation
of progress made over the past decade in rethinking and better measuring
informal employment).
5. Plan our future: key decisions taken included the following:
• programmes and activities: to continue our central and important
efforts to improve statistics and research on the informal economy;
to continue to serve as a key resource center, through our publications
and website, on the informal economy; to renew our focus on creating
networks of organisations of informal workers; to add a focus on
cooperatives and other non-union forms of organisation of informal
workers; to build a data base (or “observatory”) on
“urban policies and the urban informal economy” in addition
to the proposed data base on “laws and the informal economy”;
to add a focus on migration and migrant workers as a cross-cutting
theme and issue; to improve our communication and outreach, particularly
to membership-based organisations of informal workers
• staff capacity: to hire a full-time communication officer
and a part-time fundraising officer; to raise additional funds so
that our programme staff can work half-time, rather than quarter-time,
for WIEGO.
• operational structure: to explore possibility of independently
receiving and managing funds now that WIEGO is registered in the
UK; to increase our financial accountability by posting a financial
overview and annual statement of accounts on our website; and to
continue to explore different models of how best to organize our
staff and activities (two different matrix models were proposed
at the retreat).
For more details, please refer to the report of our 10th Anniversary
Retreat: email Marybeth_graves@harvard.edu for the Retreat report.
The final dinner of the Retreat was the occasion for a festive
celebration of WIEGO’s 10th anniversary. Francie Lund, our
resident chanteuse, was the mistress of ceremonies. Highlights included
the:
• recitation of new WIEGO limericks by Biff Steel (our resident
poet)
• recitation of a poetic salute to all Retreat participants
by Ylva Sorman-Nath of Sida
• telling of WIEGO jokes by Marty Chen, Jacques Charmes, and
Renana Jhabvala
• singing of WIEGO songs
The evening ended with a chain dance to the tune of our theme song
“WIE-GO, WIE-GO, it’s off to work we go, protecting
women all day long, WIEGO, WIEGO, WIEGO”. Attached you will
find Biff’s limericks, Ylva’s poem, and WIEGO songs.
To continue the discussions and build on the renewed commitment
and vision coming out of the Bellagio Retreat, we are planning a
small Research Retreat in July 2007 and a full Staff Retreat in
October 2007. By the end of the Staff Retreat, we hope to have finalized
our concrete plans for the next three years and our future organisational
structure.
Having assessed our progress over the past decade, it is fair to
say that WIEGO in 2007 exceeds the expectations of our founders
in 1997. The founders met to plan a collaborative project. The project
was to be implemented by a coalition of organisations and individuals
drawn from member-based organisations of informal workers, research
institutions, and international development agencies and governed
by a steering committee comprised of the founders plus selected
others (including representatives of homeworkers and street vendor
organisations). The project goals were to promote better statistical
accounting, better research, stronger organisations and alliances,
and supportive policies and programmes for women workers in the
informal economy. And the founders named the project “Women
in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing” (or WIEGO,
for short). In sum, many of the key features of WIEGO today were
part of the original plan. But our founders did not fully anticipate
that the WIEGO project would transform into the kind of global research
policy network that WIEGO is today: with nine programme staff based
in six different countries, programme activities in a dozen or more
countries at any given time, and 120 members drawn from our three
constituencies in some 30 countries around the world.
POLICE ATTACK ON STREET TRADERS IN DURBAN, SOUTH AFRICA
On June 18, 2007, there was a police attack on street traders in
Warwick Junction in eThekwini/ Durban city in South Africa. Our
colleagues in eThekwini/Durban who have worked closely with the
Warwick Junction project – Richard Dobson (founding director
of the project), Pat Horn (international coordinator of StreetNet),
and Caroline Skinner (professor at the University of KwaZulu Natal)
– are closely monitoring the situation. We will circulate
a full report shortly.
Many of you who participated in the WIEGO General Assembly in April
2006 or the SEWA-Cornell-WIEGO Exposure Dialogue Programme in March
2007 have had the opportunity to take a guided tour of Warwick Junction
and meet many of the street traders and the project officials. For
those of you who have not had this opportunity, the Warwick Junction
precinct is located on the edge of Durban’s inner city. In
1997, the new democratically elected city council launched an urban
renewal project in the area. This project has won a number of awards
and is arguably one of the best examples in South Africa of integrating
poor people into urban plans. The area contains a confluence of
rail, taxi and bus transport and is the primary transport node feeding
the inner city with an average of 400,000 commuters traveling through
the precinct every day. Given the high pedestrian numbers this area
has always been a natural market for street vendors. Under apartheid
informal trade was heavily controlled and it was only with deregulation
in the late 1980s and early 1990s that traders were allowed to operate.
Currently it is estimated that between 5,000 and 8,000 street vendors
operate in the precinct. The project initiated substantial capital
works - upgrading of public transport facilities, street lighting,
landscaping as well as facilities for street traders like a dedicated
market for traditional medicine (or muthi) sellers and facilities
for bovine head and corn on the cob (or mielie) sellers. The project
has been characterised by high levels of consultation. This has
lead to self regulation among those working informally in the area
particularly with respect to the managing of crime and cleanliness.
Further through this project the city was also piloting a new approach
to delivery – area based management.
WIEGO ACTIVITIES
China-India Comparative Research Project (February, April, and
May 2007)
In collaboration with IDS, Sussex, and teams of research individuals
and institutions in China and India, WIEGO is actively planning
a comparative research project on labour markets and informal employment,
including links with poverty and other social outcomes in the two
countries. China and India are now recognized as the drivers of
the Asian economy and, arguably, the global economy. However, in
both China and India, there are deep pockets of persistent poverty
and growing inequality. One way to understand persistent poverty
and growing inequality is to compare different regions within the
two countries. Another way is to compare how people earn their livelihoods,
as this research is designed to study, looking at the poverty risk
associated with different employment statuses or work arrangements.
The proposed comparative research would be carried out by existing
teams of researchers in both China and India, most of whom are members
of WIEGO. In the case of India, there is a relatively long-standing
network of researchers who work on the informal economy from the
Gujarat Institute of Development Research (Ahmedabad), the Institute
of Social Studies Trust (New Delhi), the National Council of Applied
Economics Research (New Delhi), and the Self-Employed Women’s
Association (Ahmedabad). The India team has brought out several
joint research publications and been successful in introducing modules
on urban and rural informal employment into the National Sample
Survey and in estimating the contributions of the informal economy
to GDP and to national savings.
In the case of China, Sarah Cook, formerly with the Ford Foundation’s
Beijing office and now with IDS, Sussex, has supported and networked
researchers from a range of groups in China including the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences (Beijing), Fudan University (Shanghai)
, the Migrant Workers Community College (Shenzhen), and the University
of Science and Technology (Hong Kong). Activities on informal employment
in China supported through Ford Foundation grants have brought together
researchers and policy makers (particularly from the Ministry of
Labour and Social Security) and officials from the National Bureau
of Statistics, as well as local government officials particularly
in Shanghai, to discuss emerging issues in this field.
In February 2007, a team of 16 Chinese researchers and government
officials visited India to learn about what Indian activists, researchers,
and statisticians have done to, respectively, organize, study, and
measure the informal workforce in India. The hosts in India included
the Institute of Social Studies Trust, the National Commission for
Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector, the National Council of Applied
Economic Research, and the Self-Employed Women’s Association
(SEWA). The 10-day visit concluded with a two-day preliminary research
design workshop in New Delhi at which the broad contours of the
proposed research project were agreed upon. Special thanks are due
to the Institute of Social Studies trust for coordinating and writing
a report of the visit. Email: Marybeth_graves@harvard.edu for the
report of the India visit, including the list of participants.
In April 2007, the Asia Center and Global Equity Initiative of
Harvard University sponsored and hosted a five-day research design
workshop at Harvard. Six members of each country team, as well as
six technical advisors, met for three days to plan the research
project. For two days, they were joined by academics and practitioners
from the Boston area for a research seminar. The seminar featured
presentations by the research teams and comments by expert discussants.
The teams decided on a multi-component project, including: technical
consultations and pilot surveys to improve data sources and methods;
analysis of existing and new national data; case studies of selected
sub-sectors or occupations in which there are large concentrations
of informal workers; documentation of good policies and practices;
and exchange visits between activists working with informal workers.
In May 2007, two members of the India research team who are well-known
experts on informal economy statistics - Dr. N.S. Sastry, the former
Director General of the National Sample Survey Organisation of India,
and Dr. Jeemol Unni, Professor at the Gujarat Institute for Development
Research and ILO-funded consultant to the National Commission on
Enterprises in the Unorganised Sector – visited China. This
was the first in, what is hoped will be, a series of technical consultations
between statisticians and researchers in China and India to improve
national data sources and methods in both countries. Special thanks
are due to Dr. Peng of Fudan University and Yao Yu of the Chinese
Academy of Social Sciences for arranging this visit.
Exposure Dialogue Programme in eThekwini/Durban, South Africa (March
19-23, 2007)
For the past three years, WIEGO has been involved in a series of
Exposures and Dialogues with SEWA and Cornell University. The basic
objective of this initiative is to promote a dialogue between mainstream
economists from Cornell University, activists from the Self-Employed
Women’s Association (SEWA), and researchers from the WIEGO
network around key assumptions of neo-classical economics –
and neo-liberal economic policies - which “trouble”
ground-level activists and researchers working on issues of employment
and labor. The hope is to deepen understanding on both sides of
certain key economic issues and to avoid the familiar stylized debates
between radical critics and neo-classical economists and to enter
into a serious dialogue.
Since the original Exposure Dialogue in January 2004, there have
been two further dialogues on the issues raised. The first was held
in October 2004 in Boston. This dialogue continued the discussion
of neo-classical assumptions re minimum wage interventions and international
trade but also opened a discussion on neo-classical assumptions
re the structure and dynamics of labor markets. A third technical
dialogue was held at Cornell University in Ithaca, New York in November
2006. This dialogue featured discussions on different models of
labour markets, different assumptions re interventions in labor
markets, and the pros and cons of “de-linking” social
protection from employment/labour markets.
In March 2007, a second Exposure followed by a fourth technical
Dialogue was held in eThekwini/Durban City in South Africa. The
participants in the Exposure included three Cornell economists,
one SEWA organizer, seven WIEGO researchers (including three from
the University of KwaZulu Natal), eight Zulu-speaking facilitators
(including students from the University of KwaZulu Natal), and seven
hosts (six working poor women from townships and villages in and
around Durban and one immigrant male barber from the Congo). The
group split into seven teams that each spent two days and two nights
with hosts and their families, working alongside them joining in
whatever work they did. The occupations of the hosts ranged from
making cement blocks, stitching clothes, making Zulu craft; growing
vegetables and raising poultry; cutting hair and trimming beards;
to selling newspapers and medicinal herbs (muthi). The technical
Dialogue after the Exposure focused on the problem of unemployment,
including barriers to informal self-employment, in South Africa
as well as what policies, services, and other interventions would
best support the livelihoods of the hosts.
A special highlight, timed to coincide with the Exposure Dialogue,
was the launch of an exhibition of photographs of informal producers
and traders in the eThekwini/Durban area, including the seven hosts,
specially commissioned by the Exposure Dialogue organizers.
Three Durban-based WIEGO Members planned and organized these events.
Imraan Valodia (University of KwaZulu Natal) and Thandiwe Zulu (ex-leader
of the former Self-Employed Women’s Union) organized the Exposure
Dialogue; Caroline Skinner (University of KwaZulu Natal) and Imraan
Valodia organized the photograph exhibition. Special thanks are
due to them for their meticulous and creative planning and organizing.
Policy Dialogue in Pretoria, South Africa (March 24, 2007)
Immediately after the Exposure-Dialogue in Durban, there was a policy
dialogue in Pretoria on “The Second Economy: Linkages between
the Formal and Informal Economies.” The “Second Economy”,
or more specifically the relationship between the so-called “First”
and “Second” economies, has become an important policy
issue in South Africa. The government’s Accelerated and Shared
Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) intends to “use
the leverage of the First Economy to address the Second Economy”.
The Policy Dialogue, co-organized by the Human Sciences Research
Council (HSRC), the School of Development Studies at the University
of KwaZulu Natal, and the Department of Trade and Industry in South
Africa, was arranged to take advantage of the presence in South
Africa of the international participants in the Exposure-Dialogue:
a high-level group of academics and practitioners from India, Philippines,
and the USA with expertise on the informal economy in those countries
and elsewhere. Over 20 senior South African policymakers participated
in the policy dialogue which featured a discussion on the linkages
between the formal and informal economies; presentations on the
experience in India of designing polices and programmes in support
of the informal workforce; and reflections from the South African
experience and perspectives. Special thanks to the organizers of
the policy dialogue. For the Agenda, List of Participants, and presentations
at the Policy Dialogue, please email Marybeth_graves@harvard.edu.
Membership-Based Organisations of the Poor Volume and Book Launches
One of the issues that emerged from the first SEWA-Cornell-WIEGO
Exposure Dialogue in January 2004 was the role of membership-based
organisations of the poor in achieving equitable growth and poverty
reduction. Thus, in January 2005, the Cornell-SEWA-WIEGO Exposure
and Dialogue Programme organized a conference on “Membership-Based
Organisations of the Poor (MBOPs)” which brought together
a group of development analysts and activists to discuss the role
of membership-based organisations of the poor in achieving equitable
growth and poverty reduction. The conference was preceded by an
exposure to the lives of individual members of SEWA who are themselves
involved in the organizing activities of this membership-based organisation
of the poor. Selected papers, from a larger set of papers submitted
in response to a “call for papers”, were presented at
the conference. These papers were published in a volume, edited
by Marty Chen, Renana Jhabvala, Ravi Kanbur, and Carol Richards,
by Routledge Press in May 2007.
The conference and the volume grew out of a conviction that membership-based
organisations of the poor - organisations whose governance structures
respond to the needs and aspirations of the poor because they are
accountable to their members - are central to achieving equitable
growth and poverty reduction. The literature on civil society organisations
generally focuses on non-governmental organisations, which are treated
as a broad category thought to cover all the ways that people get
together and act together. However, a membership-based organisation
(MBO) is to be distinguished from a conventional non-governmental
organisation (NGO) which, however well-intentioned, operates as
an outside entity that does not have a membership base. Also, membership-based
organizations of the poor are to be distinguished from other membership-based
organizations. Political parties are membership-based organisations
but are not exclusively concerned about the welfare of the poor.
Trade unions are membership- based, but only some of them are directly
concerned with advancing the cause of the working poor. Cooperatives
are classic membership-based organisations, but again not all of
them are poor focused, and some of them have elements of formal
contractual obligations that make them akin to private sector firms.
In June 2007, Ravi Kanbur (WIEGO Member; Cornell University) organized
two launches of the volume: one in Hyderabad, India, the other in
Rome, Italy. Renana Jhabvala (Chair, WIEGO Steering Committee; National
Coordinator of SEWA) and other contributing authors including one
WIEGO Member (Sally Roever of the University of Leiden) attended
the launch in Hyderabad, India. One of the contributing authors,
Eve Crowley of the International Fund for Agriculture Development,
hosted the launch in Rome, Italy. Other launches of the volume are
being planned in Columbia, South Africa, the UK, and the USA. Attached
you will find the publicity blurb by Routledge Press on the volume.
Special thanks are due to Ravi Kanbur for his leadership of this
initiative from start (call for papers) to finish (book launches).
Manual on Surveys of Informal Employment and Informal Sector
The ILO Statistics Bureau, the International Expert Group on Informal
Sector Statistics (the Delhi Group), and WIEGO are preparing a manual
on surveys of informal employment inside and outside the informal
sector. The manual – a technical and operational guide - is
primarily aimed at national statisticians responsible for designing
and administering labour force surveys and other surveys on economic
activity. It will also give users a better understanding of the
concepts underlying data in this area as well as the constraints
statisticians face in supplying data to meet their needs. Ralf Hussmanns
(ILO Bureau of Statistics) and Joann Vanek (Director, WIEGO Statistics)
are the editors. They are also writing chapters along with other
members of an international team, specifically: Jacques Charmes
(Founding Member, WIEGO Steering Committee; IRD of France); N.S.
Sastry (WIEGO Member; ex-NSSO of India); Rodrigo Negrete (a contributor
to the 2002 ILO publication, Women and Men in the Informal Economy
of INEGI, Mexico) and Vijay Verma of the University of Sienna. The
team met in May 2006 in New Delhi, India and in January 2007 in
Paris, France. The next meeting of the team will take place after
the meeting of the Delhi Group in early October 2007 in Geneva,
Switzerland. The Delhi Group meeting will focus on a review of draft
chapters for the manual and on how to integrate the informal sector
into the revised System of National Accounts. For the Table of Contents
of the Manual and the List of Contributors, please email Marybeth_graves@harvard.edu.
Planning for Project on the Development of a Framework that Links
Non-Standard Work in OECD countries and Informal Employment in Developing
Countries
Joann Vanek (Director, WIEGO Statistics) and James Heintz (Research
Coordinator, WIEGO Statistics; University of Massachusetts/Amherst)
are developing plans, including having technical consultations with
relevant experts, for this project. Activities related to this project
include:
• Joann Vanek attended the Joint UNECE-ILO-EUROSTT Seminar
on the “Quality of Work” in Geneva, Switzerland in April
2007 and commented on a paper by Statistics Netherlands.
• James Heintz and Francoise Carre (WIEGO Member; University
of Massachusetts/Boston) have started working on a case study of
precarious and non-standard employment, with a focus on employment
insecurity, in the USA for a project headed by Leah Vosko (York
University, Canada).
Planning for International Conference of Waste Collector Organisations
This conference, which will take place in Colombia in March 2008,
aims to a) facilitate the growth and development of regional and
international networks of membership-based
organizations of informal waste-collectors and b) improve understanding
of how informal waste collectors are inserted into the solid waste
management chain, and in society at large. The twelve members of
the Steering Committee, chaired by Chris Bonner (Director, WIEGO
Organisation and Representation), are from eight countries: Brazil,
Chile, Colombia, Egypt, India, Japan, Peru, and South Africa. Half
of them are representatives of local or national associations of
waste collectors; the others are from NGOs that work in support
of waste collectors.
Several members of the Steering Committee are also members of Collaborative
Working Group (CWG) which is one of the co-sponsors of the conference.
Pat Horn (International Coordinator, StreetNet, South Africa and
Member, WIEGO Steering Committee) and Renana Jhabvala (National
Coordinator, SEWA, India and Chair, WIEGO Steering Committee) are
technical advisors to this initiative.
RELATED ACTIVITIES AND EVENTS
Korean Street Vendors Confederation Conference (Seoul, South Korea,
June 12-14, 2007)
On behalf of both StreetNet International and WIEGO, Sharit Bhowmik
(Director, WIEGO Urban Policies) participated in a conference of
the Korean Street Vendors Confederation (KOSC) in Seoul, South Korea,
in mid-June 2007. Sharit gave a speech at the conference on StreetNet’s
international campaign on “World Class Cities for All”
and WIEGO’s policy framework of “Inclusive Planning
for the Working Poor”. His speech was circulated in advance
and some of the other speakers, including the President of the Democratic
Labour Party, referred to the campaign and framework (with due credit
to StreetNet International and WIEGO). Over 15,000 vendors participated
in the conference and marched to city hall, blocking traffic for
a few hours in the process. While there, Sharit Bhowmik met with
the Central Committee of KOSC to discuss the international situation
of street vendors and WIEGO's role in support of street vendors
and StreetNet International.
Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor: Meetings of the Working
Groups on Labour Rights and Business Environment (Geneva, Switzerland,
April 18-20, 2007)
The High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor (HLCLEP),
co-chaired by Hernando De Soto and Madeleine Albright, seeks to
generate new policy recommendations that will reduce poverty through
secure, enforceable property and labour rights, within an enabling
environment that expands legal business opportunity and access to
justice. It has four thematic working groups: on justice and the
rule of law, property rights, labour rights, and business environment.
Marty Chen (WIEGO Coordinator) was invited to serve on two of the
working groups: labour rights and legal empowerment of informal
enterprises. Victor Tokman (Member, WIEGO Steering Committee; ECLAC),
is also a member of the working group on labour rights. And Reema
Nanavaty (SEWA) and Sharit Bhowmik (Director, WIEGO Urban Policies)
were involved in a national consultation in India on the business
environment for informal enterprises. Both Working Groups that Marty
Chen serves on have met twice: once in October 06 (in Geneva and
Cairo, respectively) and, again, in April 07 (both in Geneva).
“Living on the Margins” Conference (Cape Town, South
Africa, March 26-28, 2007)
This international conference, co-organized by the Programme for
Land and Agrarian Studies (South Africa), the Isandla Institute
(South Africa), and the Chronic Poverty Research Center (UK), was
held in Cape Town in March 2007. The thematic focus of the conference
was vulnerability and social exclusion, including the role of the
state, in the informal economy. Francie Lund (Director, Social Protection),
who served on the organizing committee, ensured that the agenda
included a focus on labour markets, as well as spatial divides and
politics, as a source of vulnerability and social exclusion. Marty
Chen (Coordinator) gave a key note address; and James Heintz (Research
Coordinator, Statistics) prepared a paper (that Marty Chen presented
as James was not able to participate). Other WIEGO Members who gave
presentations at the conference included Donna Doane (HomeNet Philippines
and South East Asia), Ravi Kanbur (Cornell University), Caroline
Skinner (University of KwaZulu Natal) and Imraan Valodia (University
of KwaZulu Natal). For the Agenda of the conference and the presentation
by Marty Chen and paper by James Heintz, please email Marybeth_graves@harvard.edu.
25th. IUF Congress and IUF Women’s Conference (Geneva, Switzerland,
March 16-22, 2007)
The International Union of Food, Agricultural, Hotel, Restaurant,
Catering, Tobacco and Allied Workers' Associations (IUF) is an international
federation of trade unions representing workers employed in agriculture
production, food preparation, and hotel, restaurants, and catering
services. Founded in 1920 and based in Geneva, Switzerland, the
IUF is currently composed of 336 trade unions in 120 countries representing
a combined membership of over 12 million workers.
The IUF is one of sixteen Institutional Members of WIEGO. WIEGO
was invited to the 25th. IUF Congress and to the IUF Women’s
Conference that preceded it in March 2007. Representing WIEGO, Chris
Bonner (Director, WIEGO Organisation and Representation) was given
an opportunity to address the Congress and inform the delegates
about WIEGO. During the Congress, delegates from SEWA, Chris Bonner,
Karin Paper (WIEGO Regional Advisor, Europe), and Dan Gallin (Member,
WIEGO Steering and Management Committees) met with Sharan Burrow,
President of the International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)
who confirmed that organising in the informal economy is a priority
for ITUC.
5th. ISSA International Research Conference on Social Security
(Warsaw, Poland, March 4-7, 2007)
Every four years, the International Social Security Association
(ISSA) holds an international research conference for social security.
For its 5th international research conference, held in Warsaw, Poland
in March 2007, ISSA chose the theme “Social Security and the
Labour Market – a Mismatch?” and added for the first
time a focus on informal workers/labour markets. Francie Lund (Director,
WIEGO Social Protection) was asked to serve on the scientific planning
committee and played a central role in foregrounding informal workers/employment
into plenary and parallel sessions. Francie Lund gave a key note
address and chaired a session. Marty Chen (WIEGO Coordinator) chaired
and spoke in a session on social protection and the informal economy.
Marty Chen was also one of four participants asked to make summary
comments in the closing plenary. For the Agenda of the conference
as well as Francie Lund’s keynote address and Marty Chen’s
presentation, please email Marybeth_graves@harvard.edu.
United Nations Development Accounts Project: Interregional Cooperation
on the Measurement of Informal Sector and Informal Employment (based
at the Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP)
in Bangkok, Thailand)
Joann Vanek (Director, WIEGO Statistics) and James Heintz (Research
Coordinator, WIEGO Statistics) drafted a paper entitled “Employment,
the informal sector and poverty: data and analytic challenges”
which was used as basis for a project document entitled “Poverty
and the Informal Sector” for the meeting of the ESCAP Committee
on Poverty in Bangkok in late-2006. Joann Vanek serves on the Advisory
Committee for this project and has participated in several teleconference
calls and a meeting (New York, March 2007) of the Advisory Committee.
Marty Chen (WIEGO Coordinator) had a lunch meeting with the director
and staff of the project in Bangkok in early February 2007.
UNECE-World Bank Manual on Developing Gender Statistics
Joann Vanek (Director, WIEGO Statistics) wrote two sections of the
manual relating to WIEGO concerns: an overview for the section on
employment statistics and the section on informal employment. She
also attended a meeting of the UNECE Task Force on Gender Sensitization
Training for Statisticians at FAO in Rome, Italy in early February
2007.
WIEGO TRANSITIONS
There have been several important transitions within WIEGO during
the first half of 2007:
WIEGO Registration
At our 5th anniversary Retreat at Bellagio, our Steering Committee
decided that the WIEGO network should formalize by adopting a Constitution,
inviting individuals and membership-based organisations (MBOs) of
informal workers to become Members, and registering as a non-profit
organisation. The Steering Committee ratified our Constitution in
October 2005 and set up a) a Transition Committee to review which
individuals and MBOs affiliated with WIEGO met the criteria of membership
and to issue invitations and b) an interim Nominating Committee
to solicit nominations from the membership for a new Steering Committee.
At our General Assembly in eThekwini/Durban in April 2006, key provisions
of our Constitution were formally instituted: the membership met
in constituency sub-groups, elected candidates for the next Nominating
Committee, and reviewed WIEGO’s activities, plans, and budget.
Also, the old and new Steering Committees met before and after,
respectively, the General Assembly.
The last step in the formalization process was to register as a
non-profit organisation. After looking into where and how to register,
we decided to register in the UK. Dave Spooner (Member, Steering
Committee) and Elaine Jones (Director, Global Markets), both based
in the UK, helped us find a lawyer and take the various other steps
to legal registration in the UK. We are pleased to announce that,
in June 2007, WIEGO was registered as a Company Limited by Guarantee
with Charity Status in the UK.
WIEGO Staff
Marais Canali – We are sad to announce that Marais Canali
was offered a job at the Harvard Business School (HBS) that “she
could not refuse”: to work with the HBS team that is organizing
events in celebration of its 100th anniversary. Marais worked with
WIEGO from late 2001 to mid-2007: more than half of our lifetime.
She started as an administrative assistant and ended up managing
WIEGO’s website, e-newsletter, and communication with our
members. Marais Canali began her new job in early June. We will
miss Marais’ go-getting spirit, her spunky humour, and her
institutional memory of WIEGO. But we are comforted by the fact
that she is “around the corner” – or, more precisely,
across the Charles River - so we can call on her when we can’t
find a document or remember a name. We plan to recruit a full-time
professional communication officer to replace Marais within the
next few months. Please join us in wishing Marais all the best in
her new job.
Karin Pape -We are pleased to announce that Karin Pape, of the
Global Labour Institute in Geneva, Switzerland, has joined WIEGO
staff as a part-time Regional Adviser for Europe. An economist by
training, Karin has been a works council member at Jacobs Kaffee
(now Kraft Foods) in Bremen, Germany; an activist in the German
Food and Allied Workers’ Union (NGG); and an international
consultant on projects relating to industrial relations and informal
workers in Germany, Russia, and South East Asia. Since 2002, Karin
has worked on issues of informal employment at the Global Labour
Institute with a special focus on homework. Please join us in welcoming
Karin to the
WIEGO staff.
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