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WIEGO Newsletter

Volume XI
July - December 2008

For the full-color pdf version with photo in English: please click here
(1 MB)

WEB PAGE VERSION:

Highlights | Programme Headlines
General Activities | Expanded WIEGO
Publications | Presentations


“Recession has hit the entire world. Wherever we go everybody is talking about it and each and every trade is affected by it. Recession is like a disease, how then can these workers remain unaffected by it?

Ranjanben Ashokbhai Parmar is an old member of SEWA. When I visited her house recently, she started to cry: “Who sent this recession! Why did they send it?” I was actually speechless. Her situation is very bad, her husband is sick, she has 5 children, they stay in a rented house, she has to spend on the treatment of her husband and she is the main earner in the family. When she goes to collect scrap she takes her little daughter along, while her husband sits at home and makes bundles of wooden ice-cream spoons, from which he can earn not more than 10 rupees a day. How can they make ends meet?”

Manali Shah
SEWA Union

Since the last WIEGO e-newsletter, the global financial-turned-economic crisis has affected all parts of the world. It is having severe impacts on the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy who are the focus of WIEGO’s concern and work. We therefore start this newsletter on this theme.

There is a common misconception that the informal economy thrives during economic crises.   While it is the case that employment in the informal economy tends to expand during economic downturns, this does not mean that the informal economy necessarily thrives. In fact, economic downturns often affect the informal economy in the same ways as they affect the formal economy.  Much like formal firms and workers, informal firms and workers are affected by the drop in demand, fall in prices, and fluctuations in exchange rates associated with economic crises. The main difference is that informal firms and informal wage workers have no cushion to fall back on and, therefore, no option but to keep operating or working.  As once-formal workers or once-unemployed persons crowd into the informal economy, the net result is that more-and-more firms and workers begin competing for smaller-and-smaller slivers of a shrinking (informal) pie.

With its members and partners, WIEGO has begun tracking the impact of the current global economic crisis on the informal economy: especially on the working poor at the “bottom of the (global economic) pyramid”.   The first sector in which we saw a marked drop in demand and prices was the waste recycling sector.  It is estimated that 1-2 per cent of the urban population of the world lives off collecting and recycling paper, cardboard, plastic, glass, and metal waste.  Many of the waste pickers who do the primary collection and sorting earn very little: many of them are women and children.  There has been a significant downturn in the market and prices for recyclable waste around the world, beginning in September or October 2008.   An article in the New York Times dated December 7, 2008 highlighted the situation with the headline “trash has crashed”.

Much of the drop in demand can be traced to China. As the demand for its exported goods fell, China cut back on its export manufacturing and, therefore, its demand for raw materials and packing materials.  The drop in demand for waste from China and other countries means that those who live off picking, sorting, and recycling waste materials have seen their incomes plummet.  It also means that waste is stockpiling by the ton in junkyards, warehouses, and harbors.  It also means that more waste will go directly to landfills, dumpsites, or incinerators without being sorted for materials that can be recycled.  There are, that is, significant employment and environmental impacts of the downturn in the global waste recycling sector.

Other groups in the informal economy who have been affected by the global economic crisis include:

For more details, please refer to the WIEGO website and to the soon-to-be launched website for the new Inclusive Cities project described below. As WIEGO and our partners collect more information on the impact of the economic crisis on the working poor, we will regularly update both websites.

HIGHLIGHTS

Inclusive Cities for the Working Poor
In October 2008, WIEGO and several partner organizations received funding for a global project called Inclusive Cities for the Working Poor. This global project aims to improve the livelihoods of urban working poor, notably home-based producers, street vendors, and waste pickers. While numerous, these workers have very little representation or “voice” in urban planning and policy processes that significantly impact their everyday lives and their ability to generate sufficient income to support their families.

The Inclusive Cities project aims to address urban poverty by supporting and building the capacity of membership-based organizations of the working poor in the urban informal economy. By increasing the capacity of these grassroots organizations of the working poor in the areas of organizing, advocacy, and policy analysis, the project will help ensure that urban informal workers are can make themselves heard within urban planning processes.

This project is based on the shared belief that reducing urban poverty requires reversing the current exclusionary trend of many modernizing cities today. This will require a fundamental rethinking and reshaping of urban plans, regulations, and policies to incorporate the working poor. The fact is that the informal economy is a key, large and growing component of the economy of towns and cities of the developing world. The challenge is to promote inclusive cities that embrace the informal economy, not just the formal economy, as a vibrant and key component of the urban economy and as part of the solution to reducing urban poverty and violence.

As envisioned by the global project, Inclusive Cities would support home-based production through basic infrastructure and appropriate zoning regulations; allow street vendors and hawkers to operate alongside small kiosks and shops as well as large retail shops and malls; and incorporate waste pickers into modern solid waste management systems. This will require an inclusive, rather than exclusive, approach to urban infrastructure and services; urban spatial planning and zoning; urban regulations and laws; and urban policies. This, in turn, will require inclusive urban planning processes in which representatives of the working poor have a voice.

The partners in the Inclusive Cities project include membership-based organizations of the urban working poor and three technical support organizations committed to improving the situation of the urban working poor, as follows:

1. Membership-Based Organizations of the Urban Working Poor

  • HomeNet South and South-East Asia – regional federations of national alliances of membership-based organizations of home-based producers
  • Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP, India) – a trade union of waste pickers in Pune, India
  • Latin America Network of Recyclers/Waste Pickers – a regional network of national alliances of membership-based organizations of waste pickers
  • Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA, India) – a national trade union of over one million working poor women in nine states of India
  • StreetNet International – an international alliance of membership-based organizations of street vendors and hawkers

2. Technical Support Organizations

  • Asiye eTtafuleni - an NGO established in 2008 to provide technical support to street vendors in the Warwick Junction precinct of Durban/eThekwini municipality, South Africa
  • Avina Foundation – a Swiss foundation established in 1994 to promote the sustainable development of Latin America which has supported the Latin American Network of Recyclers/Waste Pickers and its affiliates
  • WIEGO – a global action-research-policy network established in 1997 to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy

WIEGO plays three key roles in the Inclusive Cities project. The first role is to help generate relevant research, policy analysis, and good practice case studies that will help the membership-based organizations of urban informal workers in their on-going negotiations and advocacy with the cities where their members work. One of the first and very promising research projects is called Informal Economy Budget Analysis being coordinated by Debbie Budlender (of CASE, South Africa. Debbie is a well-known expert on gender budgeting who first tested the informal economy budget analysis tool in South Africa together with Francie Lund (Director, WIEGO Social Protection), Caroline Skinner (Director, WIEGO Urban Policies), and Imraan Valodia (active WIEGO member and research partner). Under her technical guidance, the Informal Economy Budget Analysis tool is now being further tested in Brazil, Ghana, Pakistan, Philippines, and Peru. The second role of WIEGO under the Inclusive Cities project is to help build the organizing, advocacy, and institutional capacity of the membership-based organizations. The first joint activity of the Inclusive Cities project was a planning meeting of the global partners on capacity building hosted by SEWA in India in December 2008, including a special Exposure Dialogue designed to train the global partners on the Exposure Dialogue methodology. The third role of WIEGO is to coordinate the efforts of the various partners, including designing and managing a common website for the project, and build a common framework for advocacy as well as monitoring and evaluation.

Statistics Workshop on Measuring Informal Employment in Developed Countries
In late October 2008, Francoise Carre and James Heintz (WIEGO Research Coordinators), together with Joann Vanek (Director, WIEGO Statistics) organized a conference on Measuring Informality in Developed Countries at the Harvard Kennedy School. This workshop brought together 23 experts to explore possibilities and challenges involved in capturing in official statistics the varied forms of informal and/or non-standard employment – short-term, temporary, contracted, and others – across developed countries. National statisticians, data analysts and representatives of international organizations participated in the workshop which was designed to start a process aimed at the eventual use in both developed and developing countries of a common statistical framework for measuring informal employment. An immediate outcome of the workshop was a coordinated set of recommendations, by several of the countries represented and by WIEGO, at the 2009 International Conference of Labour Statisticians (held in Geneva, Switzerland in late November and early December 2008) to revise the International Classification of Employment Status to more fully capture and better classify the full range of employment statuses, both formal and informal. The main conference paper, written by Francoise Carre and James Heintz, is on the WIEGO website; as are the papers prepared for the meeting: click link below. This workshop is part of a wider project on the measurement of informal employment in developed countries.

Staff Retreat
In early November 2008 WIEGO held the second all-staff retreat at a conference facility outside Boston, Massachusetts. In addition to two days of plenary sessions to review progress, plans, and the new WIEGO structure, we devoted one full day to side-meetings to discuss specific projects or initiatives. The staff will attest that having sufficient time for side meetings helped them build collaborative working relationships across different programs, regions, and activities. Given that WIEGO staff are based in different countries around the world, such opportunities for face-to face interaction are especially important. The retreat ended on a particularly high note with a final dinner to mark the US elections and, as the polling booths closed on the West Coast, to celebrate the Obama victory.

Website
In early 2008, WIEGO hired a web manager, Pat Carney. Since then, in consultation with relevant WIEGO staff, Pat has worked hard to update and expand the WIEGO site. Here are some of the new features:

Homepage
Our homepage has a new section that highlights:

  1. the latest news posted about the informal economy from around the world
  2. recently posted publications
  3. new photos

WIEGO Programme Sections
New information and extensive updates have been made to the following programme web pages:

The Statistics Programme section has been considerably updated. It includes descriptions of most current activities, various statistical resources related to the definition, measurement and tabulation of informal employment and informal sector, and documents produced for the international workshop on “Measuring Informal Employment in Developed Countries” organized by WIEGO at the Harvard Kennedy School in October 2008 (see Highlights section above for more details)

The Global Trade Programme section has also been updated extensively and links to a new section on garment workers in the informal economy

The Organization and Representation Programme section links to new updates on the organizing efforts for domestic workers, featuring the report in English, Spanish, and French of an international conference on Domestic Workers; information about the formation of a Domestic Worker Network and Steering Committee to campaign for an ILO Convention on Domestic Work; and publication of a leaflet, “Domestic/Household Workers Demand respect and our rights!”

Law Project
A new website within the WIEGO website features the multiple outcomes from the research and consultations carried out in India during the first year of this project:

Waste Pickers without Frontiers, First International and Third Latin American Conference of Waste-Pickers. Bogota, Colombia, 1-4 March 2008. A summary of the event and the Report of Conference Proceedings is available in English, Spanish and Portuguese:

New Fact Sheets are available in pdf format for:
Domestic Workers
English | Espanol

Street Vendors
English | Espanol

Waste Pickers
English | Espanol

Home Based Producers
English | Espanol

Informal Economy in the News
Our news section has a number of recent stories from around the world, highlighting domestic workers, street vendors, and the downturn in the recycling industry

If you come across any news items that should be added to this section, please contact Pat Carney at webmaster@wiego.org

Online Videos
We have also started a collection of online videos highlighting the informal economy. If you would like to recommend a video to be added to this collection, please contact Pat Carney at webmaster@wiego.org

Data Base on Organizing Informal Workers
Chris Bonner (Director, WIEGO Organization and Representation) and Beth Graves (Operations Manager, WIEGO Secretariat) have worked with Key Word Associates (in the UK) to develop the data base into a user-friendly and participative web format. The data base has information on over 400 organizations around the world that organize informal workers. The new format is currently being tested – we will let you know when the reformatted data base is launched.

PROGRAMME HEADLINES

Statistics
In addition to the workshop and project on measurement of informal employment in developed countries described above, other activities of the Statistics programme during the second half of 2008 included:

  • further editing of the ILO manual on surveys of informal employment and informal sector (Joann Vanek)
  • participation in the international seminar on the informal sector in Africa convened by AFRISTAT and held in Bamako, Mali in October 2008 (Joann Vanek)
  • membership on the Task Force of the ECE/EUROSTAT/ILO Project on Measurement of Quality of Employment and the Steering Committee of the United Nations Development Accounts Project on the Measurement of the Informal Sector and Informal Employment (Joann Vanek)
  • review of draft chapter on the informal economy for the Update of the System of National Accounts (SNA) 1993 - Volume II (Joann Vanek)
  • technical mission to Serbia and Macedonia to assist national statistical offices in the development of tabulation plans for statistics on informal sector/informal employment under an ECE-ILO project on the analysis of labour force data in Kazakhstan, Macedonia, and Serbia (James Heintz)
  • preparatory work for an update of the 2002 publication Women and Men in the Informal Economy: A Statistical Picture, including Identification of countries with data and consultants who will be able to prepare data for regional estimates and for other parts of the report and related work (Joann Vanek and James Heintz) and preparation of a tabulation plan and identification of a consultant for the update of informal employment in developed countries (Joann Vanek and Francoise Carre)
  • advice on development of a proposed World Bank project to create a data archive of national data on informal employment/informal sector and on the linkages between employment, poverty, and gender (Marty Chen and Joann Vanek)
  • preparation of statistical data and papers for posting on WIEGO website (see note above)

Organization and Representation
2008 was a particularly busy year for WIEGO’s Organization and Representation programme. Here are the headlines from the second half of 2008:

Networking

  • Waste-Picker Network Project: the Inclusive Cities project has made it possible to build on the global networking established through the March 2007 conference on waste pickers in Bogota, Columbia. WIEGO has contracted a part-time global coordinator to facilitate the process. Various activities have been planned in Latin America, Asia and Africa towards building organization. There is also a plan for exchange visits, regional meetings and a second international conference in year 5 of the Inclusive Cities project.
  • Domestic Worker Network Project: the Steering Committee and international coordinator are now in place for the network, which is a project of the IUF. Chris Bonner and Karin Pape (WIEGO Regional Advisor, Europe) will continue to serve as technical advisors to the project. During the second half of 2008, this involved helping set up the website for the project (www.domesticworkerrights.org), develop a leaflet on the network and the ILO Convention process, and obtaining funding for the campaign towards an ILO Convention (2011)

Worker Education

  • Booklets on Organizing in the Informal Economy: in late 2008, Chris Bonner solicited feedback from organizations on the draft booklets which are being prepared for the International Coordinating Committee on Organizing in the Informal Economy and will be finalized by mid-2009.
  • Worker Education web resource. This is currently being developed for the WIEGO website and will consist of worker education materials for workers in the informal economy and links to related materials and references. These will be annotated to explain what the materials are and how they can be used by educators/trainers.

Research and Documentation

  • Law and Informality. The purpose of this project is to document and analyze the laws that impinge on different categories of informal workers and the legal struggles and demands of organizations of these workers. Phase one of the India pilot, which focused on domestic workers, fish workers, forest workers, and waste pickers, has been completed by Roopa Madhav (activist lawyer), Kamala Sankaran (professor of law, Delhi University), and Shalini Sinha (activist consultant). The outputs of phase one have been placed on a special Law Project section on WIEGO's web site.

Phase two of the project will deepen the work and also keep information updated. A second pilot project was started in Colombia in late 2008. WIEGO contracted a human rights lawyer from Colombia, Adriana Ruiz Restrepo, who has worked with waste pickers in Bogota and the Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor to run the project.

  • Classifying Organizations of Informal Workers: The purpose of this project is to identify and classify the different forms (both de jure and de facto) that organizations of informal workers take and to understand the strengths and weaknesses of different forms in relation to the strategic needs of different groups of informal workers. Francoise Carre (WIEGO Research Coordinator) prepared a draft concept paper (which was discussed by the Advisory Committee of the Organization and Representation programme in January 2009). Earlier in 2008, Pat Horn (International Coordinator, StreetNet International), with inputs from Chris Bonner and Elaine Jones (Director, WIEGO Global Trade), wrote a paper that looked in some detail at informal workers and their organizations in different sectors. This included identifying key forms of organization in each sector and different levels of organization.
  • Research on Waste Pickers: Melanie Samson (who is doing a PhD on waste pickers in South Africa) was commissioned to a) do a literature review of what is known about waste pickers in Africa and b) produce a booklet on the organizations and struggles of waste pickers around the world as part of the Inclusive Cities project.

Global Trade
Case Studies on Fair Trade for Producer Groups
During the second half of 2008, WIEGO secured funding and finalized plans for a set of 8 case studies on fair trade for producer groups. The purpose of the case studies is to examine collective forms of organization around fair trade. The case studies will look at: (a) different forms of organizing of producer groups and (b) different strategies for accessing markets on fair terms with fair prices. Contextual analyses of trade issues will aim to draw out policy recommendations. Carol Wills (formerly with Oxfam International’s trade team) has been contracted to work with Elaine Jones (Director, WIEGO Global Trade) on the case studies.

Global Value Chain Trainers’ Handbook
During the second half of 2008, WIEGO also secured funding and finalized plans for this handbook. Celia Mathers (an independent consultant) has been contracted to compile a training tool for organizers working with informal workers.

Ethical Trading Initiative Project and Board
Elaine Jones has been working with a High Street retailer of fast fashion on an ETI pilot project to look at the relationship between purchasing practices and working conditions in a factory in Turkey.  The report will be shared with the ETI Working Group on Purchasing Practices at its March 2009 meeting.  Elaine Jones will also facilitate a Solutions Workshop with “Ethical Champions” at the retailer’s headquarters in the UK in February 2009.

In later 2008, Elaine Jones was nominated to the ETI Board of Directors as a representative of the NGO Caucus.  Please join us in congratulating Elaine and thanking her for representing WIEGO so effectively at ETI.

Social Protection
Livingstone Call for Action Campaign
WIEGO was asked to participate in the Africa-wide initiative “Investing in Social Protection in Africa” which is under the auspices of the Africa Union, and managed by HelpAge International, and funded by DFID. At the heart of the campaign is an attempt to get commitment from a number of African ministers of social development to increase budget allocations to social protection. WIEGO’s particular objective has been to insert information about the social protection needs of, and programmes for, informal workers into the overall programme. Francie Lund (Director, WIEGO Social Protection) attended a regional meeting, contributed to the draft framework document, and attended the experts’ advisory group meeting prior to the first meeting of Ministers of Social Development in Africa, in Namibia, in October. The WIEGO concept note for the campaign, prepared by Francie Lund, is on our website.

During the second half of 2008, WIEGO developed proposals, secured funding and finalized plans, for major new projects under our Social Protection Programme:

Occupational Health and Safety for Informal Workers
WIEGO has received funding to work in six countries, over three years, on occupational health and safety (OHS) for informal workers. We will work through WIEGO affiliates of informal workers, with street vendors, waste pickers and home-based workers, and others. Mainstream OHS focuses on formal workplaces, not on where the majority of workers really work – on the streets, in their own homes, on garbage dumps and landfills, for example. OHS defines health problems very narrowly, and does not see the worker in the context of family, living and working in very poor conditions. In this project, we want to find out how to develop OHS in a way that can better meet the needs of informal workers.

The work will start in Ghana and Brazil in early 2009. Laura Alfers (a South African who recently received an MPhil in Development Studies from Cambridge University) has been contracted to work with Francie Lund on the project.

Voice, Social Protection and Informal Workers in Latin America
Carmen Roca (WIEGO Regional Advisor, Latin America), working jointly with Francie Lund, has developed a proposal for work on this theme in three Latin American countries – Colombia, Mexico and Peru. It will focus on how to build sustainable institutions for participation by informal workers in social policy development.  It seeks to build links between macro policy makers and organizations of informal workers to underscore that the vast majority of  "citizens living in poverty or extreme poverty" in their countries, are actually working poor, and as such have special needs to reduce exposure to risks, while hold potential to overcome poverty.  It will build capacities among informal workers organizations for: advocacy on their needs, and for exercising surveillance over how social policy decisions affecting informal workers are made, how spending allocation is decided on , and what is spent specifically on support for informal workers; and on how citizens participate in those decisions. The proposed project would document small scale promising examples of social protection for informal workers.

Social Protection Concepts, Data, Innovations and Dialogues 
During the second half of 2008, Francie Lund (Director, WIEGO Social Protection) and James Heintz (WIEGO Research Coordinator) finalized the proposal for a collaborative project with the United Nations Research Institute for Social Development (UNRISD) on social policy and the informal economy.  It will include an important component addressing national data collection on social protection coverage, as well as documenting new innovations in social protection coverage. Shahra Razavi at UNRISD is seeking funding for Phase I of the project.

Urban Policies
Caroline Skinner is the new Director of our Urban Policies programme, replacing Sharit Bhowmik who stepped down in early 2008.  In this capacity, Caroline will coordinate and provide technical oversight to the research activities of the Inclusive Cities project (described above).   We are very excited that Caroline Skinner, who is completing a PhD on urban policies and the informal economy and has been an active member and research partner of WIEGO, is willing and able to assume this role on a full-time basis.

WIEGO is supporting the documentation of the lessons learned from the Warwick Junction Project in Durban, South Africa.  This project is one of the better examples globally of integrating street traders into urban plans.  Richard Dobson, an architect who worked on the Warwick project for many years, Caroline Skinner and Jillian Nicholson are producing a book due to be launched in June 2009.  As part of this process Dennis Gilbert, an award winning architectural photographer based in London, was commissioned to do a photographic documentary.  The photographs will be part of the book but also a roving photographic exhibition. 

European Region
Karin Pape (WIEGO Regional Advisor, Europe) continues to support efforts in the region to organize domestic workers and efforts in Germany to push for the ratification of Convention 177 on home-based work.  In November 2008, she co-organzed with Friedrich Ebert Foundation a Strategic Planning Meeting with International Trade Union Confederation- Pan European Regional Council, the Clean Clothes Campaign, Home Workers Worldwide, and StreetNet International on “Organising in the Informal Economy in Eastern Europe“ with a focus on home based workers and street vendors,  Warsaw, Poland, November 2008.

Latin American Region
Carmen Roca (WIEGO Regional Advisor, Latin America) continues to plan and coordinate WIEGO activities in the Latin America region.  During the second half of 2008, she developed plans and a funding proposal for the regional project on Voice, Social Protection,  and Informal Workers in Latin America (described above), took part in the Capacity Building Reference Group meeting and Exposure Dialogue training in India, and developed plans for the Cornell-SEWA-WIEGO Exposure Dialogue in Mexico in March 2009.  Carmen Roca also provided support to StreetNet International which is planning a leadership training workshop in Lima, Peru, for its affiliate the Federation of Lima Street Vendors (FEDEVAL).

GENERAL ACTIVITIES

Commissioned Research
Sida Regional Reviews
In late 2007, Sida asked WIEGO to carry out literature reviews on the informal economy in three regions - Africa, Latin America, and South Asia. The final reviews were submitted in late June 2008 to Sida: James Heintz and Imraan Valodia prepared the Africa review, Victor Tokman prepared the Latin America review, Marty Chen and Donna Doane prepared the South Asia review (see publications list below to access these reviews).

Danish Foreign Ministry and Africa Commission
In April 2008, Marty Chen (WIEGO International Coordinator) was invited to a meeting in Copenhagen on MDG3 with a focus on women’s economic empowerment organized by the Danish Foreign Ministry for the Africa Commission.   Later in the year, she was asked to comment on the background documents for a conference on women’s economic empowerment in Africa held in Maputo, Mozambique in August 2008 and to then write a report on “Women’s Employment in Africa” building on the conference proceedings and recommendations.

Collaboration with Realizing Rights: Ethical Globalization Initiative
WIEGO has built a collaborative relationship with this Initiative which was started and is headed by Mary Robinson, former President of Ireland.   We have jointly developed and co-branded a set of advocacy materials on decent work for the informal economy and on inclusive urban planning for the urban working poor which have been shared with, among others, the group of Elders headed by Nelson Mandela to which both Mary Robinson and Ela Bhatt (founder of SEWA and founding chair of WIEGO) belong.  We are also jointly supporting an initiative to launch a project on the informal economy in Liberia with an initial focus on waste pickers.

External Evaluation
With funding from two of our core funders, WIEGO is planning an External Evaluation of our impact to be carried out in the second half of 2009.  At its meeting in June 2008, the WIEGO Board constituted an Evaluation Committee to plan the external evaluation.  This Committee is comprised of Marty Chen (International Coordinator), Rhonda Douglas (Global Projects Director), Joe Holly (UK Company Secretary), Frances Lund (Director, WIEGO Social Protection), Carmen Roca (WIEGO Regional Advisor, Latin America), and Dave Spooner (UK Operations Manager and Membership Coordinator).  Since then, the Evaluation Committee has consulted a number of evaluation experts and developed plans for the evaluation. In December 2008,  the Committee contracted Bernadette Orr – who recently helped carry out an external evaluation of the work of the labour rights team of Oxfam International -  to prepare a note for the Evaluation Committee on different options regarding evaluations of organizations like WIEGO.  The Evaluation Committee met again in Manchester, UK in January 2009 to discuss the note prepared by Bernadette and, on the basis of that note and interactions with her, decided to contract Bernadette Orr to lead the External Evaluation team and process.  Bernadette has kindly agreed and is actively finalizing plans and an evaluation team in consultation with the Committee.

EXPANDED WIEGO

During 2008, WIEGO grew dramatically – in terms of funding, staffing, and activities - and formalized our management systems. Most of our growth can be attributed to increased levels of funding: WIEGO was able to secure two new project grants in addition to renewed core funding in 2008. Some of our staff expansion was in response to the legal requirements of being registered as a not-for-profit company limited in the UK.

During the second half of 2008, WIEGO hired the following new staff:

  • Francoise Carre – Research Coordinator (40% time) with a focus on informal/non-standard workers in developed countries.
  • Susan Cosgrove - Financial Controller (four-fifths time) in the UK office
  • Paola Cueva – Administrator (full-time) in the Secretariat
  • Sonia Dias – Waste Picker Specialist (half-time after late-2009) for the Inclusive Cities project
  • Nasheman Lightwala – Administrator (half-time) for the Inclusive Cities project
  • Julian Luckham – Graphic Designer and Web Advisor (half-time) for Inclusive Cities Project
  • Sofia Trevino - Spanish Language Communication Officer (half-time) for WIEGO
  • Demetria Tsoutouras - Communications Officer (half-time) for the Inclusive Cities project
  • Caroline Skinner - Urban Policies Director (full-time after mid-2009) who will coordinate the research under the Inclusive Cities project
  • Dave Spooner - Operations Manager (half-time) and Membership Support Coordinator (half-time) in the UK office. 

Please join us in welcoming Francoise, Susan, Paola, Sonia, Nasheman, Julian, Sofia, Demetria, Caroline, and Dave to the WIEGO family. We will be updating our "Who We Are” section shortly.

As of end 2008, WIEGO had a staff of 24 professionals - 12 working on programme activities, 5 on communications, and 7 on financial, operational, and grant management - based in 7 countries around the world.  We should note that only 7 of our staff work full-time for WIEGO: many work half-time or less.   In total, WIEGO has the equivalent of 16 full-time staff: 8.7 FTE working on programme activities, 2.5 FTE on communications, and 4.8 FTE on management.

During the second half of 2008, we lost one long-term staff person - Suzanne Van Hook - who joined the Carr Center for Human Rights at the Harvard Kennedy School.   Suzanne had worked for the WIEGO Secretariat for more than seven years and helped with the establishment of WIEGO Ltd.  We miss Suzanne and remain grateful to her for the contributions she made to WIEGO but take comfort in the fact that her new office is right above the Secretariat office at the Harvard Kennedy School – so we can continue to see her and, as needed, draw on her institutional memory of WIEGO.  Please join us in wishing Suzanne all the best.

To provide fiduciary oversight for the newly-expanded WIEGO, the Board recruited a UK-based Treasurer, Debra Davis, and reconstituted the Finance Committee in December 2008.  Debra Davis is a highly-qualified and experienced financial professional with nearly 18 years of experience serving clients in international business, including over 10 years as a Partner with Deloitte & Touche LLP.  WIEGO is fortunate that someone with her financial, analytical, and leadership skills is willing and able to serve as Treasurer on our Board and Finance Committee. Please join us in welcoming Debra Davis to the WIEGO Board and Finance Committee. To provide management oversight for the newly-expanded WIEGO, yet decentralize some responsibilities from the Secretariat, we revised our staff reporting structure and constituted a virtual management team: an Operations Management Team which “meets” monthly by phone.   We are pleased to report that our new financial and management systems passed the test of two pre-grant audits in 2008.

PUBLICATIONS

Chen, Martha A. 2008. “A Spreading Banyan Tree:  the Self-Employed Women’s Association, India” in Alison Mathie and Gordon Cunningham, eds. From Clients to Citizens: Communities Changing the Course of Their Own Development.   Rugby, UK: Intermediate Technology Publications Ltd..

________________. 2008. “Rethinking the Informal Economy: Linkages with Formal Economy and the Formal Regulatory Environment” in Ocampo, Jose Antonio and Jomo K. S., eds.  Towards Full  and Decent Employment. London, UK and New York, USA:  Zed Books Limited and Hyderabad, India: Orient Longman Private Limited.

_____________. 2008. “Addressing Informality, Reducing Poverty”, in Poverty in Focus, Number 16 - Jobs, Jobs, Jobs – The Policy Challenge.  Brasilia, Brazil:  International Poverty Centre.

Chen, Martha A. and Donna Doane. 2008 “Informality in South Asia: A Review”  Stockholm, Sweden: Sida.

Cornell-SEWA-WIEGO. 2008. “Cornell-SEWA-WIEGO 2008 Dialogue – Ahmedabad and Delhi - Compendium of  Personal and Technical Notes”.  Working Paper 2008-15. Cornell University:  Department of Applied Economics and Management: 2008 Dialogue, Ahmedabad and Delhi: Compendium of Personal and Technical Notes.

Heintz, James and Imraan Valodia. 2008.  “Informality in Africa:  A Review”  Stockholm, Sweden: Sida.

Lund, Frances. 2008. ‘The Informal Economy, Social Protection and Empowerment: Linkages and Good Practices for Poverty Reduction.’ Paper prepared for the DAC/ POVNET Task Team of the OECD, presented in Paris, March, 2008. This is in the process of being published by the OECD in a compendium, in 2009.

Skinner, Caroline. 2008.  ‘The Struggle for the Streets: Processes of Exclusion and Inclusion of Street Traders in Durban, South Africa’,  Development Southern Africa, Vol. 25 No. 2.

Tokman, Victor E. 2008.  “Informality in Latin America: Facts and Opportunities”.  Stockholm, Sweden: Sida.

PRESENTATIONS

One World Action Roundtable on Homeworkers at Trade Unions Congress, London, UK (October 2008) - Elaine Jones, (Director, WIEGO Global Trade) co-organised this Roundtable. A SEWA delegation which was in London to attend the 10 year Anniversary Conference of the Ethical Trading Initiative made a presentation at the Roundtable.

Committee on Asian Women (CAW) Conference, Bangkok, Thailand (August 2008) – Chris Bonner (Director, WIEGO Organization and Representation) made a presentations on the international domestic worker network and the significance of an ILO convention for domestic workers.

Asian Domestic Workers Network, Bangkok, Thailand (August 2008) - Chris Bonner briefed the General Assembly of this Network on the international domestic worker network.

Harvard Kennedy School Website Interview (September 2008) – Marty Chen (WIEGO International Coordinator) was interviewed for the Insights series of video-taped interviews with HKS faculty on the topic of the working poor in the informal economy.

High-Level Forum on Decent Work at UN, New York, USA (September 2008) – Ela Bhatt (founder SEWA and founding chair of WIEGO) and Marty Chen were featured speakers in a High Level Forum entitled “Working Out of Poverty: A Decent Work Approach to Development and the MDGs” organized by the International Labour Office (ILO) and Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative (RR/EGI). 

The Presidency, South African Government, Second Economy Strategy Workshop, Pretoria (September 2008) – Caroline Skinner (Director, WIEGO Urban Policies) presented a paper called “Street Traders in South Africa: Priority Interventions”.

Harvard Kennedy School Course on “The Informal Workforce in a Global Economy” (September-December 2008) – Marty Chen teaches this course in the fall term at the Harvard Kennedy School.

UNESCO-Harvard Authors’ Workshop (October 2008) - Marty Chen presented her chapter on “Informality, Poverty, and Human Rights” for a volume on Human Rights and Poverty: An Economic Perspective being jointly edited by UNESCO and a human rights programme at Harvard University.

Danish Federation of Trade Unions (LO) and the Danish Confederation of Salaried Employees and Civil Servants (FTF) Workshop on Informal Workers, Johannesburg, South Africa (September 2008) – Chris Bonner prepared and facilitated a two-day programme with Southern African trade unions.

Course on Human Rights and Development in Africa, University of Witwatersrand, Johannesburg, South Africa (October 2008) – Chris Bonner made a presentation on “Informal Workers Organizing for Rights”.

Association for Women in Development (AWID), Conference, Cape Town, South Africa (November 2008) – Chris Bonner made a presentation on organizing and movement building amongst informal workers together with HomeNet South East Asia.

Second Conference of the Arab Women’s Organization on “Women and the Concept of Security,  Abu Dhabi (November 2008) - Francie Lund (Director, WIEGO Social Protection) presented a commentary on one of the main papers for this conference, which is a platform for independent research into the position of women in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region.

European Congress Conference on “Future of Labour Relations and Employment in Europe”, Osnabrueck, Germany (November 2008) – Karin Pape (WIEGO Regional Advisor, Europe) made a presentation on "Informal vs. Precarious Employment?"

Contacting WIEGO
WIEGO Secretariat
Harvard Kennedy School
79 John F. Kennedy Street
Cambridge, MA 02138 USA Email: wiego@ksg.harvard.edu
Telephone: 617 496.7037
Fax: 617 496.2828
www.wiego.org