WIEGO Electronic Newsletter

Volume IX
July- December 2007

(this newsletter is also available in pdf format)

COMING OF AGE: WIEGO’S 10TH YEAR CELEBRATED WITH GOOD REASON

To mark our tenth anniversary, WIEGO took time out during 2007 to assess our accomplishments and re-affirm our vision and mission. The main event during the year was a strategic review and planning retreat held in Bellagio, Italy in May at which the Steering Committee and staff reflected on WIEGO’s progress to date and vision for the future. Two other planning retreats were also held: a research retreat in July and a staff retreat in October. Key institution-building steps taken during 2007 were the registration of WIEGO in the UK and, thanks to a supplemental grant from the Ford Foundation, the hiring of a Communications Manager and a professional fund-raiser.

Getting Not-for-Profit Registration in the UK
One of these developments was the incorporation of WIEGO as a not-for-profit company (limited by guarantee) of the United Kingdom. WIEGO’s presence in the UK was initiated by opening a small office in Manchester with a part-time CPA, David Brookes, to handle financial affairs which will include directing most future grant funds through the UK and adopting the British fiscal year (April – March). While these changes were initiated some time ago, the switch is timely because it will insure more value from non-US grantors as the dollar value abroad shrinks. Key Secretariat staff, Mary Beth Graves (Network Manager) and Suzanne Van Hook (Financial Manager) paid a visit to the new office in October to begin to put the transition in motion. They met with Dave Spooner – a member of the WIEGO Steering Committee – who helped facilitate the UK registration; Joe Holly – an advisor on tax and legal issues; and Gary Herman – who has provided assistance on information management. WIEGO’s Management and Finance Committees will continue to monitor this transition and provide guidance.

Professional Fund-Raiser Now on Board
Another goal reached in 2007 was the hiring of a professional fund raiser to research potential donors and develop funding proposals. Rhonda Douglas, a development and management consultant based in Canada, was recruited by the International Development Research Centre (IDRC) of Canada to carry out an assessment of WIEGO’s fundraising strategy during the first half of 2007. We were delighted that the supplemental grant from Ford Foundation allowed us to hire Rhonda on a half-time basis to implement her recommendations. Rhonda has already demonstrated her worth and, in doing so, relieved our Coordinator of much of this huge and constant task. Rhonda has been raising funds for international development and human rights for 18 years and is a Certified Fundraising Executive (CFRE). Prior to becoming a consultant, she was the fundraising and communications director for Amnesty International Canada. She is developing fundraising strategies which will ensure WIEGO’s ability to sustain itself and continue to grow with a strong foundation.

Professional Communications Manager Now on Board
During the reviews and planning that took place during this 10th anniversary year, WIEGO decided to promote and strengthen its Communication and Outreach efforts, with special attention to the interests and needs of our Institutional Members, all member-based organizations of informal workers. To address this objective and to enhance Secretariat communications, WIEGO has recently hired a consultant, Leslie Tuttle, to be our Communications Manager. Leslie’s experience includes work as a communications officer for development agencies, as an operations and finance manager for a not-for-profit organization, and as a curator and photojournalist.

Research Retreat
As part of the follow-up to the Strategic Review and Planning Retreat in May 2007, WIEGO held a Research Retreat at Harvard University in July 2007. Participants included Marty Chen (Coordinator), James Heintz (Research Coordinator), Francie Lund (Director, Social Protection), Joann Vanek (Director, Statistics), and Francoise Carre (an active Member and partner of WIEGO who is Research Director at the Center for Social Policy at University of Massachusetts/Boston). The Research Retreat participants identified priorities for the next 2-3 years of WIEGO’s research-cum-statistical work, including: development of a common framework for labour statistics in both developed and developing countries; development of a conceptual framework and case studies on organizing in the informal economy; development of a conceptual framework and case studies on workplace safety and health in the informal economy; analysis of the impact of trade liberalization on informal employment; update of the 2002 ILO volume of statistics on informal employment co-authored by Marty Chen and Joann Vanek; and support to teams of researchers and data analysts working on the informal economy in a growing number of countries.

First All Staff Retreat
WIEGO’s chairperson, Renana Jhabvala, opened the three-day retreat in London by remarking to the staff on how WIEGO distinguishes itself through its rare quality of combining activism, policy and research. She noted that keeping true to WIEGO’s core mission of understanding and serving disadvantaged, working poor women is both WIEGO’s greatest strength and its on-going challenge. The retreat provided WIEGO’s five Programme Directors and two Regional Advisors from around the world the opportunity to present their 2–3 year work plans to the group in order to invite suggestions and identify possibilities for coordination and mutual support. Moving forward from this exchange, very detailed work plans have been finalized for each programme and geographical area. The staff had been charged by the Steering Committee to use time at the retreat to develop strategies for improvement in two areas. The first was to review and agree upon the operational structure for implementing future programme activities. The existing structure – 5 Programme Directors, 2 Regional Advisors, and 1 Research Coordinator – was reviewed and re-affirmed with one modification: the research coordination function should operate across programmes rather than only under the Statistics Programme. The second mandate was to initiate steps to respond better to Institutional Members and other member-based organizations of informal workers.

Outreach to Institutional Members
In response to the second mandate, a series of visits are being planned for 2008 to many of our Institutional Members. The purpose of these visits is to listen to the needs and concerns of the members and organizers of our Institutional Members. We also want to introduce WIEGO to a broad cross section of the members and organizers who are in the informal sector or working on behalf of those workers. To enrich this two-way learning process, WIEGO has assigned Leslie Tuttle to travel with the Coordinator and other programme staff to document the informal worker members and the work of our Institutional Members. WIEGO expects to make use of the documentation gathered for not only its own publications on research and policy, but also to contribute to training and organizing materials being developed for our Institutional Members. WIEGO looks forward to conducting this “field research” to gain mutual understanding with Institutional Members so that programmes can be developed and action taken in response.

Programme Headlines

Agenda-Setting Workshop on “Social Protection and the Informal Economy” with IDS, Sussex
The purpose of this workshop, held at IDS, Sussex in October 2007, was to identify the points of convergence between micro- and macro-critiques of orthodox economic approaches to labour markets, employment generation and social protection: not just in terms of the critiques per se but, more importantly, in terms of alternative explanatory models and policy. The 30 or so participants were asked to deliberate on the connections between economic policies, informal employment and social protection and to develop a fresh agenda for research and advocacy on the challenge of social protection for informal workers. A special issue of the IDS Bulletin based on the conference proceedings co-edited by IDS and WIEGO will be published in the first half of 2008.

WIEGO Meets With Homeworkers Worldwide in Leeds and Istanbul
Taking advantage of the WIEGO staff retreat in London in October 2007, three WIEGO staff members travelled north to Leeds to meet with Homeworkers Worldwide (HWW). Chris Bonner, Director of WIEGO’s Organization and Representation Programme based in South Africa; Karin Pape, WIEGO’s Regional Advisor for Europe based in Switzerland; and Elaine Jones, Director of WIEGO’s Global Markets Programme based in UK, met with staff and Board members in HWW’s offices in Leeds. The meeting was the first since HWW was established in 1999 and gave the opportunity for an exchange of information and the identification of areas for potential collaboration. HWW described how they undertook an international Mapping Programme of homeworkers supported by the UK’s Department for International Development from 2000 to 2006. Out of this came a training manual for organising, DVD’s and photo-packs for non-literate homeworkers. As a result of the mapping project, those organisations who worked together formed the Federation of Homeworkers Worldwide (FHWW). Visit www.homeworkersww.org.uk for more information.

Several areas of potential collaboration were identified, including:

- Ratification of ILO convention 177 within Europe -Further meeting on April 5, 2008, following a seminar on precarious work

- Further meeting on April 5, 2008, following a seminar on precarious work

- The potential to develop shared positions within the ETI Homeworkers Group where WIEGO, NGH and HWW are represented

- Sharing materials from the mapping project and other work done by HWW for the preparation by WIEGO of a planned “popular” version of a training manual on global value chains.

Subsequent to the meeting in Leeds, Elaine Jones represented WIEGO at a HWW meeting in Istanbul. The participants were drawn from 8 countries: Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Macedonia, Portugal (Madeira Island), Romania, Serbia, Turkey, and UK. Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) and WIEGO were invited to attend the meeting as observers. The meeting offered a good opportunity for exchange and an insight into the range of homeworkers organizations in Europe.

Pilot Project in India on “Law and the Informal Economy”
Working with researchers, organizations representing informal workers, and drawing on the work of the ILO, this project will develop an “observatory” (or data base) of laws affecting informal workers with a special focus on five categories of informal workers (street vendors, waste pickers, domestic workers, forest gatherers and fisher folk); develop a conceptual approach to thinking about law, including labour law, and own account workers; and develop a platform of legal demands and concerns that organizations of informal workers can use in their advocacy and collective bargaining. The project is headed by Kamala Sankaran, a professor of law at Delhi University. Other professionals working on the project include Shalini Sinha, an independent consultant who works closely with SEWA, and Roopa Madhav, an environmental and labour lawyer. Based on the findings and lessons from this one-year pilot project in India, WIEGO plans to replicate this project in a number of other countries.

Building an International Network of Organizations of Waste Pickers
WIEGO has been developing the tools to help build an International Network of Organizations of Waste Pickers by collecting and disseminating information about this group of workers worldwide. Data about organizations of waste collectors, support organizations, researchers and other useful contacts have been entered into WIEGO’s general data base of organizations in the informal economy. Based on this initial research, two regional mapping exercises have been undertaken; in Latin America, by the AVINA foundation and in Asia, by the trade union Kagad Kach Patra Kashtakari Panchayat (KKPKP). An International Steering Committee has been established to coordinate and guide these activities and to organize jointly with WIEGO a Waste Pickers’ Conference to be held in Bogota, Colombia in March 2008. The host organization for the conference is Asociación Nacional de Recicladores de Colombia (ANR). Colombia has the largest and longest established informal waste-pickers/recycler movement in Latin America. With participants coming from all over the world, expectations are that this conference will help to strengthen the organization and connection of informal waste collectors globally, especially women, and to make visible their contribution as workers to environmental protection, health and the economy, and the formal solid waste management system of municipalities; and ensure their effective participation and voice in all forums that affect their working lives and social position.

Revising WIEGO Data Base on Organizations of Informal Workers
Over the past several years, Chris Bonner (Director, WIEGO’s Organization and Representation Programme) has built a database on 400 organizations of informal workers that is posted on the WIEGO website. In late 2007, WIEGO contracted Gary Herman of Keywords Associates in the UK, who specializes in intranet, knowledge management, and soft systems, to organize the data base into a content management system (CMS) with querying functions to make the information itself far more accessible than it is at present. The CMS will allow any authorized individual to add and edit data using a simple on-screen form. In addition to expanding the data base and making it more accessible, this reorganization will allow the data base to be co-managed by the WIEGO Secretariat in the US and Chris Bonner in South Africa.

Statistics Publication
Throughout 2007, work continued on an ILO publication entitled "Manual on Surveys of Informal Employment and Informal Sector.” Joann Vanek, Director of WIEGO's Statistics Programme, is the editor of the publication and author of several of the chapters in it. The team of contributors met in Paris, France in January 2007 to discuss draft chapters. Chapters were revised and then reviewed by the International Expert Group on Informal Sector Statistics (called the Delhi Group) at its tenth meeting in October 2007 in Geneva, Switzerland. Immediately after the Delhi Group meeting, the team of contributors held a two-day meeting to discuss final revisions to the draft chapters.

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