Exposure Dialogues

Exposure Dialogue Programmes (EDPs) allow researchers and practitioners from a wide range of fields to experience firsthand the challenges workers in informal employment face.

Guests live and work alongside their hosts for a period of days. After the exposure, both guests and hosts reflect on the experience. Guests then engage in a structured dialogue on a relevant topic such as informality and labour markets or informality and law. Afterward, they are asked to write their personal reflections and technical notes.

EDP Focused on Law & Informality

Devi-ben EDP

WIEGO, along with Namrata Bali of SEWA Academy (India) and two human rights lawyers at Harvard University (USA), organized a series of EDPs on Law & Informality. These engaged human rights judges, legal advocates, and activists on issues relating to informal employment, informal settlements and informal citizenship.

The first was held in Ahmedabad, India in February 2013. Judges, lawyers and activists from Colombia, Ghana, India, Peru, and South Africa – as well as legal experts from other countries – spent two days and nights with street vendor or waste picker hosts. Guests completed personal and technical reflections and held a policy dialogue with legal experts from India. Learn more about Law EDPs and read reflections.

Cornell-SEWA-WIEGO Exposure Dialogue Programme

Exposure Dialogue Programme, Mexico

WIEGO co-organized a series of EDPs with the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) and Cornell University. The aim was to bridge the perspectives of economists and activists on informal employment, labour markets and policies, and poverty. The EDPs took place in Ahmedabad, India (2004 and 2008); Durban, South Africa (2007 and 2011); and Oaxaca, Mexico (2009).

A rich record of the EDP participants’ stories, experiences and shifting outlooks are captured in Bridging Perspectives: The Cornell-SEWA-WIEGO Exposure Dialogue Programme on Labour, Informal Employment and Poverty.

The Cornell-SEWA-WIEGO Exposure Dialogue Programme led to a conference and a volume on the role of membership-based organizations of the poor in achieving equitable growth and poverty reduction.

Learn more about this series of Exposure-Dialogue activities and outcomes.

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