Mamuna Mohammed, a head load porter (or kayayei) carries bananas through Agbogbloshie Market, a thriving central market for fruits and vegetables in Accra. With support from WIEGO, many kayayei at Agbogbloshie have experienced improved social protection. In 2012, WIEGO facilitated a Health Policy Dialogue in Accra with key government, civil society, and informal sector stakeholders, including the kayayei themselves. This allowed the kayayei to discuss and share experiences of Ghana’s National Health Insurance Scheme (NHIS) with key health policymakers, who identified possible ways to incorporate these workers into the scheme and explore strategies to provide them with support in accessing health services. It was a successful result: 1,000 kayayei were able to register and gain better information on available health care services through the Ghanaian National Insurance Scheme. Photo Credit: Jonathan Torgovnik/Getty Images Reportage
In Accra, since 2010, WIEGO has been supporting a local network of workers’ organizations representing street vendors, market traders, waste pickers and kayayei (female head porters) to secure increased rights and protections and supportive policies.
Women in informal employment are often faced with the difficult task of caring for their young children while trying to earn a livelihood, with little or no options for child-care support. WIEGO has worked to build bridges between market traders and city officials to achieve greater understanding of the barriers to child-care access and to co-create solutions. WIEGO facilitated a multi-stakeholder, participatory process that resulted in a set of national guidelines for the governance and management of child-care centres in urban informal markets. These draw directly on the contributions of workers in informal employment and aim to provide a roadmap for high-quality, accessible care that responds to worker needs. WIEGO continues to play a facilitative role in the implementation of the guidelines and seeks to promote similar participatory processes in other municipalities.
Waste pickers in Accra are threatened by waste modernization projects that do not include them as stakeholders and that will eventually displace them from sites of work on landfills. WIEGO supports organized waste pickers in Accra to secure a seat at the table in defining how their livelihoods should be protected in these projects. This includes support to articulate proposals for integration into the solid waste management system on secure and supportive terms, including through cooperative formation and doorstep collection. WIEGO’s support also involves capacity building in collective bargaining for waste picker leaders to advocate on the basis of these proposals with local government, and to represent the sector’s interests in discussions around national waste policy, including extended producer responsibility policies.
WIEGO supports street vendors and market traders in coming together to make demands for infrastructure improvements in Accra’s famous markets – including electrical improvements, modernizing of drainage systems, adding water points and more. This has led to improvements in the occupational health and safety of markets, but much remains to be done. WIEGO’s research on taxation of workers in informal employment aims to provide traders with evidence to strengthen their calls for greater public financing to support child-care services and other public infrastructure needs in markets.
Workers in Accra’s informal sector pay a range of taxes and fees to both their local government authority and to the national revenue authority. These taxes and fees, however, are often regressive (unfair) and place a particularly large burden on the most vulnerable workers, many of whom are women. Since 2019, WIEGO has been doing research on taxation in Accra and, most recently, secured a five year grant through the Co-Impact Foundation.
The ongoing work is concerned with two main activities. The first is producing policy relevant research in collaboration with the revenue authority and local government. The second is improving the capacity of workers to engage directly with policymakers to improve the design of tax systems. More specifically, WIEGO’s research on taxation of workers in informal employment aims to provide traders with evidence to strengthen their calls for greater public financing to support child-care services and other public infrastructure needs in markets.
This booklet shows how the cost-of-living crisis is affecting workers in informal employment in Accra, Ghana. It draws on exploratory research conducted with kayayei (headporters), market traders, street...
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While debates about taxation and social protection in relation to the informal economy are widespread, there is little empirical evidence to support them. Using new and representative data on informal...
Read MoreWe coordinate and support action research, statistical and budget analysis, and good-practice documentation to ensure workers have a strong evidence base to support their advocacy.
We build capacity and organizational strength through skills training, leadership development, coaching and overall support to membership-based organizations of workers in informal employment in areas they identify as priorities.
We walk alongside workers organizations to co-create innovative proposals for policy change, drawing on both lived experiences and technical knowledge of their sectors. We bring together workers’ organizations and allies in advocacy efforts to engage government and other stakeholders on these proposals and fight for reforms.
WIEGO does groundbreaking statistical work to help policymakers and workers understand the size and characteristics of the informal economy in cities across the world.
Access the latest statistics
Workers in informal employment in Greater Accra
Of total employment in Greater Accra is informal
of women’s employment in Greater Accra is informal, while 79% of men’s employment is informal
