Systems change is about fixing the root causes of social, political and economic problems through changing the structures, relationships and mindsets that keep things stuck. It's a way of working that responds to WIEGO’s mandate to transform systems in support of workers in informal employment. We produce high-quality research and data in partnership with membership-based organizations. Our partners use this evidence to drive change through advocacy, protest, and negotiation.
In the current fractured political environment, this work has become a formidable task. As misinformation proliferates at a rapid pace, the very foundations which underpin the role of evidence and data in public life are under attack. In confronting this challenge, we’re developing a more explicit understanding of how research can lead to systems change and enhance democratic practice.
In doing this, we find the Power-Shifts Framework elaborated by Tatiana Fraser and Juniper Glass very useful in that it unpacks the concept of “scale”: thinking about the multiple scales and levels of action so that more people are reached with longer-term systems-level impacts.
Below we reflect on how the framework resonates with how we do research and broader lessons for organizations doing research for policy change.
Scaling Deep: Building Trust and Relational Infrastructure During Crisis
WIEGO views research as both a tool for data production and a political process that builds the capacity of worker organizations to amplify and increase the impact of their voices through fostering ownership of data.
Research co-produced by WIEGO and affiliated worker organizations, like that carried out under the COVID-19 Crisis and the Informal Economy Study, is grounded in principles such as valuing workers’ experiences, keeping open lines of communication and nurturing long-term, collaborative relationships with organizations and their allies. When research processes themselves embody democratic principles, they serve as an important counter-narrative to attacks on scientific credibility. Moreover, collaborative approaches to knowledge production demonstrate how research can be both rigorous and democratically accountable. For WIEGO, research is not an end in itself but rather a part of a strategy to integrate democratic and justice-oriented values into the fabric of society.
Centring lived experiences and deepening relationships corresponds with Fraser & Glass’ idea of “scaling deep” where change is integrated into society, cementing a strong foundation for sustained systems change. This means that when progressive political spaces do open up, this foundation is in place and workers can rapidly mobilize to use the opportunity. For example, in the case of our COVID-19 study, the data supported HomeNet Thailand’s long-standing demands for adjustments to Article 40 of Thailand’s Social Security Fund and enabled worker organizations in Peru to take part in the development of national strategy for market traders.
Scaling Out: Engaging Communities of Practice for Policy Change
The Power-Shifts Framework’s concept of scaling out focuses on creating broad networks to amplify impact across communities of practice. Through shared policy visions, these communities can introduce evidence at critical decision-making moments.
This strategy has taken shape through our Tax Justice work to improve the evidence base on taxation of workers in informal employment and to shape tax policies so they are fairer. This broad-network approach creates multiple pathways for influence.
WIEGO's partnership in Accra, Ghana with the International Center for Tax and Development is a good example of how epistemic communities leverage complementary strengths to create robust research processes that influence policy at scale.
WIEGO brings deep connections to grass-roots organizations and grounded expertise on the informal economy, while ICTD contributes tax-design experience and strong relationships with revenue authorities.
The research collaboration helped to formalize a community of practice on informality and taxation through the African Tax Administration Forum, which is a regional body of revenue authorities, allowing the research to influence local, national and regional levels. Co-publishing with the OECD and World Bank built credibility within the broader community of tax professionals.
By linking research and policy networks, the Tax Justice work has engaged international financial institutions, academics, revenue authorities and organizations of workers in informal employment. The result is an epistemic community that can transform research findings into coordinated policy influence at multiple levels, while staying grounded in workers’ experiences.
Scaling Up: Connecting Local Demands to Global Narrative and Policy Shifts
Scaling up focuses on amplifying research through institutional pathways. For WIEGO, scaling up also means ensuring that we are connecting grass-roots realities to global policy shifts.
WIEGO’s Challenging the Economic Orthodoxies Undermining Universal Social Protection project is a good example. We knew from our engagements with worker organizations of the strong demand for subsidies to social insurance schemes to enable the inclusion of poorer workers. But we also knew that such arguments always come up against an established economic narrative, particularly prevalent in Latin America, that subsidies are an incentive to informality and unemployment.
We had to do two things: produce research that could challenge the dominant economic narrative; and build alliances with key international organizations to ensure our research was carried into broader policy discussions. In this case, we worked with highly skilled econometricians to produce analyses that questioned the assumed link between social insurance subsidies and informality.
Study outcomes were amplified through established platforms, including reports with the ILO and Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development, and a blog for the Inter-American Development Bank highlighting that Mexico’s universal health coverage scheme did not create more informality. The work has led to collaborative engagements with the Inter-American Conference on Social Security, the regional body to which national social security administrations are affiliated. The aim is to ensure that national-level dialogue on the design of fair and inclusive social insurance systems is not shut down on the basis of problematic economic assumptions.
A crucial step brought these arguments and resources directly to worker leaders. WIEGO recently conducted in-depth training on the financing and economics of social protection for workers, bridging local organizing with national and global policy debates.
Research as a Tool for Policy Change and Democratic Engagement
These three approaches – scaling deep, scaling up and scaling out – demonstrate that systems change requires a multiscalar and non-linear strategy. Success hinges on diverse actors leveraging multiple entry points to shift power and reshape narrative, practices and policy. Whether through foundational relationship-building, network expansion or institutional engagement, each approach strengthens the quality of dialogue and evidence that democracies require to function.
Beyond this, the workers in informal employment who anchor WIEGO's research remind us that democracy is not an abstract ideal, but a lived experience rooted in economic justice and social recognition. When research elevates workers’ voices and validates their knowledge, it reveals its function – not only as a tool for systems change, but as a practice of democratic engagement itself.