WIEGO Blog

Waste pickers at the Mbeubeuss dumpsite have set up their own cooperative in an effort to be integrated into the new waste management model put forward by the government.

The rhetoric of an easing COVID-19 pandemic obscures the array of occupational health and safety risks that the world’s informal workers still face and that have accumulated during the pandemic.

A recently launched report by the World Bank that provides guidance on how to expand Social Protection for the Informal Economy in Africa and beyond, requires a response.

Informal economy worker-led social protection schemes are certainly not a substitute for universal social protection, but they can play a key role in its realization.

During the pandemic, when waste pickers face harassment, eviction, stigmatization and a decline in earnings, building connections has proven an important mental aid and critical survival strategy for many. On International Waste Pickers’ Day, we celebrate those connections.