WIEGO Blog

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. 

WIEGO’s CataSaúde Viraliza project – an online capacity building course – was created in Brazil in 2020 as a response to challenges posed by the COVID-19 pandemic. An important goal was to create lasting connections during a time of isolation between organized and autonomous workers, as well as among waste pickers in the Latin America region.