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Low industrial growth, declining agricultural sector and limited expansion of formal sector employment in India have increasingly forced the poor to take recourse to informal sources of livelihoods. Street vending is one such thriving source of self-employment across cities. This book delves into...
Abstract : This qualitative study aims to understand how and why different groups of informal women entrepreneurs in Nepal engage with, or make the transition to the formal sector. Read a news article about the study.
Abstract: Street vendors in Mexico and day laborers in the United States, both groups of informal workers who labor in public space, face formidable structural obstacles to securing their rights as workers. Despite their apparent vulnerability, these informal workers have built perhaps the most...
This paper investigates ways in which linkages between the informal and formal segments of an economy yield benefits to, or impose costs upon, informal workers, based on self-reporting by market and street vendors in Accra regarding their relationships with the formal economy and its institutions...
Abstract: Millions of people worldwide work outside the law as street vendors in order to earn a living. However, they often work in fear of police evictions and confiscations since their work is in many places considered illegal. In this context, formalization (steps towards legalization) is often...
Mean Streets , edited by ACC partners Jonathan Crush, Abel Chikanda and Caroline Skinner, demonstrates powerfully that some of the most resourceful entrepreneurs in the South African informal economy are migrants and refugees. Yet far from being lauded, they take their life into their hands when...
Abstract: For most, the term “public space” conjures up images of large, open areas: community centers for meetings and social events; the ancient Greek agora for political debates; green parks for festivals and recreation. In many of the world’s major cities, however, public spaces like these are...
In most Indian cities the urban poor survive by working in the informal economy. Poverty and lack of gainful employment in the rural areas and in the smaller towns drive large numbers of people to the cities for work and livelihood. Street vendors form the most visible segment of the urban informal...
This case study illustrates the efforts of two membership-based organizations of market traders and street vendors in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area—namely, the Makola Market Traders Union and the Ga East Traders Union—to achieve better health and safety working conditions. It also shows how by...
Videos / Slideshows / Audio
Millions of women work long hours, in dangerous conditions, for little pay. They are fighting for change, with the help of ILO Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Watch this video to learn how.
Workers Education/Organizing Materials
This manual helps street vendors learn more about the regulations that govern public space and how to defend the right to work in public space. It describes successful actions taken by street vendor organizations. And it offers information to help you organize and negotiate with local government.
WIEGO Working Papers
Mike Rogan reviews how informal workers are taxed, why there is growing interest in taxing them, and whether they should be included in the tax net.