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This article (read the abstract here ) was published in a special issue of the International Journal of Sociology and Social Policy. The special issue was focused on "Integrating perspectives in the informal economy." The authors are all part of WIEGO's Urban Policies Programme . The article is...
Waste pickers are one of the three urban informal worker groups – along with street vendors and home-based workers – who are the focus of the 10-city Informal Economy Monitoring Study (IEMS). The IEMS seeks to provide more recent and in-depth evidence of the contributions and challenges this group...
The Informal Economy Monitoring Study (IEMS) is designed to provide credible, grounded evidence of the range of driving forces, both positive and negative, that affect conditions of work in the urban informal economy in 10 cities over time. Specifically, it examines how informal workers are affected...
Abstract: The dual challenges of increasing urbanization and consumption are centered in cities in the Global South, where growing waste production threatens public and environmental health. Reuse and recycling are widely recognized to provide broad environmental benefits. Although most...
This article focuses on how women waste pickers identify and deal with hierarchical gender relations. Based on findings from an exploratory participatory research action project with women waste pickers in Minas Gerais, Brazil, it reflects on the different forms of oppression experienced by women...
Women waste pickers experience multiple forms of oppression within the sector, despite the invisibility of these specific gender-based vulnerabilities. Based on findings from a research-action project with women waste pickers, this paper maps out the objectives of the participatory project and...
Melanie Samson, former coordinator of WIEGO’s work with waste pickers in Africa, recently published an article entitled "Accumulation by Dispossession and the Informal Economy: Struggles Over Knowledge, Waste and Being at a Soweto Garbage Dump" in Environment and Planning D: Society and Space...
Report highlighting cases from North Africa and the Middle East of inclusive waste management systems. Lessons for improved practice in waste management in middle-income countries.
This brief provides a practical guide to collecting and compiling statistics on specific categories of informal workers – home based workers, street vendors, waste pickers and domestic workers. The methods discussed can be used in designing questions in surveys to collect data on these workers. It...
The involvement of informal workers in municipal service delivery is generally theorized and studied as a key component of a neoliberal privatization agenda that erodes both the public sector and the rights of workers employed within it. This paper critically analyses innovative approaches to...
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.