Worker Education & Advocacy Materials

For Domestic Workers' Organizations

Your Toolkit on ILO Convention 189 - The Domestic Workers Convention

WIEGO and the IDWF partnered to write this toolkit to support IDWF affiliates in their efforts to make C189 real for domestic workers.

Also available in Français and Português (Swahili forthcoming).

For Street Vendors

Working in Public Space: A Manual for Street Vendors is meant to help readers to:

• Reflect on what it means to be a street vendor working in public space, the contributions you make and the challenges you face.
• Get informed about regulations, the arguments you can use to defend the right to work in public space, and the actions other street vendor organizations have taken.
• Get organized. Join up with an existing organization or help organize a new one. When you are strong and ready, approach your local government and negotiate for the changes you want to see.

For Homeworkers

How Homeworkers Can Use the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector (PDF)

This 2020 guide explains the OECD Guidelines for Multi-National Enterprises (MNEs) and MNEs’ responsibilities to workers in their supply chains. It contains provisions that relate specifically to homeworkers. This guidebook explains how the complaints process works, with examples, and suggests how homeworkers' organizations might use the OECD Guidance as part of their advocacy strategies to secure decent work for homeworkers.

The Only School We Have - Organizing Experiences from Across the Informal Economy

The Only School We Have: Learning from Organizing Experiences Across the Informal Economy (also available in Spanish) is a guidebook for building membership-based organizations. Success stories from around the world highlight the importance of mobilizing workers.

Organizing in the Informal Economy

Six booklets are available in English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian:

• Recruiting Informal Workers into Democratic Workers’ Organisations (ICC1): English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian
• Building and Maintaining a Democratic Organisation of Informal Workers (ICC2): English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian
• Handling the Day-To-Day Problems of Informal Workers (ICC3): English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian
• Collective Negotiations for Informal Workers (ICC4): English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian
• Handling Disputes between Informal Workers and those in Power (ICC5): English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian
• Collective Action for Informal Workers (ICC6): English, Spanish, French, Portuguese and Russian

Child Care Campaign

• Find Child care campaign materials in multiple languages to use in your advocacy work

Advocacy Tools and Publications

• We Are Workers, Too! by Celia Mather - resource manual for home-based workers
• Tools for Advocacy: Social Protection for Informal Workers by Francie Lund and Jillian Nicholson
• Promoting the ILO Home Work Convention (C177) and the Rights of Homeworkers: A Manual for Workers’ Educators and Facilitators by Dave Spooner and Celia Mather
• WIEGO Network Platform: Transitioning from the Informal to the Formal Economy in the Interest of Workers in the Informal Economy

Case Studies

• Refusing to be Cast Aside: Waste Pickers Organising Around the World by Melanie Samson
• Options for Organizing Waste Pickers in South Africa by Jan Theron
• Organizing Reclaimers in Tshwane, South Africa: Lessons from the Top Down and Bottom Up Experiences by Melanie Samson
• "Yes, We Did It!": How the World's Domestic Workers Won Their International Rights and Recognition by Celia Mather

Training Manuals: Developing Leadership and Business Skills for Informal Women Workers in Fair Trade

• Introduction & Training Module 1: Understanding Gender and Employment Relations
• Training Module 2: Understanding Women's Economic and Social Contribution to Effective Poverty Reduction
• Training Module 3: Promoting Democratic Participation and Accountability
• Training Module 4: Enhancing Financial and Business Management Skills
• Training Module 5: Understanding the Market
• Training Module 6: Quality Management Systems
• Training Module 7: Improving Innovation and Production Techniques

Other Sources

• SEWA Academy produces materials and arranges exposure visits on organizing MBOs based on the SEWA experience.
• Visit Building Organizations on the Inclusive Cities website.
• The International Domestic Workers' Federation has a Resources section.
• StreetNet International's Organising Strategies web page offers resources. 
• Worker resource by DVV International: Re-making the World
• ITUC, 2011, Decent Work, Decent Life for Domestic Workers