WIEGO is in the midst of a research project focused on occupational health and safety (OHS) for informal workers. Coordinated through WIEGO’s Social Protection Programme, the OHS project began in 2009 and is now operating in five countries (Brazil, Ghana, India, Peru and Tanzania). The work in two countries, Ghana and Tanzania, is funded by the MDG3 grant that supports the Women's Economic Empowerment project.

The OHS project involves working with organizations of informal workers (street vendors, waste pickers, home-based workers and others), and aims to influence mainstream OHS to be inclusive of informal workers.

OHS in Ghana

In Ghana, WIEGO partnered with the Institute for Local Government Studies (ILGS) in Accra, and worked with StreetNet Ghana Alliance, Makola Market, and the Indigenous Caterers Association of Ghana (chop bar operators) to effectively engage with policymakers and relevant national authorities. Dorcas Ansah, a gifted Ghanaian facilitator, “rehearsed” advocacy techniques with workers that led them to clarify what they hoped to achieve and discover better techniques for achieving it. “Practice Policy Dialogues,” also attended by local government officials, offered a safe environment in which to work on exerting their voices in meetings with powerful people from powerful organizations.

The results were positive. A Multi Stakeholder Policy Dialogue, the final phase of the project, was held in December 2011 and attended by representatives from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly (AMA) and the National Board for Small Scale Industries. During the workshop, the AMA made several commitments, including to work with trader associations to educate informal traders about the new computerized tax records, which create greater transparency in the tax system; to ensure that fire extinguishers are placed in the markets; and to clean a clogged gutter in Makola Market that has been a source of disease.

OHS in Tanzania

In Tanzania, participatory research was completed in collaboration with three unions: Conservation, Hotel, Domestic and Allied Workers Union (CHODAWU) with regard to domestic workers; Tanzania Union of Industrial and Commercial Workers (TUICO) to reach street vendors; and Tanzanian Plantation and Agricultural Workers Union (TPAWU) to reach informal agricultural workers. The research offered more opportunity for union workers to connect with the informal workers’ groups they have been working to organize.

For more information about this project, visit our microsite: Occupational Health & Safety in the Informal Economy.