African home-based workers are at the bottom of craft supply chains. Through an increased understanding of those supply chains they could overcome some of the challenges they are facing and improve their livelihoods.
« Je veux voir une ville sans expulsions. Je veux les voir [vendeurs de rue] jouir du droit à la ville, où aucun gouvernement, aucun fonctionnaire, ne va les harceler. Mais nous devons le faire en vertu d’un règlement et, même si nous voulons avoir accès à la ville – nous voulons y exercer notre activité – nous estimons également que nous avons notre propre rôle à jouer. » — Anass Ibriahim, président de l’Association des marchands ambulants et des vendeurs informels du Ghana
“I want to see an eviction-free city. I want to see them [street vendors] having a right to the city, where no government, no official, will harass them. But we have to do it under a regulation, even though we want access in the city — we want to operate in the city — we also believe that we have our own part to play.” - Anass Ibriahim, President of the Informal Hawkers and Vendors Association of Ghana
Next month, we’ll find out if director Alfonso Cuarón Orozco’s moving portrayal of a domestic worker in 1970s Mexico will gain nods from the Academy with an Oscar. Having recently taken home “Best Picture” at the Critics’ Choice Awards, hopes are high.
Change doesn’t come passively, especially for the world’s most invisible workers. That’s why informal workers across the globe have been rallying together, forming stronger and savvier membership-based organizations and standing up to demand recognition and rights.
These five stories exemplify the important outcomes of grassroots organizing efforts – from a new street vendor organization calling on Bangkok’s municipality to halt evictions to women headloaders in Accra’s famed markets who demanded the abolishment of unfair tolls.
