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.
Brazil has been a global trailblazer when it comes to integrating waste pickers in solid waste management systems. But its progressive policies didn’t happen overnight. In fact, a highly coordinated communications effort in the small, southeastern city of Belo Horizonte supported the awakening of a national movement. From song and dance in the streets to widespread signage to talks in schools, the Belo Horizonte Sanitation Agency turned their public awareness campaign into a priority – and an art form in itself.
At a bustling Bangkok market, vendor Aurapin Sakvichit happily greets customers interested in her wares: pink dresses, designer-style tops, and colourful cotton bags. Aurapin knows the routine; she’s been at it for decades.
She says she enjoys everything she does with her work, despite its challenges. “I love crafting. It doesn’t matter how much I earn.”
That’s an attitude that’s changed since her children have grown up and she doesn’t carry the same pressures to balance both providing for them and watching over them as a single mother.
In Dakar, Senegal, the city’s dirty laundry doesn’t get cleaned on a spin cycle.
Each day, women across the city spend back-breaking hours hand-washing the lot: thousands of pounds of dirty clothes, sheets, towels, and blankets. Often strapping a young child to their backs, the laundresses wait for prospective clients to approach them from their informal posts along the city streets.
À Dakar, au Sénégal, le linge sale de la ville ne se nettoie pas au cycle d’essorage.
Chaque jour, d’un bout à l’autre de la ville, les femmes passent des heures à laver à la main des milliers de kilos de linge, de draps, de serviettes et de couvertures sales, un travail éreintant. Portant souvent un petit enfant au dos, les lingères de rue attendent que les clients potentiels se présentent à leur poste informel le long des rues de la ville.
Urban employment trends in India have defied predictions and stereotypes. Rather than being increasingly absorbed into modern, formal wage employment, the urban workforce in India is becoming increasingly informal.
