WIEGO Blog

Municipalities across Peru have been employing a strategy to improve conditions for street vendors: support their movement from sellers on the sidewalks to more formal roofed markets. The transition is one that first began in Lima in the 1980s and, due to its perceived success, has been widely adopted. However, WIEGO Statistical Brief N° 16 found that this move on its own is not a solution.

Por Lissette Aliaga

By Jenna Harvey

It is morning rush hour in Bangkok and moto-taxi drivers ferry hurried commuters through stalled traffic. In Mexico City, shoe shiners line up outside office buildings, offering their services to professionals on their way to work. In Lima, parents walking their children to school stop to purchase a newspaper from a local vendor. 

By Carlin Carr

On a quiet lane, Mayuri Suepwong, a member of HomeNet Thailand, is working away in her colorful, two-story home. Her main room suits her well as a workspace: it’s a wide-open area, leaving plenty of floor area to conduct her home-based garment-making business. Various materials are piled in corners and on empty countertops. Dresses-in-progress hang along the walls. A single, pink fan keeps the room cool – a necessity in the hot and humid Bangkok weather.

A discussion with Mirai Chatterjee on SEWA’s holistic model and approach

The Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India has been a pioneering trade union for poor women workers since 1972, branching off into a number of different initiatives to holistically support its members. It soon realized that a major need for women working in the informal economy was child care – but child care that met their unique needs.