WIEGO’s OHS project supported the ongoing work of the Worker’s Health Unit (PISAT) at the Institute for Collective Health at the Federal University of Bahia, which is headed by Professor Vilma Santana.
Together with WIEGO, the Institute:
- conducted research on OHS in three informal occupational groups (domestic workers, street vendors, and waste pickers)
- ran an advocacy campaign with the Salvador municipality on the prevention of hearing loss among street vendors during the Salvador Carnival.
WIEGO also helped to support the Institute's ongoing work on the
integration of worker's health into the primary health care system and
contributed to a dialogue held in Salvador City in 2012 called "Primary
Health Care and Workers' Health - Possibilities and Challenges for Informal
Workers' Safety and Health Care."
Brazil has moved far along the path of integrating occupational health into primary
health care. In 2012, breakthroughs in Brazil saw the adoption of the first National
Workers’ Health Policy, which regards informal workers as legal workers, and stipulates
that the type of employment (formal or informal) must be registered with the health
information systems.
In October 2014, WIEGO supported a group of community
health workers from the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India on an
exchange visit to Brazil so that they could learn first-hand about how occupational health
can be integrated into primary healthcare.