Advanced Search
Search Results
260 results found
By Carlin Carr 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...
By Carlin Carr & Gabriella Tanvé 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...
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. Delhi is no different: the vast majority of the city’s workers – 71 per cent – are...
In January 2018, Dr. Sally Roever, former Urban Policies Programme Director at WIEGO, took over as International Coordinator — a title, she says, that matches the organization’s “non-hierarchical” structure. With a Ph.D. in political science from the University of California at Berkeley, Dr. Roever...
By Jenna Harvey & Tania Espinosa Sanchez Mexico City’s shoe shiners (aseadores de calzado) have been earning a living on the city’s streets for over a century. The sector started to expand in the wake of the Mexican Revolution, when the city saw an influx of migrants in search of work. During this...
In Mexico City, a controversy is brewing over a proposed billion-dollar waster incinerator that threatens the livelihoods of the city’s estimated 10,000-plus volunteer waste pickers. On this International Waste Pickers’ Day, we speak with WIEGO’s Focal City Coordinator in Mexico City, Tania Espinosa...
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...
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...
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...
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...
Videos / Slideshows / Audio
Millions of women work long hours, in dangerous conditions, for little pay. They are fighting for change, with the help of ILO Convention 189 on Decent Work for Domestic Workers. Watch this video to learn how.
Workers Education/Organizing Materials
This manual helps street vendors learn more about the regulations that govern public space and how to defend the right to work in public space. It describes successful actions taken by street vendor organizations. And it offers information to help you organize and negotiate with local government.
WIEGO Working Papers
Mike Rogan reviews how informal workers are taxed, why there is growing interest in taxing them, and whether they should be included in the tax net.