Make yourself seen - make yourself count: international seminar - Information of Interest International - Brief Article

WIN News, Spring, 2002

ORGANISING WOMEN WORKERS IN THE INFORMAL SECTOR: INITIATIVES AND ALTERNATIVES TO SELF-EMPLOYMENT

'IRENE'- INTERNATIONAL RESTRUCTURING EDUCATION NETWORK EUROPE - Stationstraat 39, 5038 EC Tilburg, THE NETHERLANDS

fax: 31.13.535.15.23

e-mail: IRENE@ANTENNA.NL

INTRODUCTION:

"The event was inspiring and led to many new initiatives and activities. The informal sector and the women and men working in it is of current interest. Too many women and men - they are the majority of the worlds workforce, their number is growing - earn a living without any protective measurements.

The seminar reported in this article focussed on informal sector workers. All participants were related to women's organisations, NGOs and trade unions, dealing directly with women in the informal sector. Sixty-two participants from all over the world. From Kirgystan, Mongolia and Estonia to Peru and Venezuela. From India and Korea to Togo and South Africa. Women with different backgrounds, different cultures and a different informal-sector-context talked about their experiences in their struggle to improve the situation of women workers in the informal sector. Result is worldwide insight, put on paper in the regional action plans.

IRENE

THE PIVOT IS VISIBILITY

Visibility of women workers in the informal sector is an essential condition to get them on the political agenda of trade unions, NGOs, support organisations and on the (inter)national political agenda, in order to improve labour rights and labour conditions.

During the seminar there was special attention for differrent forms and stiles of co-operation.

This article ends with action plans of the different organisations present. For IRENE this seminar was one of a group to make women workers in the informal sector visible. IRENE's field OF WORK lies in providing support and stimulating awareness. One concrete outcome, in which the experiences of participants of the seminar are an important source, is an education pack on women workers in the informal sector, which is available via email, free of costs.

STRONG WOMEN IN A GLOBAL CONTEXT

The informal sector is not static, but influenced by international restructuring processes. . .

It is important to know the economic and legal context of the informal sector in each country/region. ... Unemployment increased and many people sought their luck in other countries causing a brain drain. Problems like outsourcing and subcontracting are new to this region. . . Many former female professions are taken over by men and women ended up working in the informal sector. . .

VISIBILITY

The women workers the participants focused on are: home based workers, self-employed women, street vendors, marginalised workers, day labourers, sex workers, care workers, street youth, unpaid family workers etc. These women workers share: a lack of recognition of their needs as well as of their contribution; unemployment; lack of access to training, credit, market entrance. . .

All participants representing their organisations were very good in telling what more needed to be done to reach their goals set. . .

The trade unions of women in the informal sector (like SEWA in India) have a lot to offer and came up with strategies like: adapt democratic (union structures), work on community basis and include family members, push equality issues in the unions, train trainers to organise the informal sector, create separate unions for the informal sector, make alliances with other organisations. . .

IRENE

OTHER SUBJECTS COVERED ARE:

Credit: A Useful Tool If....// Together More Efficient and Effective // Action Plan // Organising // Networking // Education // Research // Rules and Legislation // Credit // Raise Public Awareness.

FROM THE CONCLUSION:

Workers in the informal sector, and especially women workers, create the basis for the 'formal' economy and the future. Women workers in the informal sector are the cork on which the formal economy and the future floats. A women's income is used to feed her family. Women are the caretakers of the workforce, the existing and the new. Yet they are regarded as 'free commodities'. Assumptions behind various policies do not value nor take into account the contribution of women workers in the informal sector to the economy and society. The result is that local and national governments, international institutions and even trade unions do not provide enabling environments for initiatives to develop on the social, economic and political level and legal improvements for the informal sector."