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policies and interventions
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case study 72. organising the informal workers around the world. - streetnet international
the informal economy is a broad term used to describe a very large and growing sector of the global economy where
the world's working poor earn a living. the term seeks to capture the reality of the large share of the global workforce who
remain outside the social institutions of full-time, secure, stable and protected jobs and, in many cases, lack any social
protection. Worldwide it is estimated that informal work, broadly defined, comprises one-half to three-quarters of nonagricultural
employment in middle- and low-income countries, with the highest numbers in asia and sub-saharan africa
(international labour organization, 2002). informal work traverses many occupations, including self-employed and ownaccount
workers, migrant, casual, and temporary workers in an increasingly globalising world economy. the informal
economy also comprises different sectors. apart from street vendors, informal market vendors and hawkers (streetnet's
sector), there are also waste collectors, home-based, informal transport and agricultural workers, and other occupations.
in recent years there has been substantial development in the global organisation of workers in the informal economy
with the direct involvement of the trade union movement as well as in the form of a new social movement of informal
workers’ organisations. streetnet is an international federation formed in 1995 by a group of activists from eleven countries
committed to increasing the visibility, voice and bargaining power of street vendors throughout the world. in 2002, this
organisation was formally established in durban, south africa, and today dozens of organisations from all over the world
are affiliated in streetnet international, mainly from africa, latin america and asia, including, for example, the Zimbabwean
chamber informal economy associations (Zciea), the self-employed Women’s association (seWa), the national alliance of
street vendors of india (nasvi), the Korean street vendors confederation (Kosc), the confederacion de trabajadores por
cuenta propia (ctcp) of nicaragua, and the Federacion nacional de organizaciones de trabajadores no asalariados
(Fnotna) of Mexico (see streetnet).
streetnet’s key objectives include the following: to promote local, national and international solidarity between
organisations of street vendors, market vendors and hawkers, and stimulate the development of national alliances of such
organisations; to build an information base on the numbers and situation of street vendors in different parts of the world;
to organise strategies for promoting and protecting the rights of street vendors; to encourage statutory bargaining forums
between street vendors and authorities at the national and local levels of government; and to promote the representation of
street vendors through their representative organisations as part of, or in alliance with, national labour movements. some
of the activities of this network are the organisation of meetings, workshops, panel/public presentations, international
forums and conferences, international campaigns, educational activities, policy work and training for street vendors,
campaigns to identify suitable areas for litigation in various countries, and general assistance in terms of support and
information. a concrete example is its work with global Union Federations (gUFs), with a three-year programme of work in
partnership with Union network international (Uni) from 2005 – 2007 in eight francophone West african countries.
streetnet promotes the following measures to be undertaken to improve the lives of workers in the informal
economy: labour legislation, social policies, and representation. labour legislation needs to focus on both vulnerable
wage workers and own-account workers in the informal economy. examples of policies are the provision an
administrative basis for benefits such as social security schemes, development of appropriate taxation systems
suitable to the particular conditions of wage workers and own-account workers, and provision of financial and nonfinancial
support measures including legal services and skills training. governments should develop integrated
national strategies whose coverage is inclusive of workers in the informal economy. Finally, workers in the informal
economy have to increase their voice through advocacy of extending existing regulatory systems to include workers
in the informal economy, or through the creation of new bargaining forums (Horn, 2005; 2008).
streetnet advocates new organisational forms and new strategies that go beyond standard activities undertaken by
traditional unions, in order to develop new approaches to the workplace of workers in the informal economy and define their
organising activities and strategies according to the types of workplaces where their members are working. streetnet works
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