Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a Manchester-based global research–policy network focused on improving conditions for workers in the informal economy. WIEGO's members include membership-based organizations of workers in the informal economy, researchers and development professionals.
The WIEGO network was founded in 1997 by a group of ten activists, researchers, and development practitioners, following a specialist's meeting on the informal economy in Bellagio, Italy. and currently a senior advisor with the network. The founding steering committee chair was Indian civil rights leader Ela Bhatt.
In July 2007, WIEGO was registered as a not-for-profit company limited by guarantee in the UK (WIEGO Ltd.) with a formal Constitution and Articles of Association. In 2011, WIEGO was granted charity status by the Charity Commission for England and Wales (Registered Charity No. 1143510).
Mission and goals
WIEGO's stated mission: "WIEGO believes all workers should have equal economic opportunities and rights and be able to determine the conditions of their work and lives. WIEGO works to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy through increased organization and representation; improved statistics and research; more inclusive policy processes; and more equitable trade, labour, urban, and social protection policies." Its objectives, as detailed in the Register of Charities, are "to relieve poverty in particular the poverty of the working poor in the informal economy caused by low earnings, high risks, and adverse working environments and conditions associated with the informal economy worldwide (including non-standard or unprotected employment for formal firms)".
Programmes and activities
WIEGO supports working poor women by ensuring they have adequate information, knowledge, and tools, and by enabling them to mobilize around their rights, enhancing their safety and earnings. Membership-based organizations (MBOs) of informal workers are always involved in the identification, prioritization, and design of WIEGO activities.
Impact of global recession
In 2009 and again in 2010, WIEGO coordinated Global Economic Crisis studies to determine how informal workers were being affected by the global economic downturn. The study was executed by organizations involved in the global Inclusive Cities project,
Domestic workers' rights
From 2009 to 2011, funding from the Government of the Netherlands MDG3 Fund enabled WIEGO to assist domestic workers in their struggle for an international convention to help secure their rights as workers. WIEGO helped establish the International Domestic Workers' Network (IDWN) and provided technical and strategic advice, research, and capacity-building, as well as assisting the IDWN with fundraising. Such practical support allowed domestic workers to represent themselves at the International Labour Conference (ILC) in 2010 and 2011. On June 16, 2011, governments, employers, and workers from around the world adopted the Convention and accompanying Recommendation on Decent Work for Domestic Workers (Convention 189) at the 100th ILC in Geneva, Switzerland.
Membership-based organizations of informal workers that are actively involved with WIEGO are asked to become Institutional Members. Individuals from the other two constituencies who are involved with WIEGO can become Individual Members. As of March 2014, the network had 172 Members – 33 Institutional and 139 Individual Members – from 40 countries.
- Lin Lim Lean, Independent Consultant/Malaysia
- Barbo Budin, Gender Equality and Projects Officer at the IUF
- William Steel, University of Ghana/Ghana
- Debra Davis