WIEGO proposes new framework

Not enough.

Academicians Martha Chen and Sandie Lund of the network Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO)  said about the dominant perspectives on informal labour. Influenced by the market-led development framework, these perspectives have largely ignored the contributions of the informal economy and the risks placed on informal workers who are mostly women. In a forum organised by the College of Social Work and Community Development of the University of the Philippines last March 2008, Chen demonstrated the immense role played by informal work both in developing and developed countries.

The labour sector of developed countries consists of 25 to 40 percent non-standard workers and 12 percent self-employed workers. The figures become more glaring in the developing countries where informal work constitutes 60 to 90 percent while 31 to 53 percent are engaged in non-agricultural activities. There is also a high percentage of informal work in developing regions like South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa, with 75 percent, South East and East Asia, 65 percent, Latin America, 51 percent and Middle East and North Africa, 48 percent.
Chen reasoned that this is partly due to the size of the public sector. But these figures have not accounted for the contribution of women's work particularly home-based work.

Chen then asserts that “we have to change labour market theories. We are arguing for a  multi-segmented framework.”  In a multi-segmented framework, the reality of women's relegation to tedious, dangerous, and even unpaid work is rendered visible. This will also reflect the reproductive labour spent in caring both for younger children and the elderly.

Chen also pointed out the strong link between informality and poverty. This can be seen in the economic and social mobility of informal workers, that even as they work longer hours without any social benefits, informal workers remain poor. “Poverty reduction is impossible unless you increase assets and incomes and reduce informal work,” she added.

The crisis on the lack of social protection and subsidies for workers  can be traced to structural adjustment policies many developing nations have been forced to embraced. SAP has led to a significant decrease on social spending and the consequent privatisation of social services. As Lund asserts, “It is time to move beyond 'safety nets approach and make a social investment on social protection.”

Emphasing the role of the welfare state in development and its responsibilities in ensuring the human rights of individuals in the informal work, WIEGO proposed a more comprehensive definition of informal economy: “The informal economy is a diversified set of economic activities, enterprises and workers that are not regulated and protected by the state”

WIEGO is a global research-policy network focusing on workers, especially women in the informal economy and their relations to global trade, urban policies, social protection, and statistics, among others. Since 1998, it has been facilitating the organisation and representation of informal workers for various policy dialogues and processes.