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Bangladeshi garment workers and the work of BGMEA

Chittagong, 19 September 2016 — The readymade garments sector (RMG) in Bangladesh has been making crucial contribution to the country and its economy, accounting for 81% of the total export earnings of the country. Apart from being the major earner of foreign currency, the RMG sector creates employment for over 4 million people, the vast majority of whom are women. See more.

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Bangladeshi garment workers and the work of BGMEA

Preyanka Chowdhury, Chittagong Community Manager

Chittagong, 19 September 2016

Functional since 1983, The Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) is one of the largest trade associations in the country representing the readymade garment industry. The major focus of BGMEA has been to ensure the promotion and facilitation of the apparel industry through policy advocacy to the government, services to members, ensuring workers’ rights, and social compliance at factories.

Apart from ensuring sustainable growth of the garments industry in Bangladesh through the adoption of various strategic policies, BGMEA emphasizes the legitimate rights and privileges of garment workers. As part of their Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), BGMEA ensures future financial solvency and economic independence of individuals by casting a special focus on insurance schemes for workers and staff in this sector. Additionally, BGMEA ensures greater human capital and empowerment through skill development programs for garment workers through several training centers spread around the country.

Catering to 60,000 garment workers per year, BGMEA runs twelve health centers that provide free healthcare facilities and medicine in Chittagong and Dhaka. Various awareness programs on HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis, reproductive health and use of contraceptives are also conducted regularly. They also operate a fully-equipped hospital in Chittagong which caters to the workers of BGMEA-member factories.

Along with healthcare facilities, the BGMEA encourages literacy for the children of the garment workers by operating five schools, where free books, stationary, and scholarship facilities for meritorious students are provided. The Association also extends free or affordable housing for the workers of member factories. In collaboration with the Chittagong Development Authority (CDA), the BGMEA have recently constructed a workers dormitory that can accommodate 3000 workers.

The BGMEA’s member-factories are compelled to work towards social development of their employees as part of their commitment to the Association’s principles. The factories operate free in-house medical facilities and equipped day care centers for the children of their workers. Many garment factories stand out by offering services and benefits that enrich the lives of their workers in many ways. These range from providing opportunities for workers with disabilities and ensuring hospitable working conditions, to providing free lunch, transport, and in some places, subsidized retail shops that sell basic necessities to them, making a real difference in their lives.
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Recognizing Informal Trade in City Development Plans

Nairobi, 28 July 2016 — An analysis of the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey of 2004/6 shows that 61% of urban workers in Kenya are informal traders against only 34% formal traders. These include both men and women involved in small/unregistered trade activities such as domestic workers, street vendors, hawkers among others. These informal businesses offer support not only to the larger city economy but also local market level that is affordable to low-income households/slum families. See more.

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Recognizing Informal Trade in City Development Plans

Diana Kinya, Nairobi Community Manager

Nairobi, 28 July 2016

An analysis of the Kenya Integrated Household Budget Survey of 2004/6 shows that 61% of urban workers in Kenya are informal traders against only 34% formal traders. These include both men and women involved in small/unregistered trade activities such as domestic workers, street vendors, hawkers among others. These informal businesses offer support not only to the larger city economy but also local market level that is affordable to low-income households/slum families (locally reffered to as “Kadogo economy”). This allows goods to be sold at lowest quantity to an extent that a family can buy packaged sugar enough only for one day unlike in the normal market where the lowest quantity of sugar would be a kilo. This makes it such a vibrant sector in the informal settlements supporting not only the traders system but the residents as well.

Due to its unrecognized nature, informal trade is not planned for in the Nairobi master plan and, therefore, informal economic activities infringe on any open land, such as road reserve, railway reserve, town streets and other undeveloped public/private spaces. They often face numerous evictions from the city officials, and many evenings in Nairobi are characterized by running battles between the street vendors and the city police trying to forcefully evict the traders from the streets. However, immediately, as soon as the police leave, the traders get back to the streets.

"Every time I see the 'kanjo' chasing the roadside traders in the estate and in the CBD, I cry at the lack of vision in us as Africans. Their existance tells us that there is need for the role that they play. Contrary to the popular assumption, Nairobi has enough space. We have not learned to utilize it. With a little imagination, the roadside traders can be offered better facilities for which to carry out their trade," says Miss Maina, a community organizer working with informal traders in Kibera where the railway reserve has been infringed upon by informal traders. These traders have been involved in carrying out daily activities, including cooking, fast food, and selling clothes and other wares along the reserve, resulting in operation derailment accidents, deaths and loss of property.

In 2010 the Kenya Railways Corpration through the suport of World Bank while working together with informal traders in Kibera and Mukuru slums saw the need and an opportunity to develop innovative ideas that could reclaim the railway reserve being infringed upon by traders while at the same time giving them a chance to operate. The project aimed to establish an extended safety corridor for railway operations and maintenance in Mukuru and Kibera slums. Through establishment of a special planning area, the project developed a relocation action plan (RAP) that allowed for the land sharing of the railway reserve and set a portion of it to provide residential units for households and business stalls for informal traders who were operating on the reserve.

Through a negotiated model, the project was able to incoporate informal traders within the railway renovation plan by providing 1740 stalls for all the informal traders who were trading on the reserve and 30 units for informal schools to enable slum mothers get day care services for their children while working on their businesses.

By incoporating informal traders in its railway upgrading plan, the Kenya Railways Corporation has gone ahead to demonstarte that it is possible to achieve inclusive development with minimal disruptions of informal sources of livelihoods. The project was able to mitigate against social economic impacts of relocating the traders. While discussing with the beneficiaries on the difference between the initial and current situation, Mr Kyatu, one of the vendors said, “There is a great difference. Now we have a cleaner and more organized environment to work from. There are also security lights and we can therefore do business until late at night.” Mr Kyatu says that this kind of inclusive development not only ensures better working conditions for them but also safeguards their livelihoods against long-term hardship.
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Uma Mão Santa para os trabalhadores informais do Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, 27 julio 2016 — Negócio social iniciado na faculdade tem chamado atenção no Rio de Janeiro por tratar com sucesso duas lacunas da cidade: a oferta de serviços de reparo e manutenção de qualidade e a capacitação e formalização dos trabalhadores informais que geralmente oferecem estes serviços. Tudo isso utilizando tecnologias simples, empoderando mulheres e focando no desenvolvimento local dos bairros.Leia mais.

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Uma Mão Santa para os trabalhadores informais do Rio de Janeiro

Andréa Azambuja, Coordenadora da Rede em Rio de Janeiro

Rio de Janeiro, 27 julio 2016

Segundo o Instituto de Estudos do Trabalho e Sociedade (IETS), aproximadamente 1.5 milhões de profissionais trabalham na informalidade no setor de serviços no estado do Rio de Janeiro. Só na zona Sul e no Centro da capital são cerca de 41 mil pessoas, que estão sempre precisando de uma mãozinha para conseguir oportunidades, manter a clientela e evoluir nos serviços oferecidos.

É esse empurrãozinho que dá a Mão Santa, negócio social que utiliza a tecnologia para garantir qualidade na oferta de serviços em reformas e manutenção residencial (hidráulica, elétrica, revestimentos, alvenaria, pinturas, acabamentos) – um ramo em geral difuso e muitas vezes com forte característica de amadorismo – e, sobretudo, para promover a prosperidade dos trabalhadores autônomos na capital fluminense.

Com foco no desenvolvimento local dos bairros, a Mão Santa conecta demanda e oferta próximos, através de uma plataforma online, e assegura a qualidade da entrega e o comprometimento dos profissionais – um grande diferencial. Firma o compromisso, pois além de intermediar a relação, promove a qualificação de sua rede de parceiros, com treinamentos comportamentais, coaching, cursos técnicos e consultoria gratuita para formalização, para que todos abram oficialmente sua microempresa.

Além disso, desenvolve redes de parceria com a Empresa Júnior PUC-Rio – consultoria formada por alunos de diferentes cursos da universidade que oferece soluções interdisciplinares em gestão e estratégia –, com a Pastoral Universitária Anchieta PUC-Rio – que faz a ponte para que universitários estagiem ou voluntariem na start up – e com a Rede Cidadã, ONG que investe no trabalho social e, entre inúmeras frentes, aplica metodologias comportamentais que desenvolvem e reforçam competências.

Outro parceiro é o Mão na Massa, que qualifica mulheres em situação de vulnerabilidade no setor da construção civil – a formação é gratuita e, quando saem, além do diploma, as participantes recebem equipamento de proteção individual e um kit com ferramentas para dar início à carreira. Além de ter como objetivo gerar impacto social significativo na vida dos trabalhadores da área de maneira geral – com desenvolvimento pessoal, técnico e incremento de renda – o Mão Santa também tem a meta específica de incluir, valorizar, empoderar e disseminar a mão de obra feminina no ramo, majoritariamente masculino.

O Mão Santa é recente, teve início como como um projeto de faculdade, na PUC-Rio, no fim de 2014 e se estendeu ao programa Meu Futuro Negócio, onde conquistou o primeiro lugar e ganhou a oportunidade de ser pré-incubado pela incubadora Instituto Gênesis de forma gratuita, de julho de 2015 a abril de 2016.

No fim do ano passado, o projeto ficou entre os finalistas da Maratona de Negócios Sociais, promovida pelo Sebrae, que oferece módulos de capacitação, consultoria de especialistas e mentoria de empreendedores sociais experientes e, em abril deste ano, passou no processo seletivo do Shell Iniciativa Jovem 2016 Shell Iniciativa Jovem 2016, que teve mais de 750 empreendedores inscritos e oferece qualificação empreendedora, suporte e estímulo a redes de relacionamentos sustentáveis para que jovens de 20 a 34 anos desenvolvam seus próprios negócios.

Até abril, o Mão Santa estava sendo financiado com recursos próprios da equipe; agora, para entrar numa segunda fase de implementação, o grupo está buscando aporte de capital para atingir a escabilidade do negócio, implementar a plataforma online e desenvolver um aplicativo para celular que funcione por geolocalização.

Atualmente, a empresa está sediada na comunidade Vila Parque da Cidade, onde são prestados atendimentos individuais personalizados e dinâmicas em grupo, e auxilia 20 profissionais. A intenção é, até novembro de 2016, construir uma rede ampla de trabalhadores, regularizar a companhia e sustentá-la com porcentagens baixas em cima dos serviços de reparos prestados.
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Foto: Dirce Glória dos Santos, que se formou no Mão na Massa e hoje é sócia do Mão Santa. Créditos: Paulo Alvadia para Agência O Dia.

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Haciendo formal la informalidad comercial

Mexico D.F., 26 julio 2016 — En la Ciudad de México más de un millón de personas desempeñan una actividad comercial informal, es decir fuera del régimen de tributación fiscal y de protección social. La Presidencia de la República lanzó un programa para que las personas inscriban la actividad comercial en la formalidad gozando de derechos sociales. Leer más.

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Haciendo formal la informalidad comercial

María Fernanda Carvallo, Gestor Comunitario de Mexico D.F.

Mexico D.F., 26 julio 2016

En la Ciudad de México el comercio informal representa la principal fuente de ingreso de más de un millón de personas, las cuales tratan de realizar su actividad en diversos espacios públicos de la ciudad. Al desarrollar esta actividad y no estar ligados a la dinámica económica formal, no se tiene acceso a las prestaciones sociales de los programas federales. Por otro lado, el análisis económico indica que la informalidad baja la productividad económica de un país, limita la expansión de los negocios y lastima el bienestar de los trabajadores y de sus familias.

Ante esta situación el gobierno federal http://www.gob.mx/presidencia lanzo la Estrategia Crezcamos Juntos http://www.gob.mx/crezcamosjuntos , un programa de incorporación al Régimen Fiscal que incluyó la Reforma Hacendaria reciente, y al Régimen de Incorporación a la Seguridad Social. Este programa es una sinergia de autoridades estatales, municipales, organizaciones empresariales e instituciones académicas. De acuerdo al Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto, la estrategia persigue que las personas que tienen un negocio propio transiten a la formalidad para que gocen de los beneficios de la seguridad social, como:

⋅ Acceso a los servicios médicos y sociales del Instituto Mexicano del Seguro Social para el dueño del negocio y sus empleados. De acuerdo al Presidente Enrique Peña Nieto “significa que tendrán atención médica en caso de enfermedad o maternidad, seguro por invalidez y riesgos de trabajo, cobertura en vida, vejez y cesantía; así como guarderías para los hijos de los trabajadores”.

⋅ Los beneficiarios ingresarán automáticamente al Sistema de Ahorro para el Retiro, brindándoles mayor estabilidad económica para el futuro.

⋅ Mediante un programa de la Sociedad Hipotecaria Federal y del INFONAVIT, podrán solicitar un crédito hipotecario con tasas de interés bajas.

⋅ Acceso a financiamiento social para crecer y consolidar su negocio.

Así mismo, por tratarse de personas que emprenden su actividad laboral, se les brindará apoyos económicos a pequeños empresarios a través del Instituto Nacional del Emprendedor, para que puedan comprar herramientas, equipo o capital de trabajo para su negocio. Así mismo, si requieren de especialización, los inscritos podrán tener acceso a los programas de capacitación en el trabajo que ofrece la Secretaría del Trabajo y Previsión Social.

Para transitar a la formalidad, se llevará a cabo una inclusión sencilla y gradual. Los dueños, así como sus empleados podrán gozar de los beneficios sociales, durante los primeros diez años los inscritos recibirán descuentos en las cuotas de seguridad social, por ejemplo en los primeros dos años solamente pagarán la mitad de estas cuotas. Por su parte, respecto al pago del Impuesto Sobre la Renta (ISR), quien se inscriba recibirá un descuento del cien por ciento en el pago del ISR, en el segundo año, será del 90 por ciento, y así, sucesivamente. Para el pago de impuestos se tiene contemplado un proceso sencillo para el cálculo de los impuestos especificando la actividad a la que se dedican y el monto de sus ingresos, sin incurrir en gastos de un asistente contable.

Con la estrategia Crezcamos Juntos se busca que tanto México como sus ciudadanos crezcan juntos con este programa, al darle valor social a la formalidad.
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A voice for Mumbai’s domestic workers

Mumbai, 25 July 2016 — The majority of India’s 4.2 million domestic workers are women employed in urban areas. Many of them work in multiple homes a day, and on average earn far below the minimum wage. The National Domestic Workers’ Movement is lobbying for better social security and welfare provision for workers in Mumbai. See more.

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A voice for Mumbai’s domestic workers

Ashali Bhandari, Mumbai Community Manager

Mumbai, 25 July 2016

In India, 84% of the non-agrarian work force is employed in the “informal” (also known as the unorganized) sector. The informal sector covers a vast range of employment, ranging from work that occurs in unregistered enterprises to work within formal organizations, where employers don’t guarantee labourers any social protection.

Over four million labourers of the workers in the informal sector are employed as domestic workers. These could be part-time, full-time, or live-in workers who are involved in tasks like childcare, cooking, cleaning, and/or hospitality at home. 70% of India’s domestic workers are based in urban areas, and 90% are women.

In Mumbai, the Tata Institute of Social Sciences conducted a study, which highlights the vulnerability of women working as domestic workers in the city: 56% of female domestic workers belong to marginalized and historically disadvantaged communities (Scheduled Caste, Scheduled Tribe, or Other Backward Classes) and over 50% are illiterate. Almost all women do not have a formal contract of employment with their employer(s) and they earn an average of Rs.1964 (approximately USD 30) per month, despite most women working in 2 to 3 homes per day. Furthermore, over 70% of the women working are in debt and have outstanding loans.

Domestic work in metropolises like Mumbai is rarely unionized. Over the last three decades, the National Domestic Workers’ Movement (NDWM) has been advocating for the rights of domestic workers, children in domestic work and migrants in domestic work through capacity building programs and lobbying efforts. The organization organizes meetings in different localities to teach domestic workers about their rights as employees. These settings also allow the women to discuss experiences and support each other with challenges they face at the workplace.

In 2008, the Supreme Court of India mandated the inclusion of domestic workers with the “Unorganized Workers’ Social Security Act”, which ensures the formation of state welfare boards around the country. These Welfare Boards are required to provide benefits like family medical insurance, financial support for education, and pension schemes.

In 2012, the Maharashtra Domestic Workers’ Welfare Board (Mumbai would be in the purview of this board) began to register domestic workers and began to provide some of the benefits stipulated in the 2008 Act. However, by 2014 schemes such as scholarships for children were abruptly ended and problems in the Labour Department led to a glitch in registration for domestic workers with the Welfare Board. NDWM is currently lobbying for separate laws for female domestic workers that would include: weekly holidays, paid-leave, and bonuses. They are also lobbying for social security for the 50% of domestic workers who are migrants to Mumbai. In May 2016, NDWM met with 60 members of the Legislative Assembly in the Mumbai Region to submit an amendment to the Maharashtra Domestic Workers Welfare Board Act, which would require employers to comply with the Minimum Wage Act.

In the future, the NDWM aims to shift the Welfare Board Act to a Workers’ Rights-based Act, with a grievance redressal system to ensure that employers cannot exploit domestic workers. The inclusion of domestic workers and workers employed in the informal labour markets in welfare systems is imperative in order to bring a better quality of life to the 84% of Indians employed in the unorganized sector.
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Training and legal protection to strengthen unorganized workers

Delhi, 22 July 2016 — Sensitizing unorganized workers in garment factories in and around Delhi and offering them legal support is not enough to protect them from exploitative practices that deny them a living wage. An effort to reform the legal architecture and give it teeth is the need of the hour, discovers Delhi-based NGO Society of Labour and Development.See more.

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Training and legal protection to strengthen unorganized workers

Mukta Naik, Delhi Community Manager

Delhi,22 July 2016

Delhi has been at the epicentre of a number of local and national movements to protect the livelihoods of informal sector and unorganized workers like street vendors, domestic workers and waste workers. At the same time, the voices of unorganized workers in the formal sector are barely heard in the debate around informal work.

The National Capital Region (NCR) is an important hub for the textile industry in India, which employs 35 million people nationwide and accounts for 12% of India’s GDP. The textile and clothing cluster in and around Delhi, along with Bangalore, Tirupur, Chennai and Jaipur, contributes 70% of India’s exports in this sector. A key cost saving strategy for garment factories is the employment of large numbers of informal sector workers through a chain of contractors, to whom they provide no employment guarantees or social security benefits. The issues faced by these unorganized workers within the formal sector are distinct from problems that informal sector workers experience.

In the garment factories of Gurgaon and Noida informal workers, mostly poor rural migrants from the northern Indian States of Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, commonly face wage theft in various forms- under payment, delayed payments as well as non-payment of wages. Combined with malpractices like forced overtime, this means that workers barely earn a living wage. Further, multiple levels of subcontracting allow employers to be barely accountable in the eyes of the law. As Shikha Bhattacharjee from the Society of Labour and Development (SLD) puts it, “neoliberal deregulation is mapped on the bodies of workers”, for whom inadequate wages is not only an economic blow but also results in low calorific intake, exhaustion, sickness and poor medical care.

To make matters worse, in a clear violation of the Indian Constitution (which guarantees freedom of association), unorganized factory workers are not permitted to form collectives (see SLD report). Testimonies from NCR made at the National Peoples Tribunal on Living Wage for Garment Workers in Asia in 2012 reveal that a climate of fear is actively maintained in factories through frequent scolding and abusive language to prevent workers from raising their voices. Workers reported loss of work, death threats, violence and abuse to the Tribunal, of which SLD was a key organizer, as consequences of union involvement. Denying the ability to negotiate through formal channels leaves these informal workers vulnerable, legally and financially. One of the consequences, Shikha points out, is the fluid mobility of workers across workspaces, which further reduces the claims of migrant workers to the city space.

SLD works to intervene in two distinct ways. First, in collaboration with grassroots partners like the Mazdoor Ekta Manch, SLD focuses on raising the awareness of workers about their rights through trainings, workshops and public events. Workers are offered knowledge that saves them from exploitation, for example by understanding the consequence of signing on blank papers. They are also trained to construct evidence of employment by maintaining passbooks and saving documents like gate passes and pay slips. Second, SLD operates the Kanooni Salaha Kendra (KSK), a legal counselling cell that guides workers in cases related to wage disputes, violence, sexual harassment and civic rights. In many instances, detailed case files maintained by SLD lawyers have been useful in helping workers get legal resolution to labour disputes.

Through the Tribunal and the Asia Floor Wage Alliance (AFWA), SLD is using international forums to demand living wages for Asian garment workers. In India, it is advocating legislation to license and register labour brokers, increased funding to strengthen the labor ministry and departments, enforce ILO inspection conventions, recognise and empower trade unions, timely revision of minimum wages and a move towards a more consultative framework to address labour issues. However, specific elements of the recently proposed 2015 Draft Labour Code on Wages that seeks to simplify labour law and create a pro-active climate for investment and industrial growth—like dismantling labour inspections, diminishing oversight from trade unions and undermining legal remedies for workers—do not bode well for the future of unorganized workers. A balanced resolution is the need of the hour to ensure the competitiveness of Indian industry is not built on the exploitation of informal labor.
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¿Reciclaje inclusivo con recicladoras y recicladores en Medellín?

Medellin, 21 julio 2016 — Medellín logró convertirse en una ciudad modelo en términos de desarrollo urbano, según muchos, gracias a la promoción de una planificación urbana inclusiva y la consideración de las voces de todas las personas, incluyendo las de las más desfavorecidas. ¿Es eso cierto en la situación de los recicladores hoy en día? Leer más.

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¿Reciclaje inclusivo con recicladoras y recicladores en Medellín?

Olga Abizaid and Federico Parra, Guest Contributors

Recientemente, Medellín ha sido alabada como una ciudad modelo en materia de desarrollo urbano. En los últimos años, la ciudad ha logrado superar los abrumadores desafíos urbanos económicos y de seguridad que enfrentó en la década de 1980 y se ha convertido en una vibrante metrópolis. Según muchos, este logro fue posible gracias a la promoción de una planificación urbana inclusiva y a la consideración de las voces de todas las personas, incluyendo las de las más desfavorecidas.

Entre ellas están los 3.663 recicladores quienes se ganan la vida recolectando materiales reciclables en la ciudad –a veces puerta a puerta, la mayor parte del tiempo en las calles–. Generalmente, el impacto ambiental de su trabajo no es reconocido, y sin embargo alivia la carga del relleno sanitario y dota de materia prima a las industrias, mejorando las vidas de los 2,5 millones de personas que viven en la ciudad.

Sin embargo, en la última década ha habido algunos cambios. Los recicladores en Bogotá, la capital de Colombia, han obtenido importantes avances a nivel nacional, cuyos efectos se empiezan a ver en todo el país. Las estrategias de incidencia legal de los recicladores de Bogotá, y los pronunciamientos de la Corte Constitucional que se han producido a raíz de sus acciones, han llevado al desarrollo de un marco legal nacional que ordena la inclusión y remuneración de los recicladores por los servicios que hacen a la sociedad.

“Si miramos 10 años atrás, pues, los recicladores nadie nos conocía ni sabían lo que hacían. Hoy día, de acuerdo a todo lo que ha pasado y a la normatividad, en el municipio [los recicladores] son reconocidos”, dice una líder recicladora de Medellín.

La municipalidad de Medellín ha hecho algunos avances hacia la inclusión de los recicladores. Algunas de las políticas puestas en marcha incluyen el desarrollo de un censo en 2013, la carnetización de los recicladores y capacitación para sus organizaciones. Medellín también le ha confiado a algunas organizaciones de recicladores la gestión de centros de acopio en la ciudad. Y existe un cierto nivel de coordinación con la empresa municipal de aseo, EMVARIAS. Medellín también fue pionera en incluir a los recicladores en las mesas para discutir los planes de gestión integral de residuos sólidos (PGIRS) –incluso antes de que eso se hiciera obligatorio con el Decreto Nacional 2981 de 2013–.

Pero la inclusión continua siendo una tarea inconclusa. Para empezar, la mayoría de los recicladores continúan sin estar organizados. Y para quienes lo están, el nuevo marco legal establece que para ser proveedores de servicios públicos, las organizaciones de recicladores tienen que cumplir con numerosos requisitos formales. Para cumplirlos, necesitan, entre otras cosas, desarrollar competencias de gestión y contaduría, y para relacionarse con los usuarios. Necesitan también adquirir la infraestructura necesaria para poder proveer servicios de reciclaje.

La Asociación Nacional de Recicladores (ANR) y la Asociación de Recicladores de Antioquia, junto con organizaciones de apoyo como WIEGO y Fundación Familia, están dando capacitación a las organizaciones locales sobre el marco legal y los requerimientos que deben cumplir, y compartiendo experiencias sobre cómo negociar para el pago de sus servicios.

Y si bien el PGIRS de Medellín prevé algo de apoyo durante tres años, es importante que la ciudad tenga en consideración las realidades de las organizaciones –las cuales se encuentran en distintas etapas en sus procesos organizativos y en el proceso para cumplir con los requerimientos municipales para convertirse en proveedores de servicios públicos– y planee apoyos y cronogramas adecuados durante la transición hacia la formalización.
Esta no es la única preocupación de los recicladores: temen que mientras están trabajando para cumplir con los requerimientos, el componente de reciclaje sea otorgado a otros actores.

Para que el proceso de formalización sea efectivo, es importante que los medios de vida de los recicladores estén protegidos durante la transición. La formalización no pude darse de un día para otro; se trata de un proceso gradual, como lo dice la Recomendación 204 de la Organización Internacional del Trabajo (OIT) sobre la transición de la economía informal a la formal. En el proceso para incluir a los recicladores al manejo de residuos sólidos, el gobierno de Medellín debería desarrollar un trabajo sólido de diálogo y acompañamiento con las organizaciones de recicladores. Sólo así podrá garantizar que los recicladores puedan cumplir con los requerimientos que se les exigen.

“Tenemos que hacerles entender que hay cosas que podemos hacer directamente los recicladores. O por lo menos, si no lo podemos hacer, pues que seamos tenidos en cuenta para opinar, para aportar ideas.”, dice una recicladora de Medellín.

Los logros de Medellín en el pasado están cimentados en el hecho de que la inclusión de las poblaciones más desfavorecidas es clave para construir la prosperidad de la ciudad. En este momento, el gobierno de la ciudad tiene una oportunidad única de marcar la diferencia para los recicladores si se mantiene fiel a su mantra de construir una ciudad mejor y más equitativa para todos. Close.

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Vendedores informales en Cali: a la búsqueda de soluciones

Cali, 20 julio 2016 — La falta de oferta de empleo en el sector formal, el sorprendentemente elevado grado de satisfacción de los vendedores informales, y su nivel relativamente alto de ingresos dificultan de forma significativa la solución al problema de la venta informal en Cali. Los intentos masivos de reubicación realizados en los años 90 y en la década pasada acabaron en grandes fracasos. La aproximación actual de la alcaldía es la actuación focalizada en espacios concretos. Leer más.

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Vendedores informales en Cali: a la búsqueda de soluciones

Jorge Bela, Gestor Comunitario de Cali

Cali, 20 julio 2016

En Cali existen unos 8000 vendedores informales ocupando el espacio público del centro. Para poder operar a menudo se ven obligados a pagar “vacunas” a las mafias y a las autoridades locales, que en algunos lugares pueden llegar a ser significativas: se han reportado pagos de hasta 10 millones de pesos (unos 3000US$). La ocupación del espacio público genera incomodidad y peligro para los ciudadanos--que se ven obligados a transitar por las calles--prejuicio a los vendedores formales que deben acarrear los gastos asociados a sus negocios, y genera conflictos puntuales, desencadenados cuando la ciudadanía y los informales se enfrentan por el control del espacio público.

Las tentativas de reubicación masiva que se han llevado a cabo en el pasado han terminado en fracaso. Los 289 comerciantes que se ubicaron en el centro comercial Ciudad de Cali II a finales de los 90 siguen reclamando ser propietarios de unos locales que, según afirman, les fueron prometidos. En el 2010 se intentó un nuevo proceso de reubicación de 2850 informales, que también termino en fracaso al quebrar la empresa que estaba construyendo los centros comerciales. Nos sorprende que aunque la alcaldía mantuvo reuniones en 2015 para estudiar posibles reubicaciones, los informales no mostraron interés alguno por este tipo de soluciones.

Tras el fracaso de las reubicaciones masivas, en la actualidad se busca solucionar el problema de forma mucho más localizada. Por ejemplo, en el espacio público generado tras la construcción del Bulevar del Río, inaugurado en 2013, se han establecido mecanismos de vigilancia constante que impiden que allí se instalen los ambulantes. En la actualidad se está desarrollando un proyecto para ordenar y controlar la venta ambulante en la plaza de Caycedo. También se imponen fuertes sanciones a las personas que intenten vender cualquier mercancía dentro del BRT MIO. Aun así, las ventas ambulantes, junto con la inseguridad y la congestión, son los problemas que más preocupan a los usuarios del sistema masivo de transporte .

La venta ambulante es un reto que en Cali resulta especialmente difícil de resolver. Por un lado, su tasa de desempleo está entre las más altas de Colombia, un 11,5% (aunque en el último año ha experimentado un notable descenso, pues en el 2014 la tasa fue del 13,1%. Por el otro, los vendedores informales tienen un sorprendente grado de satisfacción por su situación. Según una encuesta celebrada a mediados de 2015, tan solo un 18% de los informales ubicados en el centro de Cali desea tener un trabajo formal, mientras que el 35% dice estar plenamente satisfechos con su situación .

El estudio refleja otros datos interesantes: el 86% de los vendedores es propietario de su puesto de venta, el 57% dice generar empleo (entre uno y dos empleados), y sus ingresos medios rondan 1141000 COP para los hombres, y 962000 para las mujeres (el salario mínimo en Colombia es de 689000 COP). El 79% lleva menos de diez años dedicados a la venta informal, lo que refleja la llegada de sucesivas ondas migratorias de personas que abandonan las violencia y la pobreza de las zonas rurales. Otro dato sorprendente es que el 95% de los informales no pertenece a asociación alguna, lo que dificulta por un lado la defensa de sus derechos, y por otro la obtención de una solución global al problema. El Sindicato de Trabajadores Informales de Cali, Sintraviecali, es la organización representativa más reconocida.
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Foto credit: Francois Thomas

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Micro-credit expands business opportunities for informal workers

Dar es Salaam, 19 July 2016 — Dar es Salaam, just like many other cities in East Africa, is facing an unemployment crisis, especially for youth and women. Approximately 52% of the entire population of Dar es Salaam is formally unemployed. And approximately 11% of the unemployed population in Dar es Salaam earns an income through the informal economy and informal labor market, which is characterized by a lack of social security coverage, lack of written contract documents, lack of health insurance and low wages. See more.

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Micro-credit expands business opportunities for informal workers

Jonston Weston, Dar es Salaam Community Manager

Dar es Salaam, 19 July 2016

Dar es Salaam, just like many other cities in East Africa, is facing an unemployment crisis, especially for youth and women. Approximately 52% of the entire population of Dar es Salaam is unemployed. And approximately 11% of the unemployed population in Dar es Salaam earns an income through the informal economy and informal labor market, which is characterized by a lack of social security coverage, lack of written contract documents, lack of health insurance and low wages. The majority of informal workers in Dar es Salaam do not choose to earn their livelihoods in the informal sector because of its attractiveness but rather because they do not have better employment options. Their work is out of necessity for daily survival, and they engage in a variety of livelihoods, including street food vending, water sales, domestic work, and vegetable plantation employment.

Informal workers face many difficulties in their working environments, as they are frequently harassed and troubled, sometimes even arrested by the city police of Dar es Salaam apparent reason. The government and city council of Dar es Salaam has failed to provide lasting support to informal workers that would improve their working situations, livelihood, and collective security.

Although Tanzania has a political goal to become a middle-income country by 2025, informal workers are forgotten in the plan. The present Sustainable Development Goals for the period 2015-2030 are not providing a way on how the situation of informal workers can be improved within a region. National Strategy for Growth and Poverty Reduction in Tanzania (MKUKUTA) highlights employment for women and young people, but there is no direct input of the informal workers in the strategy. As yet until now there is no policy instructions and legislation to directly support and protect informal workers. Instead, the priority of the country is on economic development and job creation efforts, focusing mostly on promoting large-scale infrastructure projects and strengthening the formal sector.

However the SEDIT (Social and Economic Development Initiative of Tanzania), which is a non-governmental organization, has defined its position in MKUKUTA since 2002. It has adopted a tool called the Village Community Banks (VICOBA), a grassroots-based lending scheme with a focus on fostering informal workers to innovate and manage viable income-generating activities through efficient operation of savings and credit services. It is a self-financing scheme needing no external funds as the group members work with their own capital, mobilized through shares and other contributions. The groups are voluntarily formed with about 18 people and start with the weekly share value of 2000 Tsh and above, depending on the needs and economic/financial capability of group members (informal workers).

Normally, VICOBA group members begin to access credit between 14 and 16 weeks of a group's inception. The loans given by VICOBA are normally soft and affordable to the poor (5%- 10% interest rate) and are utilized to support small-scale businesses. The loans range from 500,000 Tsh to 1,000,000 Tsh, depending on the amount available in the group. SEDIT oversees and coordinates all activities, including providing training to the VICOBA group leaders.

Those informal workers who have joined the VICOBA have benefited and are now using small loans to develop their small businesses. VICOBA has helped to transform informal workers’ livelihoods in Dar es Salaam. SEDIT is campaigning to create more groups of the informal workers across the city of Dar es Salaam, creating the possibility for new ways of thinking about and integrating informal workers into the fabric of this growing city.
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Photo: Jonston Weston

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Melibatkan sektor informal dalam promosi wisata kuliner

Surabaya, 18 July 2016 — Pedagang Kaki Lima (PKL) merupakan salah satu bentuk informal ekonomi yang sering kita lihat keberadaannya di kota-kota besar termasuk Surabaya. Mereka banyak menempati trotoar dan jalan-jalan utama kota sehingga menggangu lalu lintas. Surabaya memiliki cara unik menangani PKL yaitu dengan membuat sentra-sentra PKL dan promosi wisata kuliner sebagai upaya pemberdayaan ekonomi masyarakat. Baca lebih lanjut.

BAHASA INDONESIA

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Melibatkan sektor informal dalam promosi wisata kuliner

Widya Anggraini, Surabaya Community Manager

Surabaya, 18 July 2016

Keberadaan (PKL) sering dianggap memperburuk wajah perkotaan sehingga harus disingkirkan karena menodai keindahan sebuah kota. Atas nama perencanaan kota, orang-orang yang bekerja di sektor informal harus menerima tindakan penertiban berupa pembongkaran warung, relokasi, razia, dan pengusiran yang kerap dilakukan dengan kekerasan. Kebebasan melakukan aktivitas ekonomi menjadi terenggut dan yang miskin menjadi semakin miskin. Keberadaan PKL di wilayah kota memang memerlukan penataan khusus. Strategi yang dilakukan Surabaya dapat dijadikan contoh dan acuan untuk mengelola sektor informal perkotaan. Pemkot Surabaya mengorganisir PKL penjual makanan, dikemas sedemikian rupa dan menjadikan mereka sebagai tujuan wisata kuliner di Surabaya.

Surabaya merupakan salah satu pintu gerbang perdagangan utama di wilayah Indonesia Timur. Dengan lokasi geografis yang strategis, Surabaya memiliki potensi ekonomi yang besar dan kerap mendapat julukan sebagai kota perdagangan dan ekonomi. Secara infrastruktur ekonomi, Surabaya merupakan kota yang kondusif terhadap iklim usaha. Dukungan terhadap ekonomi kerakyatan juga cukup jelas misalnya dari sisi pemberdayaan ekonomi bagi usaha kecil menengah (UMKM). Jumlah UMKM dan koperasi juga terus bertambah. Hal ini menunjukkan adanya geliat ekonomi masyarakat di tingkat bawah yang kian membaik. UMKM ini diharapkan mampu menyerap Tenaga kerja yang cukup besar. Bagaimana kemudian nasib PKL di Surabaya?

Jumlah PKL menurut data Bagian Perekonomian Pemkot Surabaya tahun 2005 saja jumlah PKL mencapai 70 ribu orang lebih, dan jumlah ini terus bertambah tiap tahunnya. Untuk itu sejak 2004, pemkot telah menunjukkan dukungannya dengan membuat sentra PKL sebagai upaya penataan PKL. Hingga tahun 2014, menurut Dinas Koperasi dan UMKM telah membangun 495 titik sentra PKL. Sentra PKL merupakan kumpulan pedagang makanan yang menempati lokasi khusus yang disediakan pemerintah. Sentra ini juga membentuk kepengurusan untuk membuat lokasi lebih nyaman dan teratur. Untuk memastikan makanan yang disajikan, dinas kesehatan pun turun tangan untuk memeriksa makanan yang dijual.

Sektor pariwisata menjadi perhatian utama pembangunan sebab sejak tahun 2005 telah terjadi pergeseran pertumbuhan ekonomi kota yang sekarang lebih mengarah ke perdagangan dan jasa. Secara geografis, Surabaya juga sangat strategis yang berpotensi mendatangkan turis domestic maupun asing. Oleh sebab itu salah satu strategi pemkot adalah menjadikan sentra-sentra PKL sebagai tujuan pariwisata terutama wisata makanan. Makanan lokal di Surabaya telah menjadi ikon kota yang menjanjikan kelezatan dan cita rasa yang khas. Dalam konteks pariwisata, makanan ini menjadi faktor penarik wisatawan untuk datang menikmati makanan dan jajanan ala Surabaya.

Penyediaan ruang khusus bagi para PKL ini diharapkan mampu mendorong kreativitas, inovasi dan kepercayaan diri pedagang di sector informal untuk mengembangkan usaha makanan local dan bersaing dengan makanan impor yang kini menggempur kota-kota besar. Untuk meningkatkan kualitas PKL ini, pemkot juga memberikan pembinaan berupa pelatihan cara menjaga kebersihan, keindahan dan ketertiban lokasi; mendorong pembentukan koperasi untuk bantuan modal; pelatihan manajemen usaha; dan penyuluhan peraturan pemerintah terkait aktivitas PKL sehingga mereka tidak lagi melanggar aturan ketika berdagang.

Kebijakan mendorong wisata kuliner ini terbukti di satu sisi membantu memberdayakan ekonomi masyarakat miskin kota dengan tetap mengijinkan mereka berdagang dan disisi lain sentra PKL menjadi strategi untuk mewujudkan Surabaya yang tertib, indah dan asri. Tantangan yang utama adalah membuat perencanaan yang strategis dalam menempatkan sentra-sentra PKL sehingga tetap ramai pengunjung.
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Photo: Jim (yumievriwan)‏

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