Informal Market Traders in Peru Challenge Stigmatization

WIEGO Digest

Informal Market Traders in Peru Challenge Stigmatization

A troubling and false narrative has taken hold in Peru and is spreading across Latin America about the role of informal market traders in the growth of COVID-19 cases. But these workers are not the problem. In fact, they have been fighting to be part of the solution, in partnership with local governments and market administrators, from the outset of the pandemic. WIEGO's Focal City Lima team is working closely with informal vendor organizations to raise awareness about the vital role market traders play in food supply chains, and the support they need from governments and the general public.

In Peru, the Federación Nacional de Trabajadores de Mercado (the National Federation of Market Workers) held a well-attended online press conference to tell their story, and WIEGO issued a press statement to bring visibility at the international level to market traders’ demands and contributions.

Policy Analysis & Shareable Resources on COVID-19

How are Peru's street vendors facing COVID-19?
Lima's informal market and street vendors are facing risk of infection, lost income, and more hindrance than help from government. WIEGO's Focal City team in Lima shares reflections on the situation of street vendors, barriers workers face in accessing the Peruvian government’s relief measures, and share information on workers' advocacy priorities and strategies during the pandemic.

Vegetables on Wheels in Ahmedabad, India: SEWA partners with municipality to ensure food access during lockdown
Street vendors play a crucial role in the food supply chain. In Ahmedabad, they’re delivering fresh vegetables and milk to curfew-affected wards of Ahmedabad by electric 3-wheel rickshaw.

Shareable Safety Guidelines for Domestic Workers and Employers
Because their work requires them to be in others’ homes and to come in close contact with individuals and items that may be carrying the virus, domestic workers are frontline workers in this pandemic, and at risk. We worked with the International Domestic Workers Federation to produce guidelines to help domestic workers and their employers to work safely during the COVID-19 crisis.

Episode #14: Impact of the Global Pandemic on Informal Workers
The podcast explored how lockdowns and public health responses to the virus are affecting informal workers’ lives and livelihoods, and how workers’ organizations are supporting their members and taking action to impel governments to support informal workers. The episode features brief updates from WIEGO team members and informal worker leaders in nine cities in Africa (Accra, Dakar and Johannesburg), Asia (Delhi), Latin America (Belo Horizonte, Bogota, Buenos Aires and Mexico City) and North America (Portland, Oregon, USA).

Innovation and unity: How home-based workers are adapting to the COVID-19 world
Home-based workers are among the world’s most invisible and overlooked workers, and they are all too familiar with insecure earnings and isolation. Increasingly, however, they have been organizing. The COVID-19 crisis has underlined just how valuable that collective association can be for individuals—and for communities. This blog provides examples of how home-based workers have met the challenge by adapting.

Episode #15: Lessons from government responses to protect informal workers
In this podcast, Valentina Barca, independent consultant specialist in social protection delivery systems, explores how governments are responding to the crisis to address the needs of informal workers. She discusses the challenges governments have faced in reaching informal workers and the lessons we can take from the policies being implemented. The podcast analyzes issues related to targeting informal workers, patterns in government responses, implementation problems that are emerging, and why some countries are responding quicker and more effectively than others.

Join WIEGO at Upcoming Webinars & Online Events!

JULY 3: ILO COOP 100 Webinar: Cooperatives for Climate Action
What role can cooperatives play in climate change mitigation, adaptation, and in creating decent jobs? Join Sonia Dias (WIEGO’s Waste Specialist) along with panelists from REScoop.eu, CLIMBS Life and General Insurance Cooperative and the ILO Green Jobs Programme for a webinar to mark the International Day of Cooperatives. Sonia will highlight the important role waste picker cooperatives play in climate change mitigation. Register to attend

Bringing Visibility to Informal Workers' Needs in the COVID-19 Crisis

In May, WIEGO Team members brought their expertise to several webinars and online discussions. Access video recordings and presentations from these online events below:

Laura Alfers at Gender & Power in COVID-19: When the Overlooked Workforce Becomes the Essential Workforce (hosted by WomenHealth Lift)
Caroline Skinner, Jenna Harvey, Marty Chen and Sarah Reed at COVID-19, Cities and Urban Informal Workers: A Roundtable Discussion with WIEGO and the World Bank (hosted by the World Bank Cities Group)
Rachel Moussie at Impact of COVID-19 on Care Politics (hosted by SocialProtection.org)
Caroline Skinner at Actions to Promote Healthier Informal Communities Through Placemaking (hosted by PlacemakingX)
Laura Alfers at Gender Matters: COVID-19 and the labour market in the Global South (organized by Women’s Empowerment in Development Lab at McGill)
Sonia Dias at Presentation to Workers’ Health Without Borders
Sonia Dias at Sustainability After COVID-19: Building gender equality into the response (hosted by the Green Growth Knowledge Platform)
Federico Parra at Trabajadores esenciales: los y las recicladoras de base en tiempos de pandemia (hosted by Alianza Global para Alternativas a la Incineración GAIA).

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