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Laura Alfers

Laura Alfers

Exploring a fairer and more inclusive social protection paradigm for the world’s informal workers

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Submitted by Laura Alfers
on Fri, 12/05/2023 - 13:26
Garbage collector holding plastic bottles
Written by Laura Alfers and Florian Juergens-Grant, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Global frameworks and the widely recognized importance of social protection during the COVID-19 crisis have generated momentum toward the realization of Universal Social Protection (USP). At a global level, the Social Protection Floors (SPF) and USP frameworks, which are grounded in human rights principles, International Labour Standards and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), provide a key set of principles and actions that should underpin the extension of social protection to all, including workers in informal employment. They call for the development of social protection systems that are based on rights and provide protection for throughout the life...Read more

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VOICES of Africans affected by the COVID-19 crisis: Experiences on the impacts of COVID-19 on the incomes, livelihoods and wellbeing

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Submitted by Laura Alfers
on Mon, 06/09/2021 - 19:47
Women holding two children
This blog post draws from the findings and reflections discussed at the webinar '' VOICES of Africans affected by the COVID-19 crisis: Experiences on the impacts of COVID-19 on the incomes, livelihoods and wellbeing '', held on 1 June 2021. The session was jointly organized by the African Union, the Africa Social Protection Platform, HelpAge International, WIEGO, Save the Children, the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung (FES) – Zambia, and the ILO Regional Office for Eastern and Southern Africa. Participants at the webinar heard from Dr Jane Ongolo (AU Commission), Annie Diouf (Confederation Nationale de Travailleurs du Senegal), Ignasio Mpaka, Precious Ng’onga (FES Zambia, Lefhoko Kesamang (AU Commission), and Kijala Shako (Save the Children). The recording and presentation are available and can...Read more

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Pandemic: Informal workers urgently need income replacement — and more protections

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Submitted by Laura Alfers
on Thu, 23/04/2020 - 18:36
María Elena Díaz Espinoza, a waste picker in Lima,Peru, collects recyclables on the streets in the neighbourhood of Los Olivos
This blog was first publish by WIEGO . “Flattening the curve” has become a mantra of the COVID-19 pandemic — but calls for staying home and social distancing have starkly emphasized the inequalities in our society, including amongst workers. Social distancing and staying home are real possibilities for middle-class office workers covered by social security. They are much less achievable for unprotected informal workers who fall between the cracks, excluded from formal work-related protections as well as from state social assistance programmes that target the very poor and those outside the labour market. “I am afraid of the coronavirus,” said an informal worker in Mexico, “but I am more afraid of dying of hunger if there is no work” (Ureste, 2020). This stark reality is likely to be...Read more

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