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Webinar: There is no recovery without informal workers

 
Woman standing in Dakar.
Marta Moreiras/WIEGO

Watch the recording: There is No Recovery without Informal Workers: Towards a Better Deal for the Global Working Poor - YouTube

Join us on July 12, 2021 as we explore the findings from an in-depth study on the COVID-19 crisis and the informal economy.  

Informal work accounts for more than 60% of all global employment and 90% of employment in developing countries, the International Labour Organization reported in 2018. While the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on informal workers is widely acknowledged, the distinct pathways of impact and the recovery needs of this diverse global workforce are not sufficiently understood. As a result, policies to promote recovery risk exacerbating existing inequalities and leaving up to 2 billion informal workers behind.  

Co-hosted by IDRC and Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO), this panel discussion will expose how the pandemic is affecting different categories of workers in cities across the world. Panelists will share insights from IDRC-supported  research involving home-based workers, domestic workers, street vendors, market traders, and waste pickers. The speakers will shine a light on how the pandemic’s effects across occupations vary according to gender, and how these findings  should inform policies for economic recovery.  

Representatives of informal workers from Lima, Peru and Bangkok, Thailand will join the panel to discuss what has changed more than one year into the pandemic and what national and municipal governments are doing right —and wrong — to support economic recovery in the informal economy.  

This event will constitute the official launch of the COVID-19 Crisis and the Informal Economy: Global Summary Report.  

For more information on this research, please consult WIEGO’s policy insights and country fact sheets.