Ford Foundation announces five-year, $25 million grant to women-led global worker networks calling for a just economic recovery for the world’s 2.1 billion informal workers
NEW YORK – Today, the Ford Foundation announced a five-year, US$25 million grant to sustain and strengthen the global movement calling on governments at all levels to invest in protections for the world’s 2.1 billion informal workers as a central component of economic recovery plans. This funding comes ahead of the 109th session of the International Labour Conference (ILC), where representatives of governments, employers and informal workers from 187 countries will discuss the issue of inequality and the world of work.
Ford’s grant will support WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing), a global research, policy and advocacy network focused on empowering the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy to secure their livelihoods. WIEGO will regrant to global networks representing millions of domestic and home-based informal workers, street vendors and waste pickers in over 90 countries. These informal workers have been on the frontlines during the pandemic but have been devastated by the lack of social and labor protections during the crisis.
“We know there can be no global recovery without informal workers,” said Sarita Gupta, director of the Ford Foundation’s Future of Work(ers) program. "This grant recognizes the importance of ensuring billions of informal workers have a seat at the table to have their voices, demands and needs heard at the national and global levels, so policymakers and business leaders recognize their contributions and value. We are proud to support these women-led informal worker networks that are generating a global demand for social and labor protections for more than half the world’s workers."
Workers in informal employment arrangements account for over 60% of all the world’s workforce, and 90% of workers in developing countries. One in five workers in the United States is employed informally. Globally, 58% of women who work are engaged in informal employment, a figure that rises to 92% in developing countries.
Although informal workers’ labor provides the foundations of the global economy — including domestic workers providing critical care; home-based workers producing garments, electronics and personal protective equipment; street vendors selling food; and waste pickers recycling valuable materials — their work is not regulated or protected by the state, and they lack basic labor protections, benefits and social security. Informal workers have been largely excluded from COVID-19 emergency cash and in-kind transfers by governments, leading to increased exposure to poverty, violence, hunger, homelessness and death. As a result, the percentage of informal workers falling into poverty was estimated to have doubled during the first month of the crisis, from 26% to 59%. These inequalities have an impact on the pace and sustainability of economic growth.
“As work has become increasingly precarious, informal and unsustainable, it is time for a deeper reckoning with inequality in the world of work,” said Sally Roever, international coordinator of WIEGO. “This infusion of funding will support WIEGO and our network partners to advance cutting edge research and build a bold global call for a just and inclusive economic recovery centered on informal workers. No one should work without just compensation and reasonable protections.”
The lack of social protections, and their human consequences, were brought into sharp focus during COVID-19. In Durban, South Africa, for example, a WIEGO study found that, in April 2020, during the heaviest lockdown restrictions, 97% of street vendors and 74% of waste pickers stopped working. By July, neither group had seen its income restored. In the Indian cities of Ahmedabad and Delhi, studies revealed that virtually no domestic workers were able to work during the first few months of the pandemic, and average earnings sank to 25% of pre-COVID levels. Across the 12 cities included in the study, by mid-2020 the average earnings of informal workers across all sectors were at only 55% of pre-COVID levels...