We’re excited to inform you that we’re piloting a series of webinars for and by informal worker leaders from around the world! The Workers’ Voices webinar series aims to provide a space for learning and exchange where membership-based organizations (MBO) and networks of informal workers can learn about:

• innovative policy advocacy and organizing strategies during the COVID-19 crisis; and
• positive policy responses and/or MBO interventions which support informal workers during the pandemic.

The first “episodes” of the series will feature the organizing experiences of street vendors in Sierra Leone and waste pickers in Colombia.

Sign up to attend below!

In this webinar, Vandie Lansana (Vice President of the Sierra Leone Traders’ Union) will discuss what they learned during the Ebola outbreak, and how they have used those lessons to organize and assist their members to sustain their livelihoods during the COVID-19 pandemic. The webinar will be co-moderated by Pat Horn, StreetNet International Senior Advisor.

Positioning Waste Pickers as Essential Service Providers: Learning from the Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotà

WHEN: July 10 at 9:00a.m. EST/1:00 p.m. GMT
LANGUAGES: Presentations in Spanish, with English and French interpretation

In 2013, the Asociación de Recicladores de Bogotá (ARB) won a decades-long battle for inclusion, recognition and remuneration for waste collection, transport, and public recycling services. Supported by seven Constitutional Court rulings and strong advocacy by waste pickers in Bogota, official figures now show that 87 municipalities across Colombia have introduced systems where at least one waste pickers organization is being paid for their recycling services.

But, with the spread of COVID-19, waste pickers were facing new threats to their livelihoods. In this webinar, Nohra Padilla (ARB) will discuss how the ARB positioned waste pickers as essential service providers in the quarantine period, how they’ve organized to ensure workers are adequately protected against the pandemic, and the challenges that still exist for waste pickers who continue to provide recycling services during the pandemic. The webinar will be co-moderated by Federico Parra, WIEGO Regional Coordinator, Waste Pickers Latin America.