Informal Workers

This is a page on informal workers.

Experiments and Lab Work

Ethiopia

It took the team about two hours to collect all the waste from the neighbourhood and temporary store it at collection points. Within a few minutes, a truck arrived, and the collectors emptied the waste bags on to the truck and collected back their sacks/bags. We observed that households don’t segregate their waste and most of the waste is organic waste mixed with some PET (polyethene terephthalate) bottles. We did not see wastes that have market value like metals and PVC plastics in the disposed waste because households are selling such items to the informal waste pickers locally known as Qorales. 

Source: AccLab Blog

Seed content

Cambodia

The various sources of data that we collect will help to paint a more comprehensive picture of the stories of informal workers and MSMEs, and the challenges they face in light of COVID-19. We can then utilize these findings to create a real-time dashboard for UNDP Cambodia to better serve and guide our programs, and to support the Government in its evidence-based policy response.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Businesses

This starts with determining the problems that matter to people; the source of which is citizen-generated data. This type of data includes any information that can be collected from citizens either by active involvement (e.g. sharing experiences or ideas, or upvoting options given) or passively (e.g. through wearables or transactions data). This type of data is key to generating more comprehensive and up to date insights from citizens that can help to produce appropriate solutions and actions for and with them. Citizen-generated data can be gathered in three ways, that we have identified for understanding the realities and needs of informal workers and MSMEs in Cambodia.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Businesses

The UNDP Accelerator Lab in Cambodia in collaboration with the UNDP Socioeconomic Team has invested in both traditional and non-traditional sources of social and economic data to understand the challenges faced by informal workers and micro, small and medium enterprises (MSMEs) across the country. This data is critical to understanding and responding to the socio-economic impacts and consequences faced by these individuals and enterprises, with the ultimate goal of strengthening evidence-based policymaking.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Businesses

Eswatini

We noticed a growing trend of retail businesses switching to social media to advertise services for shopping and home deliveries to minimize movement of people to shopping centers. However, as a lab we noticed with concern that informal traders, rural based and small businesses do not seem to have an online presence. This is an area that we would be exploring further to ensure that food systems particularly are mapped to determine the state of food security in the country.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Trade

Ethiopia

Given the variety of factors contributing to the current system, we must have a portfolio approach to improve the on-site storage and segregation practice at households and MSEs, who are involved in waste collection and transportation. The reflections that we get on creating jobs from waste value chain pushes us to dig more in the informal waste pickers and their contribution to the system.

Source: AccLab Blog

Ghana

Extending Social Insurance to Informal Sector Workers through Circular Economy: this is adopting a digital system of waste collection from subscribed individuals, households, facility owners and waste pickers through text messages/USSD for recycling and composting.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Sectors, Informal Safety Nets

As registration progressed, informal collectors were approached to partner with the company, either by continuing to collect waste or becoming streetcleaners with equipment (brooms and tricycles) provided by the company.  In this way, some informal collectors have maintained their incomes while contributing their detailed knowledge of waste-management in the area.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Collection

Will job opportunities created for informal waste-collectors be maintained, given the economic challenges from COVID-19?

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Collection

India

Brick manufacturing units, or brick kilns, also cause soil degradation and groundwater depletion around their locations. Some of them also employ bonded labour, child labour and the ultra-poor. About 1.5 crore labourers work in extreme conditions in brick kilns across India. They were one of the segments of informal workers that were severely affected during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Source: AccLab Blog

Kenya

The UNDP Accelerator Lab in Kenya has recently been exploring different themes related to the impact of COVID-19 on livelihoods in Kenya, such as advocating for a focus on digital inclusion as a response and analyzing the impact on informal traders. We believe that Kenya’s culture of innovation, as shown during the pandemic through locally made ventilators and hands-free hand-washing stations, can and should be a key strategic part of developing sustainable livelihoods moving forwards.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Trade

Lao PDR

The UNDP Accelerator Lab Network has been working on both macro (creating waste management policy) and microscale (helping informal waste pickers access the proper waste collection system) waste management worldwide. The team in Lao PDR, too, is currently focusing on this topic, particularly on understanding single-use plastic pollution in the capital, Vientiane. 

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Collection

We learned that in Vietnam, people refused to use waste collection services despite the lower fee. Local communities in Danang preferred to sell their household trash to informal waste pickers for a small financial gain.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Collection

Namibia

This initiative is an online option designed to keep the businesses of informal retailers in markets going by connecting them onto a digital space.  A small start-up called Tambula Online Shop had recently just launched and the Namibia Accelerator Lab saw an opportunity to build back better through collaboration. The Lab approached Tambula with the idea to create an online portal for consumers who desired items from the market and their usual street vendors at a time when these vendors had been taken off the streets due to COVID-19 restrictions.  The initiative benefits the consumers who can remain in the safety of their home during the COVID-19 lockdown as well as the informal retailers who now have access to customers who they ordinarily would not have had access to by also safely working from home. Having encouraged my team to take the bold step and launch admittedly knowing the idea was not perfect, we have an intervention that all parties are now impressed with. After all, this is what experiments are all about and this is why the lab exists. We launch, we learn, we adjust, we improve but we must never wait until the concept is perfect for us to start.Reflections

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Trade, Informal Businesses

In Namibia, COVIDー19 lockdowns have negatively impacted the informal sector, especially street vendors who depend on a daily income. The UNDP Namibia Accelerator Lab partnered with Tambula, a local online shop to provide informal traders with a digital commercial platform to reach more clients. The platform launched on 18 May 2020 is connecting the local informal market to a digital platform.  

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Trade, Digitization, Informal Sectors

Nepal

Ideas and solutions that are worth exploring and experimenting also come from the network of the UNDP Accelerator Lab, which spans 60 country offices. From helping small businesses and informal-sector employees stay afloat through a "pay in advance" service during the quarantine to collecting perception data to understand binge consumption, all of these ideas are important in today’s context.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Businesses

In our journey of sensing the complex issues that communities have, we found numerous problems related to urban municipalities/cities in Nepal, especially in the capital city, Kathmandu. Whether it is improper drainage system to mind-boggling air pollution, we, unfortunately, have them all. Not to forget to mention, solid waste management is another concern, wherein the solid waste generation is increasing annually in Kathmandu ( source:The Kathmandu Post, 2019). These are few of the many issues that are in the dire straits. Lab in Nepal, in the past one year, undertook an experiment on behavioral change of informal waste workers in partnership with an INGO called Medicines du monde and another experiment on transforming misused public spaces into green public parks in partnership with Lalitpur Metropolitan City and a team of artists and architects called Vriksha Foundation. The pocket park project was a social initiative that brought together the local community, private and public sector on a single platform to mitigate the problem of lack of open spaces caused by unplanned urbanization by turning a barren and neglected public space into a pocket park that is disable friendly and inclusive for all.  However, there’s a lot to do and unplanned urbanization is a very complex issue.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Management

Philippines

Quiapo was also the location for the SalikLakbay Solutions Mapping adventure of the United Nations Development Programme Philippines in 2019. We were there for twofold reasons: to immerse ourselves with the experiences of informal hackers in Quiapo, and to test run the prototype SalikLakbay Solutions Mapping Adventure, a core UNDP Accelerator Labs methodology.SalikLakbay is a combination of two (2) Filipino words: Saliksik, to explore or research; and, Lakbay, to journey or go on an adventure. The idea is for a group of curious individuals embarking on an epic journey of identifying creative solutions to answer a pressing need in the communities. These solutions are referred to as “diskarte” — a Filipino way of creatively solving problems in response to practical problems within one’s social sphere.

Source: AccLab Blog

Roland is one of many informal hackers in Quiapo who quietly works at the side streets behind large shops or in the grimy side streets. They seem to live in a different world with a different set of rules in a place where culture, language, and religion diverge in a cacophony of interesting sights, sounds, and smells.Journey through Diagon AlleyQuiapo, Manila, when you look closely enough, resembles that of Diagon Alley. Minus the cobblestoned streets and the visual magic of Harry Potter’s world, it is a place where people from all walks of life converge together to replenish business supplies, scour for cheap finds, or simply shop for home use. Like the famous magical alley, Quiapo is a weird ironic mixture of almost everything you may want to buy: branded or fake electronic gadgets, machine-made or manually-made eyeglasses, brand new or used clothing, original or modified hardware equipment, top-of-the-line or Frankenstein computers, mirrorless or vintage film cameras, and the like.

Source: AccLab Blog

South Africa

The project experimented with an alternative method of food distribution by supplying money through a cloud-based transactional platform in the form of vouchers. These vouchers could be redeemed at the major retailers near the communities, and the project additionally registered local spaza shops and informal traders as vendors for voucher redemption in an effort to support the local and informal economy.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Trade, Informal Businesses

Syria

What happens to waste after it is dumped in the waste bins? Both direct observation and FGD with waste workers showed that there is a significant increase in the number of informal waste pickers. Waste picking is the new source of income in town! Despite the many health risks posed by handling waste, especially during the time of COVID, you can see women, men, children, and elderly digging the treasures out from a neighborhood waste bin. Plastic bottles, old plastic hoses, metal cans, batteries, dry carton boxes, and many other “valuable” and exchangeable materials will be dug out of the bin and placed expertly in separate bags.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Collection

To answer these questions, we needed to look at recycling not only from a household perspective but also from a system perspective. Recycling, after all, is a small part of a broader system that starts with the generation of waste and either ends up in a recycling factory or a waste landfill. Within this system there are existing value chains for most recyclable waste produced. Moreover, many of these value chains are far reaching and specialized. The problem, however, is they are considered informal, operate in unhealthy conditions and are disorganized.Recycle or Reuse? That is the question.

Source: AccLab Blog

Vietnam

Tallying up the resultAfter we processed the data in phase 3, we found that the results exceeded our own expectations. The number of the wrong type of waste collected went from increasingly high to practically zero, and the number of people using bins increased more than 5 times compared to the baseline. Over 90% of the people surveyed in the experiment agreed to recommend the city government to apply this model to the city-wide scale. Informal waste pickers stopped trying to pick recyclables from the bins but bought them in nicely sorted out piles from the apartment’s communities. Most importantly, the Government now had a viable option to invest its waste infrastructure money in!

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Collection

The IWWs have been deeply affected by the disruption of industry and businesses that typically generate waste such as tourism, food beverage, and construction. In our study, we observe an overall decrease in IWWs presence during COVID-19 time. Many IWW reported that they or their peers had to return to their hometown, find other work, or face unemployment. While there were general health concerns related to their work, medical waste such as single-use masks were not an issue as IWWs, these waste are usually disposed of in the household organic waste bins which IWWs don’t typically go through (for health reasons). Many IWWs did express that they feel left out and unsupported by social welfare policies during the time of  COVID-19. All over Viet Nam, informal and seasonal workers are one of the groups most affected by the pandemic, and the social support for them is still found to be inadequate.  

Source: AccLab Blog

Through a collective intelligence approach to GIS mapping visualization, it is clear that informal waste workers not only thoroughly cover waste collection in the city (estimated >80% of geographical area coverage) but play a significant role in the overall recovery of recyclable waste, with an estimated total collection between 7.5-9% (taking both IWWs and collection centers into consideration) compared to the total volume brought to the landfill per day (approximately 1000 tons per day) during low volume COVID-19 times (up to 10% more during normalized times).  Da Nang city has set a target of reaching a 15% waste recycling rate by 2025, from our rough estimate the informal waste sector is already contributing significantly to the city’s overall goal, but this contribution is not always recognized in the current policies. If the estimate holds true, these figures have a major impact on municipal waste management, and cities around the globe with an informal waste sector should take notice. The waste that is being recovered would either likely end in the City’s landfill or the environment (including the oceans). But the informal sector workers often face ostracization in society due to the stigma of working with waste. In our research, we found great examples around the world of how informal workers were integrated as an asset to the municipal authority such as our sister Lab in Paraguay, the catadore model in Brazil, or the ENDA model of Independent Waste Collectors in Ho Chi Minh City. We hope to see more emergent models like these that integrate and recognize informal sector workers' true values -- our city’s heroes in the fight against waste pollution.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Management, Informal Sectors

An established network is the main work resource for any informal waste worker, as Ms. Hien mentioned, “[Once] I gathered enough business contacts to open [my collection center],” showing the significance of networks.  As waste picking is not exactly a highly desirable job for most people, IWWs only enter the business with the advising of a trusted contact. While looking for random waste on the street is a common method practiced by most IWWs, key contacts are the result of years of experience working in the sector that helps lighten the workload of IWWs. On the other hand, in rural areas where there is too little waste source, IWWs and local collection centers directly compete against each other to buy waste from the local households and businesses.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Management

How many IWWs are there in a given area? How do informal waste workers find and collect waste?

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Management

As the sun rises in Hoà Liên commune in Da Nang city , the day begins for 50-year-old Ms. Nguyen Thi Hien. She starts the day around 7 am and she doesn’t return home for another 12 hours at least. First, she hastens to her nearby rice paddy fields, where she is a farmer tending to her crops. Once her fields have been looked after, she bikes over to her main occupation, her small collection center where she recovers, consolidates, and trades recyclable waste. “Before I opened this collection center, I used to be an informal waste worker as well. After going collecting for a few years, I gathered enough business contacts to open this place,” Ms. Hien proudly states. She sorts waste by hand, separating by type of waste mainly distinguishing between paper, metal, and certain types of plastic. That is if she’s not answering the phone, dealing with traders, or noting transactions down in her notebook. It’s a job she has done for over a decade and, “I love my work,” Ms. Hien smiles. Ms. Hien is among thousands of ve chai (informal waste workers) in Viet Nam working around the clock to find value in discarded items --  “a person's trash is another person's treasure” as the old proverb says.

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Management

After conducting interviews and surveys, we found out that the practice of sorting valuable waste (glass bottles, metal cans, paper etc.…) is already quite common in many households. This isn’t obvious if you only look at the formal waste disposal infrastructure. Currently, there is no comprehensive waste separation infrastructure for different types of waste in Da Nang. Most of the daily solid waste that is collected by Da Nang’s environmental company gets thrown into single compartment garbage trucks that end up in the landfill. So that begs the question, why bother sorting waste at all? It turns out, the informal sector plays a huge role here. Informal waste pickers, usually women, go around blocks every day to collect valuable household waste to earn their income. As for households, sorting valuable waste is a way to keep the house clean, sell for scraps, and help the environment.We conducted a random-sampling survey in Danang on households’ waste sorting habit (n=193) with the support of our colleagues at PAPI

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Collection

With the support of DONRE, I hit the street to conduct ethnographic field research on household waste sorting habits. I had the chance to talk with many amazing people from informal waste pickers and environmental officers to government officials, local NGOs and businesses, who work hard every day to keep the streets of Da Nang clean.  As we immersed ourselves deeper in the local reality and heard directly from the people who were most affected by the challenge, many of our initial assumptions were swiftly debunked. From seemingly simple things like why people are putting trash in front of their house to larger questions like where are the main sources of the plastic waste generation? -- there was always more than what meets the eye.Tapping into local knowledge - an interview with a waste collection officer

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Environment and Sustainability, Informal Waste Collection

These seemingly simple questions are actually quite difficult to answer as most IWWs operate independently and very little data are available from official sources. We conducted this study to map out the geographical activities of informal waste workers, collection centers, and waste hotspots to provide data on their behaviors and habits and ultimately come up with appropriate recommendations for the city. Overall we identified and surveyed a total of 221 locations including 165 dumpsites and 56 aggregators in surveyed areas. We then visualized them on the GiS map and categorized them by different types to give an overall impression of the area and provide actionable intel to relevant organizations. In general, we found that IWWs typically concentrate in areas with collection centers/scrap shops to facilitate trading and transportation.What is the typical profile of an informal waste worker in Viet Nam?

Source: AccLab Blog

This excerpt is also potentially relevant to: Informal Waste Management