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Benin
South Korea
Democratic Republic of
Congo
Mozambique
India
Lesotho
Nepal
New York, North America
Peru
If you are a StreetNet affiliate please
send a report on your activities and photos so we can include them in the
web feature e-mail:
stnet@iafrica.com
Read
messages
For information on how to
affiliate click here
Links to affiliates websites
CTCP
(Confederacion de Trabajadores por Cuenta Propia - FNT), Nicaragua
FNOTNA
CROC (Federación Nacional de Organizaciones de Trabajadores no Asalariados
perteneciente a la Confederación Revolucionaria de Obreros y Campesinos
Mexico
Korean
Street Vendors' Confederation (KOSC)
National
Alliance of Street Vendors of India (NASVI)
Self
Employed Women's Association (SEWA), India
Street
Vendor Project, New York
Campaigns
NASVI, India takes campaign for
street vendors' law to Bihir state
NASVI, India,
organised a Street vendor Adhikar Rath (campaign vehicle) in the state of
Bihar which traveled to 32 districts and returned to Patna on January 10
2008. Many new street vendor organisations were identified and the vehicle
generated awareness among street vendors throughout the state. Many incidents
of harassment were also solved during the campaign.
World Class Cities for ALL(WCCA) Campaign: StreetNet and its affiliates are leading a campaign for inclusion of the urban poor in the planning for the
FIFA World Cup in South Africa in 2010.
WCCA INDIA was launched at the International Conference on Urban Planning
and Policy Development hosted by NASVI in India in April this year to halt all evictions of street vendors and for inclusion of the urban poor in the plans for the Commonwealth Games.
WCCA - South Africa. ECSVA, is a partner in the StreetNet WCCA campaign in South Africa in preparation for the World Cup in 2010. It has has been involved in meetings on plans for 2010 affecting street vendors in Eastern Cape.
Street vendor's
videos on the web
Street Vendors Project,
New York, talks back -
Watch
SVP member Monica Lee deal with harassment from the police and store owners
(eng) and other short videos on the life of street vendors' and their
struggle to earn a living
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StreetNet International has 30 affiliated organisations - urban and national alliances of street vendor trade unions and associations - organising in 27 countries of the world. These affiliates are the lifeblood of
StreetNet.
StreetNet Affiliates (contact details,
organisation information, and reports on activities)
Street vendors have formed structures in markets, on pavements and dusty pathways. Many do not have offices and have to hold their meetings in the open air. The StreetNet International office in Durban, South Africa, plays a global
co-ordinating, information-sharing and capacity building role. It plans activities such as workshops and exchange visits, and implements decisions made by the structures of
StreetNet.
It is the affiliates, as membership-based organisations with representative structures that hold the power to change the working conditions of their members, and to represent them in neighbourhoods, cities and countries of the world. And in StreetNet itself it is the affiliates that have decision making powers through the democratic structures of the organisation.
This web feature highlights the organisation and work of StreetNet affiliates. It looks at the activities to resolve problems of the urban poor who earn a living selling in public spaces, pavements, streets and market places of the cities and towns where they work.
Organisation
StreetNet affiliates are spread across three main geographical regions of the world: Africa, where there are 18 affiliated organisations; Asia, where there are five, and Latin America, where there are six. There is one affiliate in New York in North America.
StreetNet affiliates have adopted a process of alliance building before launching their national organisation. Read about
KENASVIT, Kenya which comprises seven urban alliances.
StreetNet affiliates are taking a lead in establishing regional networks. In 2006, Central American informal economy worker organisations established a regional network called
SEICAP
(SINDICATOS DE LA ECONOMIA INFORMAL DE CENTRO AMERICA Y PANAMA). StreetNet affiliate
CTCP
(Confederacion de trabajadores por Cuenta
Propia), in Nicaragua is the secretariat for this network
StreetNet International Congress in Brazil in 2007 resolved that regional structures should be established in Asia, West Africa, East and Southern Africa and Latin America. Affiliates have to form regional focus points. This list of regions can be revised or added to at future International Congresses according to StreetNet's expansion.
Own-account and independent work
The problems faced by informal traders are broadly the same in most countries. Like other workers in the informal economy they do not have the rights and protections, in law and in practice, extended to most formal economy workers. A further reason for the vulnerability experienced by the majority of street and market vendors and hawkers is they have no employer, and therefore little work or income security.
Read about organising in the informal economy as own account or independent workers as it is related by three different affiliates in different countries and regions:
Recognition of women
In most countries there are more women than men trying to earn a living as street vendors. They are most often found selling lower cost goods and services such as food and vegetables. In urban areas poor women are playing an important economic role by supporting their families with the income that they earn through informal work. Several of StreetNet's affiliates are women's
organis ations such as
LDFC (Ligue pour les Droit de la Femme
Congolaise), Democratic Republic of Congo, CNTS
(Confederation National de Travailleurs de Senegal) Women's Committee, Senegal, the Makola Market Women who are affiliated to Ghana StreetNet Alliance.
SEWA (Self-Employed Women's Association), India, is an internationally renowned example of an informal economy trade union organising poor working women with almost a million members.
StreetNet's affiliates see that gender equality in organisational activities, in leadership and in representation within their structures is a priority.
Read about the activities of two affiliates:
Collective bargaining and legal rights
The struggle by street vendors for recognition of their trade unions and associations by local and regional authorities is an important step in being able to call for just laws to regulate public space for informal trading. Vendors are using negotiation in a variety of contexts, alongside lobbying, to put forward their demands for inclusion in planning and for formal representation in decision-making. In many countries laws and regulations are out of date and cannot meet the expanding needs of the informal economy traders. Laws are also confusing, or they are not properly implemented. Legal reforms are needed.
City planners are an equally important group to engage with to demand economic justice. They should allocate land for the informal economy and regulate processes in the interest of long-term economic development. They should do this with the consultation, involvement and representation of democratic informal traders' organisations.
Some examples of StreetNet affiliates activities in demanding economic recognition are related below:
In Kenya KENASVIT has led a process of consultation and input into the new law for informal traders and other
sectors of informal economy workers.
In Argentina, SIVARA
(Sindicato de vendedores
ambulantes) has put a stop to the practice whereby police arrested and imprisoned street vendors for up to three years.
NASVI in India, is involved in an ongoing struggle to get the new national policy which it was involved in drafting, implemented in states of India.
In Senegal following police confrontation with informal traders in 2007, CNTS has led negotiations for new trading spaces to be provided by the local government.
In Uganda, members of NUIEWO demanded that
Local Government intervene to prevent the demolition of markets on public
land in Kampala. A market re-development in Kampala is being led by market traders.
ECSVA in Eastern Cape, South Africa, has called for meetings to discuss the removal of street barbers and food vendors in eMthatha
and negotiated a solution.
Social protection
Informal economy workers are generally denied heath insurance, pensions and the health and safety protection that formal economy workers are covered by. Their access to micro-credit and financial services of banks is another problem as their incomes are not secure. SEWA, India, has established programmes to meet its members' health needs, and the extension of micro-credit through the SEWA Bank. In Senegal, CNTS Women's Committee has established credit mutuelles (mutual societies) for its members. As a part of the StreetNet Exchange Programme SEWA and CNTS members visited each others organisations to share information and learn about different social protection schemes. Read about
the StreetNet Exchange programme between affiliates.
CNTS,
Senegal visit to SEWA, India
By Joyti Punjabi Vimo, SEWA and Seyni Mané Ndiaye and Annie Diouf, CNTS
Women's Committee
SEWA’s
visit to CNTS in Senegal
By Seyni Man. Ndiaye, Secretary in Charge of Informal
Sector CNTS, Senegal and Falguni Patel and Aisa Suleman Pathan, SEWA,
India
Health and HIV/AIDS
HIV/AIDS affects all of StreetNet's affiliates. Some affiliates have innovative HIV/Aids programmes. One example is MAVAP in Uganda. Through MAVAP, StreetNet affiliate NUIEWO is working in many markets in Kampala to spread the prevention and education message to its members.
Uganda: Tackling
HIV/AIDS in markets
By Angelina Wapakabalo, Market Vendors AIDS Project (MAVAP) and Flavia
Amoding, National Union of Informal Economy Workers Organisations (NUIEWO)
Disaster relief and management
NASVI and SEWA have been involved in the relief of victims of floods. In Ahmedabad, SEWA assisted victims and families in the aftermath of bombs that ripped apart the city affecting many SEWA members and their
families in July 2008.
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