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INTRODUCTION
& BACKGROUND The
second international conference on organising in the informal
economy was held in Accra, the capital city of Ghana, from 25th
to 29th September 2006 under the theme “Combining our
efforts”. This was a follow-up to the first conference which was
held in Ahmedabad in India in December 2003. The
conference was organised by the International Coordinating
Committee (ICC) which comprises representatives from Ghana Trades
Union Congress, Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) of India, StreetNet
International, Nigeria Labour Congress (NLC), HomeNet South East
Asia, ORIT-ICFTU of Latin America
and Confederacion
Revolucionario de Obreros y Campesinos of Mexico (CROC).
The conference was hosted by the Ghana Trades Union Congress. The
objectives of the conference were to: -
share experiences among informal economy organisations; -
develop strategies to intensify organisation in the informal
economy; -
build network of informal economy organisations; and -
identify processes of representation at international level
(e.g., International Labour Organsation, World Trade Organisation,
etc). Pre-Conference
Activities In
the week that preceded the conference, the ICC representatives
comprising Kofi Asamoah of Ghana Trades Unions Congress, Pat Horn
of StreetNet and Linus Ukamba of Nigeria Labour Congress undertook
a number of activities. In addition to the preparation of the
conference programme, the ICC organised three media programmes. The
first was a media briefing where the ICC briefed a cross-section of
print and electronic media representatives. The second activity was
a discussion on a national radio station (Uniiq FM of the Ghana
Broadcasting Corporation). The third activity was a national TV
programme also at the Ghana Broadcasting Corporation. The
ICC used these media to explain the purpose and objectives of the
conference as outlined above. Participation The
conference was attended by 65 delegates from 23 countries and 55
organisations (including global union federations and support
organisations) in Africa, Latin America, Asia, UK, and Canada. The
list of participants is in the Appendix. Summary
of Conference Activities The
conference activities were undertaken in five days, from 25 to 29
September 2006. On the first
day (25th), an excursion was organised for the
foreign participants to visit and familiarise themselves with
activities in the informal economy in and around Accra. The
conference was officially opened at 10:30am on the second
day (26th) at the Miklin Hotel in Accra. The
official opening was attended by over 100 people including the
international and local conference delegates, representatives from
trade unions and government. The conference was addressed by Ghana’s
Minister of Manpower, Youth and Employment, Mr. Boniface Abubakar
Saddique, the Secretary-General of the Ghana Trades Union Congress,
Mr. Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, and an ICC member and International
Coordinator of StreetNet, Ms. Pat Horn. A solidarity message from
the Organisation of African Trade Union Unity (OATUU) was delivered
by Mr. Michael Besha, Assistant General Secretary of OATUU. In
the afternoon of the second day, Dr. Yaw Baah, head of Policy and
Research Department of the Ghana Trades Union Congress presented an
overview of the Ghanaian society and the informal economy in Ghana.
After the presentation, participants mounted their exhibitions
about their organisations. The last activity on the second day was
a “Cultural Night” which was sponsored by Ghana’s Social
Security and National Insurance Trust (SSNIT). Participants were
entertained by Ghanaian traditional music and dance troupes.
On the third
day,
participants were divided into three groups. Members in each of the
groups made presentations on their activities in the informal
economy in their respective countries and organisations using their
exhibitions (which were mounted the previous day).
The fourth
day
started with a plenary session where Pat Horn presented a synopsis
of trends gathered from the previous day’s presentations. After
the presentation and discussion of the synopsis, participants were
divided into five groups to discuss the following themes: i.
Collective bargaining and representation ii.
Social protection iii.
Organising strategies iv.
Skills development and employment creation v.
Laws and policies In
the afternoon, the reports from the five groups were presented and
discussed in a plenary session. On the fifth
day
(which was the last of day of the conference), Chris Bonner of
WIEGO and Crystal Dicks of IFWEA led a discussion of
“Worker Education and Capacity Building
for Organising”
in a
plenary session. This was followed by a group work to discuss the
“way forward”. The last session of the conference started with
presentation and discussion of group reports on the “way forward”.
This was followed by a discussion and adoption of resolutions. The
conference closed at 5:00pm on 29th
September 2006. Structure
of the Report The
remainder of the report is divided into four sections. Each section
reports the main conference activities which were undertaken from
the second to the last day. Facilitation
and Reporting The
report was written by Dr. Yaw Baah (Head of Policy & Research
Department, Ghana Trades Union Congress), Akua Britwum (Research
Fellow, Centre for Development Studies, University of Cape Coast)
and Angela Akorsu (Research Fellow, Centre for Development Studies,
University of Cape Coast). They also served as facilitators of the
conference together
with El Hadji Abdoulaye Diallo (ILO consultant formerly with ACTRAV
– Workers Bureau of ILO).
Morning
Session (Day 2):
Official Opening of the Conference The
conference was officially opened on the second day (25th
September 2006) by the guest speaker, Ghana’s Minister of
Manpower, Youth and Employment, Boniface Abubakar Saddique. Other
main speakers were Kwasi Adu-Amankwah (Secretary-General of Ghana
Trades Union Congress) and Pat Horn (International Coordinator of
StreetNet and a member of the International Coordinating
Committee). The summary of the addresses of the main speakers are
presented below.
Summary of the Address by
Boniface Abubakar Sadiqque, Ghana’s Minister of Manpower, Youth
& Employment Boniface
Abubakar Saddique started his address by expressing thanks to the
organisers for inviting him as a guest speaker and for providing
the opportunity for him to share Ghana’s experiences with other
participants. He noted
the relevance of the conference since the informal economy is the
“catalyst for economic development and the engine of growth” in
most developing countries and underscored the need for all
stakeholders in the economy to focus their attention on the
development of the informal economy. He traced the origins of the
informal economy in Ghana to the colonial times when a dual economy
with two distinct sub-economies emerged. The key features of the
colonial economy included the production of primary commodities for
export. On the one hand a small formal wage employment covered
essentially investment in mining, transportation, infrastructure,
commerce, social services and administration. On the other hand,
the promotion of the production of primary commodities for export
and the import of consumer goods gave rise to “large contingents
of the labour force in both agriculture and petty trading”. Those
engaged in this sector of the economy were either self-employed or
hired under traditional or informal arrangements. Saddique noted
the attention the informal economy is receiving from policy makers,
trade unions, NGOs, and researchers because of its importance in
the economies of developing countries. He
expressed concern about the lack of social protection for informal
economy workers, the majority of whom are women. He highlighted the
main features of the informal economy namely: oppressive and
dangerous working conditions particularly poor occupational health
and safety standards, high incidence of child labour, low incomes,
the lack of access to social services and training, high incidence
of exploitation, infringement on workers’ rights, and the
vulnerability of women in the informal economy. The
Minister attributed some of the challenges facing informal economy
workers in Ghana to the “lapses in labour inspection” and
assured participants that the Government of Ghana is taking steps
to ensure that basic standards are observed in the informal economy
to protect all those engaged in the sector. In
conclusion, Saddique reminded the participants
that “organising informal sector workers requires
nurturing dynamic links with the relevant public authorities and
institutions, both national and international that can provide the
necessary support” and assured them that the government of Ghana
will support the informal economy operators to enable them “overcome
the major bottlenecks preventing the growth of the sector”. Finally,
the Minister assured the participants that the Government of Ghana
will do what it can to support the implementation of the decisions
of the conference both at home and in the international arena. Summary
of Address by Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary-General of Ghana Trades
Union Congress Adu-Amankwah,
the Secretary-General of Ghana Trades Union Congress (the host
organisation), welcomed the participants to the conference. He
expressed his gratitude to the organisers for choosing Ghana as the
host country and the Ghana TUC as host organisation. He also
acknowledged the effort the ICC is putting into its work to bring
the attention of the world to the plight of informal economy
workers. Adu-Amankwah
noted the rapid rate at which the informal economy is growing in
both the developing and advanced countries and expressed concern
about the “outdated and inaccurate views” and the inappropriate
actions on the part of policy-makers towards the informal economy.
He challenged governments to develop “context specific policies”
to improve the lot of those engaged in the informal economy. Using
the Ghana’s experience of the informal economy, he expressed
concern about the lack of application of minimum labour standards,
inadequate sanitation, overwork, exposure to the sun and rains, the
lack of income security, and the lack of credit, marketing and
storage facilities in the sector. He singled out street vendors as
the ones facing extreme hardships and constant threats of
harassment particularly from municipal authorities who do not
officially recognise their existence. He urged trade unions and
other civil society organisations to continue to strive to promote
the rights of informal economy workers and seek to improve their
working conditions. He further challenged governments and all
stakeholders including government and civil society organisations
to ensure the enforcement and respect of core International Labour
Organisation conventions in the informal economy. The standards he
mentioned included freedom of association, the right to organise
and collective bargaining, protection against forced labour,
protection against discrimination in employment, right to decent
work, right to adequate income and social protection, protection
against child labour, and the right of the informal economy workers
to consultation and participation in decisions that affect their
livelihoods. On
the relationship between trade unions and the informal economy,
Adu-Amankwah emphasised the urgent need for unions to organise
economy workers into their fold and to offer them the same
protection they offer formal economy workers. “For us in the
trade unions the growth of the informal economy also raises concern
about the decline in our membership and the nature of our
representation of working people since fundamental human rights at
work are as relevant in the informal as they are in the formal
economy. We feel duty bound to organise workers in the informal
economy in order to provide them with voice and representation and
thereby seek to improve their working conditions. Doing this indeed
strengthens trade union intervention in national development”.
In
conclusion, Adu-Amankwah identified the organisation and
strengthening of the informal economy workers as the biggest
challenges that confront the trade union movement today and urged
all participants to be passionate, committed, innovative and
creative in their effort toward the organisation and mobilisation
of workers in the informal economy.
Summary of address by
Pat Horn (Coordinator of StreetNet International) on behalf of the
International Coordinating Committee (ICC) Pat
Horn briefed participants on the background of the conference. She
referred to the ILO Conference which was held in Geneva in June
2002 which adopted Conclusions on Decent Work and the Informal
Economy. Clause 4 of the Conclusions states that “Workers in the informal economy include both wage workers and
own-account workers. Most own-account workers are as insecure and
vulnerable as wage workers and move from one situation to the
other. Because they lack protection, rights and representation,
these workers often remain trapped in poverty” She
explained that StreetNet and SEWA combined efforts to raise funds
for the first international conference and invited Ghana TUC,
Nigeria Labour Congress and HomeNet of Thailand to join them in
organising an international conference of practitioners organising
workers in the informal economy with the objectives of sharing
experiences, developing
strategies to intensify organisation in the informal economy, building
a network of informal economy organisations and unions
organising workers in the informal economy, and securing
representation of informal economy workers at international forums
such as the ILO and WTO. The 2003 Conference, held in Ahmedabad, India, agreed on the following:
Horn
outlined the inter-conference activities which included the
participation in the International Labour Conference (ILC) in
Geneva in 2004, the organisation of African regional workshop which
was jointly convened by the ILO and the ICC in Dakar Senegal,
participation in the 2006 ILC, and the continuation of meetings
with the ILO departments and lobbying and advocacy with trade
unions and global union federations. Horn
concluded her address with a summary of the objectives of the
present conference which were the same theme as the India
Conference. She drew participants’ attention to the successes of
the collective efforts toward the improvement of working conditions
in the informal economy workers. “By
now, our cumulative efforts have made our network of organisations
much bigger, including street vendors, home-based workers, domestic
workers, waste collectors, informal transport workers, agricultural
and fishing workers”. The network now covers Africa, Asia and Latin America
with some contacts in Eastern Europe and support from trade unions
in Western Europe, Canada and the United States. Lastly,
Horn informed the participants that the network will be developing
a manual on organising. Funds have already been raised for the production
of the manual. In the absence of a formal institutional
structure for the network, Ms. Horn reminded participants that one
of the objectives of the conference was to provide
a mandate for the
direction of follow-up activities. Afternoon
session
(Day 2): A presentation on the overview of the Informal Economy in
Ghana Summary of
presentation by Dr. Yaw Baah, Head of Policy & Research
Department of Ghana Trades Union Congress The
purpose of the presentation was to provide basic information on the
society and economy of Ghana to help foreign participants in
particular to familiarise themselves with their new environment and
to understand the nature and forms of the informal economy in
Ghana, the host country. Dr.
Yaw Baah started the presentation with an overview of the main
features of the Ghanaian society to contextualise the second part
of his presentation which focused on the informal economy. The main
issues covered in the first part of the presentation included the
size, the structure, growth rate and sex ratio of the population of
Ghana, the average household size, ecology, administration,
languages, ethnicity, level of urbanisation, literacy rates,
HIV/AIDS prevalence rate, crime rate, and life expectancy in Ghana.
The
second part of the presentation focused on the economy. The issues
covered included the size of the economy, relative contributions of
the major sectors to the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), per capita
income, inflation, interest rates, exchange rates, and the medium
term policies of the Ghanaian government. Other issues covered
included economic activity rates, the size of the formal and
informal sectors in total employment, unemployment,
under-employment, distribution of the workforce by industry,
occupation and by gender. The
last part of the presentation focused on the informal economy in
Ghana. He defined informal economy to include all “unregulated”
economic activities (including unregulated activities in the
agricultural sector). According to Dr. Yaw Baah, over 80% of the
Ghanaian workforce is engaged in the informal economy leaving less
than 20% of the workforce in the formal segment of the Ghanaian
economy. He categorised informal economy operatives into four broad
groups – self-employed (without employees, who form the majority
of the workforce in the informal economy), self-employed (with
employees), employees, and unpaid workers. He identified the
employees and the unpaid workers in the informal economy as the
most vulnerable among the four categories of those engaged in the
informal economy. Most
informal activities in Ghana take place in agriculture, trade and
manufacturing which are also the three most important sectors in
the economy. Together the three sectors employ approximately 84% of
the total workforce in Ghana. Women form the majority of the
informal economy workers. Informal economy workers in Ghana have no
access to social protection benefits such as pension, sick leave
with pay, holiday with pay, etc. Since the Ghana’s labour laws
are not enforced in the informal economy, workers there are made to
work long hours without overtime payment, health and safety
standards are poor, and the majority of the informal economy
workers earn below the national poverty line (which is around US$1
a day). Dr.
Yaw Baah provided figures to explain the main characteristics of
the informal economy workers. Using the latest Ghana Living
Standard Survey data, he compared informal economy workers with
their formal economy counterparts. The indicators he used for the
comparison of the two sub-economies included the average size of
firms, distribution of workforce by age, gender, industry,
locality, and region. Other characteristics he used as basis for
comparison included level of education, marital status,
nationality, degree of unionisation, mean annual household income
and expenditure. In
conclusion, Dr. Yaw Baah highlighted the characteristics of
informal economy workers which included unsafe working conditions,
lack of legal and social protection, low incomes, harassment by
government officials, the lack of representation in national
policy-making, the lack of official recognition and support.
Finally, he summarised Ghana government policy strategy on the
informal economy and noted that the government’s strategy is to
support the “economic unit” in the informal economy but not the
individuals in the sector. In other words, government policy is to
support the small and medium enterprises in the informal economy to
have access to official financial support in the form of loans. The
implication is that the self-employed (with employees) whose
activities are more visible are likely to benefit from the official
support at the expense of the self-employed (without employees) and
the employees in the informal economy who form the majority of the
total workforce in the sub-economy. He reported that, although some
local authorities are making efforts to provide basic social
services such as toilet facilities for informal economy workers,
social protection issues are not clear in government strategies to
support the informal economy workers. He also noted that although
government has initiated some measures to provide support for the
informal economy operatives, such policies and measures are usually
“patronising” in the sense that the informal economy operators
are not allowed to take part the decisions leading to the
formulation of such policies. Dr.
Yaw Baah’s presentation was followed by lively discussions which
came to a close at around 4:00pm. Mounting
of Exhibitions The
last activity of the second day was the mounting of exhibitions by
participants. These exhibitions were used for presentations on the
third day of the conference. The activities of the third day are
reported in following section.
The
third day’s activities commenced with the self-introduction of
all participants. Participants took turns to announce their names,
their respective organizations as well as their countries of
origin. The session was chaired by Kofi Asamoah, Deputy
Secretary-General of Ghana Trades Union Congress and a member of
the International Coordinating Committee (ICC). After
the self-introduction, participants were grouped into three to
present their exhibitions on their organizations and /or countries.
In line with the objectives of the conference, the exhibitions and
presentations were to:
The
following questions were used as a guide for the presentations:
The
summary of the various presentations are reported in the following
table. Summary
of Presentations
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