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AFRICAN REGIONAL WORKSHOP IN ACCRA, GHANA

By Pat Horn, International Co-ordinator

The StreetNet Africa Regional Workshop was held in Accra, Ghana, from 14 -15 May, 2002. Organisations from Benin, Cōte d’Ivoire, Kenya, Malawi, Nigeria, South Africa, Zimbabwe, Zambia and Ghana were present.

Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary General of the Ghana Trade Union Congress (TUC) based in Accra, agreed early in 20002 that the TUC would host the workshop in Ghana. An Informal Sector Desk was established in the Head Office, headed by Francis X Owusu and ongoing communication took place between the StreetNet office and TUC in making the arrangements.

The workshops’ aims and the objectives were to:

  • provide an opportunity to share the experiences of street and market vendors in the region and to hear about the experiences of street vendors in other regions;
  • discuss and share how the problems of street and market vendors have been overcome through organisation, and to learn about how other organisations (in other regions) work;
  • make recommendations from the region about how to structure StreetNet as the international alliance of street and market vendors and hawkers;
  • make plans for building national alliances of street and market vendors and hawkers (or any other form of national co-ordination) in African countries before the international launch of StreetNet in November 2002.

Apart from the representatives of street vendor organisations from nine African countries who attended, delegates from the Makola Market Traders Union also came to the workshop. The Union belongs to the recently-established Greater Accra Market Union, which combines all the 36 markets in Accra.

The Africa Workshop was opened by Kwasi Adu-Amankwah, Secretary General of the Ghana TUC. In his address he said that a little over 80 percent of Ghana’s labour force is located in the informal sector and that attention to the informal sector has grown. “On the part of the trade union movement we are beginning to pay closer attention to organising informal sector workers into the ranks of the movement to ensure their protection. Indeed, organising informal sector workers and strengthening them to transform their conditions of work and thereby the very nature of informal sector work, constitutes one of the biggest challenges that confront the trade union at the beginning of a new century”.

On the first day, discussion was chaired by the National Chairman of the TUC, and facilitated by the Principal of the TUC Labour College. Group discussion proceeded to what StreetNet’s organisational structure should be.

Workshop recommendations

The discussions about StreetNet’s structures came up with the following consensus:

  •  StreetNet should be an organisation of national alliances and city alliances. There was a suggestion, not unanimously supported, that individual organisations should also be able to affiliate directly;
  • individual organisations should be encouraged to group together into city alliances or national alliances which can affiliate directly to StreetNet;
  • if there were more than one national alliance or national centre organising workers in the informal economy in a country, StreetNet should admit both, but encourage mergers where appropriate;
  • StreetNet’s members should be membership-based, dues-paying organisations of street vendors;
  • Member organisations should affiliate to StreetNet through a world secretariat, and there should be regional offices for greater co-operation between affiliates in each region;
  • NGOs should not be members of StreetNet, but those that work towards the same goals and support the StreetNet constitution should be social partners of StreetNet. They could assist with advocacy work and fundraising.

On Wednesday May 15, with facilitation by the Head of the TUC’s Organising Department, JH Anquandah, groups discussed StreetNet policy and made recommendations.

Class differences: It was recognised that there are class differences between street and market vendors, and StreetNet should include all classes of vendors, and those who are registered as well as those regarded as “illegal” by virtue of not being registered or recognised.

Women: StreetNet should adopt quotas at every level and structure to ensure that a significant number of its leaders are women, and also facilitate leadership training for women. Gender-neutral language needs to be used in the StreetNet constitution.

Politics: StreetNet should have no party-political affiliation, but should participate in the development of national policies. Elected leaders of StreetNet should not have public political profiles, and there should be sanctions in the event of members’ political activities affecting StreetNet. StreetNet should do capacity-building with its member organisations.

Finances: StreetNet should adopt the basic aim of becoming financially self-sufficient. Therefore there must be sound administration. The following means of generating income should be used: affiliation fees; savings; loans to members charging low interest rates; investments; trade fairs or “fair games”.

Working in country groups plans were made for the period leading up to the international launch of StreetNet. These included making contact with organisations in neighbouring countries and building national and regional alliances.

A successful policy dialogue on street trading, held on May 16, was addressed by Mrs Marian A Tackie, Director of the Ministry of Women and Children’s Affairs (MOWAC) and officials from the Accra Metropolitan Assembly.

The Africa workshop was a very positive experience overall. As with the previous regional workshops in Latin America and Asia the level of participation was very good. There was a tremendous spirit and the momentum, if sustained, should be able to get further organisation and co-ordination going, building up to the international launch of StreetNet.

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