Return

CO-ORDINATOR’S REPORT TO THE SECOND INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS OF STREETNET, 21/22 August 2007 in Brazil

Introduction

StreetNet International was launched in November 2002 after a three-year preparatory phase, during which an administrative and communications infrastructure was put in place, and preliminary contacts were made with organizations working with street vendors in approximately 40 countries in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Our First International Congress was held in Seoul, Korea in March 2004, by which stage we had 15 affiliates in StreetNet.

Affiliation and membership

The following twenty-eight organizations have affiliated to StreetNet since its launch: 

  TOTAL membership:                                   349 277 members

 Of the above affiliates:

1. KASVIT is part of KENASVIT (which was launched in April 2006) and have informed us that they will not continue as a separate affiliate after their current affiliation lapses;
2. Khathang Tema Baits’okoli lost its representivity in 2006 when membership dropped from 250 to 39 – and is in the process of re-organising to comply with the provisions of Clause 2 of the StreetNet constitution;
3. The StreetNet Association of Sri Lanka seems to have disappeared as a collective legal entity.
4. We had also lost track of SINTEIN, until we started our preparations to hold the International Congress in Brazil.

 Applications under consideration: 

 Organisations we have approached to apply for affiliation: 

Governance structures and leadership

The International Council has met four times since the First International Congress:

            7/8 May 2004                    Durban

            7/8 May 2005                    Kitwe, Zambia

            28/29 April 2006            Durban

            15/16 May 2007            Durban 

Leadership training was done on two days just before the International Council meeting in 2005 and 2006, and on two days just after the International Council meeting in 2007, on the following topics:

-         Public/private debates (2005)

-         Lobbying and advocacy (2005)

-         How to develop membership of affiliates (2005)

-         Designing projects/campaigns (2005)

-         Regional co-ordination (2005)

-         Programme management (2005)

-         Political issues around World Trade (2006)

-         Project management (2006)

-         Advocacy (2007)

-         Report-writing (2007) 

The Executive Committee has met regularly (physically and by teleconference)

            6 August 2004            Teleconference

            17 November 2004      Teleconference

            23 Feb 2005               Teleconference

            4 May 2005                Meeting (Kitwe)

            17 August 2005          Meeting (Durban)

            4 November 2005       Teleconference

            25 April 2006             Meeting (Durban)

            11 August 2006          Meeting (Nairobi)

            15 November 2006      Teleconference

            20 Feb 2007               Teleconference

            14 May 2007               Meeting (Durban) 

Leadership training was done on two days just before the Executive Committee meetings in August 2005 and August 2006 (an extended Executive Committee including other members of the International Council and of the KENASVIT Executive Committee) on the following topics:

-      Role and responsibilities of the Executive Committee (2005)

-      How decisions are made in the organization (2005)

-      How other global trade unions divide responsibilities between Council and       Executive Committee (2005)

-      Leadership and accountability (2005)

-      Administration basics (2005)

-     Financial systems (2005)

-     Foreign exchange (2005)

-     Organisational management skills (2005)

-      Budgets (2005)

-      World Social Forum – what is it ? (2006)

-      New social movements and other civil society organizations (2006)

-      Alliances and Coalitions – World Trade and other social issues (2006)

-      Trade unions’ engagement in WSF and other civil society forums (2006)

-      StreetNet preparations for the WSF Nairobi 2007 (2006) 

Documentation 

DATA-BASE:  The data-base of information about organizations of street vendors, market vendors and hawkers has been updated on a regular basis, and is accessible on the StreetNet website.  The data-base contains variable fields to accommodate information on organizing and collective bargaining strategies.

WEBSITE:  Our website is in Spanish, French and English.  Back copies of the StreetNet newsletter are up on the website, as well as documents of interest regarding street vendors and the organization of workers in the informal economy.  Current events and news from the streets of which our affiliate organizations keep us informed are tracked on our website, and we have a special web page on the WCCA campaign.

NEWSLETTER AND LEAFLETS:

StreetNet produced 10 000 copies of the updated leaflet in each of the three languages in which we produce our written documentation (English, French and Spanish) and these are still available and being distributed widely around the world.

The following issues of the newsletter have been published as planned since the First StreetNet International Congress in Korea:

            No.3            April 2004 (Congress issue)

            No.4            November 2004

            No.5            April 2005

            No.6            September 2006

            No.7            April 2006

            No.8            September 2006

            No.9            April 2007

We produce 3000 copies of each issue in English, 2500 copies in French and 2500 in Spanish.  The newsletters have been very effective, and every year our affiliates have expressed the need to have a newsletter quarterly instead of six-monthly – however we have not been able to raise the extra funds to produce it more often.

Workshops

REGIONAL WORKSHOPS:

1. Latin American regional workshop held in Lima, Peru in August 2004 (run in conjunction with PLADES – Proyecto Laboral de Desarrollo, affiliated to IFWEA) with participants from Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Honduras, Mexico, Nicaragua, Peru, Uruguay and Venezuela.
2. Asian regional workshop held in Kathmandu, Nepal in October 2006 (run in conjunction with GEFONT – General Federation of Nepalese Trade Unions) with participants from StreetNet affiliates in Bangladesh, India, Korea and Nepal.

COUNTRY WORKSHOPS:

-       FEDEVAL negotiations skills 1-day workshop for local leaders (August 2004)

-       Eastern Cape Street Vendors Alliance capacity-building w/shop (March 2005)

-       Ghana StreetNet Alliance national workshop (November 2005)

-       Technical training on market service co-ops (November 2005) convened by AZIEA and their affiliate ZANAMA in Zambia with technical support from the ILO Co-operatives Dept. and Zambian Co-operative College – also attended by representatives from ZCIEA Zimbabwe and MUFIS Malawi.

-      SEU Bangladesh policy workshop (March 2006)

-      Durban street vendors 1-day negotiations skills w/shops (June 05, Feb 2007)

Unfortunately we were not able to raise any funds for regional or country workshops during the second three-year plan from 2006 – 2008.  The workshops which took place in 2006 were delayed events for which funding had been raised for the 2003 – 2005 three-year plan.

This means that our affiliates cannot depend on StreetNet for funding for their activities.  They need to continue with their own fund-raising efforts – and StreetNet can assist by endorsing such fund-raising and monitoring the reporting to the donors where requested. (There are only outstanding funds for leadership training for the Consejo Directivo of FEDEVAL, identified as an important need in June 2005 during an organizational support mission to FEDEVAL in Lima.  It has taken a long time – and we are negotiating with CUT Peru, the ASEI Project of ORIT based in Lima, and WIEGO’s Latin American regional representative to assist us with the implementation of this training.)

International meetings

• International Labour Conference (June 2004) attended by StreetNet team of participants from Durban, Korea and Zambia, who participated in Committee on Migrant Work.

• World Social Forum (January 2005 in Porto Alegre, Brazil) attended by StreetNet team of participants from Durban, Eastern Cape and Mocambique.  StreetNet organized an event on “the situation of street vendors, informal market vendors and hawkers – giving attention to the situation of women hawkers and vendors – and opportunities for co-operation with municipal workers and their unions in relation to local governments”.   

• Urban Policies Colloquium (24/25 April 2006) convened in Durban jointly with WIEGO and the University of KwaZulu-Natal, attended by the members of the StreetNet International Council.

• International Labour Conference (June 2006) attended by StreetNet team of participants from Durban, Korea and Zimbabwe, who participated in Committee on Employment Relationship.

• World Social Forum (January 2007 in Nairobi, Kenya) attended by StreetNet team of participants from Durban, Benin, Ghana, India, Kenya, Korea, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Nicaragua, Senegal, Zambia,  Zimbabwe. StreetNet organized events on:

  • Women street vendors and informal market vendors

  • Child labour in street and market vending

  • Migrant workers in street vending and informal trade

  • StreetNet’s affiliate KENASVIT organized a very successful street vendors’ rally attended by street vendors from around Kenya.   

•  International meeting on “collective bargaining in the informal economy, laws and litigation in the street vendors’ sector” (26 – 30 March 2007) convened in Senegal by StreetNet affiliates CNTS and SUDEMS, attended by StreetNet affiliates from Benin, India, Ghana, Guinee, Kenya, South Korea, Malawi, Mexico, Nepal, Senegal, South Africa, Uganda, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

 Exchange visits

 The following exchange visits have taken place between StreetNet affiliates:

1. April 2005:  KOSC (Korea) visited NASVI and SEWA in India (Mumbai and Ahmedabad)
2. June 2005:  NASVI (India) and NEST (Nepal) visited KOSC in Korea.
3. Sept. 2005:  ZCIEA (Zimbabwe) visited AZIEA in Zambia.
4. Dec. 2005:  AZIEA (Zambia) visited ZCIEA in Zimbabwe.
5. March 2006:  NASVI (India) visited SEU in Bangladesh, and participated in their national policy workshop.
6. Sept. 2006:  ZANAMA women (Zambia) visited SEWA in India.
7. MUFIS (Malawi) visited Eastern Cape Street Vendors Alliance, S. Africa.
8. Feb. 2007:  SEU Bangladesh visited NASVI in India (Delhi and Patna)
9. June 2007:  SEWA (India) visited AZIEA and ZANAMA in Zambia.

The following exchange visits are scheduled for 2007:

SEWA – CNTS (women – on theme of social protection)

NEST – KENASVIT (on street vendors’ census methods)

FNOTNA – CPTP (Latin American exchange)

                 ZCIEA and AZIEA to visit the Eastern Cape Street Vendors’ Alliance and WCCA campaign partners in Johannesburg (StreetNet to fund ZCIEA and AZIEA to fund their visit from other funds raised by themselves) 

The majority of the exchange visits have showed extremely positive results, and some of our affiliates have contributed their own resources to make these visits even more effective – e.g. when StreetNet paid for NASVI members to visit KOSC in Korea, KOSC funded a simultaneous visit by two NEST members from Nepal. We have received reports on each exchange visit from both parties – the host as well as the visiting organization. These reports still need to be analysed for us to be able to do an in-depth report of what affiliates have gained through these visits. However, we have had two negative experiences with exchange visits (one was a visit which was part of our UNI-StreetNet programme) involving the misappropriation of funds – indicating a problem of exchange visit participants not being clear of the purpose of the exchange visits. The International Council agreed that we should develop clear criteria which participating organizations should ensure that their members (particularly those selected for visits) understand before undertaking exchange visits. 

Field visits 

*July/August 2004:  Bolivia, Brazil, Ecuador, Colombia, Peru, Venezuela.

Oct/Nov 2004:  Benin, Burkina Faso, Guinee, Mali, Niger, Togo, Senegal  (joint mission with UNI in preparation for UNI-StreetNet project)

January 2005:  Sao Paulo, Brazil (after the World Social Forum in Porto Alegre)

February 2005: Kitwe, Ndola, Zambia (during PSI-StreetNet workshop)

May 2005:  Kitwe, Zambia (before International Council meeting)

October 2005:  Ghana (before WIEGO Steering Committee meeting)

                      Senegal (before/after ICC-ILO African regional meeting)

*Nov/Dec 2005:  Bangladesh, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Delhi, India.

January 2006:  Benin, Cote d’Ivoire (during UNI-StreetNet coordinators meeting)

May 2006:  Malawi (after IFWEA meeting in Lilongwe)

August 2006:  Kenya (before Executive Committee meeting, leadership training)

September 2006:  Ghana (before 2^nd international ICC conference in Accra)

December 2006:  Tanzania (after IFWEA meeting in Dar Es Salaam)

                          Guinee, Senegal (during UNI-StreetNet coordinators meeting)

June 2007:  Cote d’Ivoire, Burkina Faso, Niger (during UNI-StreetNet monitoring mission)

* Only these two visits were funded by funds specifically for field visits during the 2003 – 2005 period.  The other visits were organized at the same time as other trips, taking advantage of other funds/budgets to do as many field visits as possible. We were not able to raise any funds for field visits for the 2006 – 2008 three-year period. 

Organisational support: 

KENYA:  StreetNet raised funds from the FNV (2004 – 2005) for a project for the creation of a national alliance of street vendors in Kenya. This resulted in the formation of the Kenya National Alliance of Street Vendors and Informal Traders (KENASVIT) in April 2006. 

MOCAMBIQUE:  StreetNet provided financial support for the national launch of ASSOTSI in 8 out of 10 provinces of Mocambique in October 2005.  Prior to the national launch, ASSOTSI had been organized as an association only in Maputo City.  Since the national launch (thanks to the organizational infrastructure of the OTM – Organizacao dos Trabalhadores de Mocambique) ASSOTSI became a full affiliate of the OTM. 

PERU:  StreetNet sent Pat Horn and Lameck Kashiwa to Lima to meet with the Consejo Directivo of FEDEVAL to assist them to resolve their internal problems.  This visit resulted in recommendations to the International Council that the FEDEVAL leadership should undergo intensive leadership training before StreetNet could consider any other activities with FEDEVAL – which were adopted.  The implementation of this process is proving to be very slow, and is still in progress. 

SOUTH AFRICA:

NATIONAL LEVEL:  StreetNet convened national meetings of street vendors’ organizations from around the whole country in Johannesburg in November 2003 and September 2004, to discuss the formation of a national alliance of street vendors – chaired by the President of the S.A. Municipal Workers Union (SAMWU).  At the second meeting a steering committee was elected to take the process further, and this steering committee has not functioned at all.  StreetNet has now overtaken this process through the World Class Cities for All Campaign. 

CITY LEVEL (Durban):  StreetNet assisted in the formation of two organizations – the Siyagunda Association (street barbers, including citizens and refugees) launched in December 2005, and The Eye Traders’ Association launched in September 2006.  These two organizations have been meeting with the Phoenix Plaza Street Traders’ Association to form a city alliance (Sisonke Street Traders’ Alliance) of organizations, and StreetNet has been providing organizational support, negotiations training and strategic advice – as well as assisting them with litigation.  

FUTURE PLANS:

1. We have been discussing with PSI the possibility of jointly working on the formation of city alliances of street vendors in Colombia, as a step towards the ultimate formation of a national alliance, as it was done in Kenya resulting in the formation of KENASVIT.
2. The International Council has discussed the situation of very weak affiliates on the point of collapse – and agreed that we will need to develop an approach on what kind of organizational support could revive them as functioning democratic organizations able to properly represent their members’ interests.
3. We need to continue (and step up) our efforts to build democracy and strong women’s leadership in all our affiliates, and to eliminate gate-keeping practices of marginalization of weaker workers in our sector.

 Negotiations and social dialogue

StreetNet convened:

1. an Urban Policies Colloquium jointly with WIEGO and the University of KwaZulu-Natal in Durban in April 2006;
2. an international meeting on collective bargaining in the informal economy, laws and litigation in the street vending sector in Senegal in March 2007.

It is intended to convene the next national policy dialogue in Brazil in August 2007 immediately after the StreetNet International Congress. 

Policy developments

In Guinee, CNTG was instrumental (with other trade unions) in forcing the government to make certain policy changes regarding workers in the informal economy when informal economy workers initiated a national strike which resulted in the Prime Minister  being removed. 

In India, NASVI and SEWA are playing a key role in organizing negotiations and litigation to get the different states of India to bring their policy and legislation in line with the National Policy on Street Vending.  In Zambia, AZIEA and their affiliate ZANAMA are playing a key role in engaging with government on their legislation on the management of informal markets. 

In South Africa, the Co-ordinator of StreetNet is participating in the Community Constituency of the National Economic, Development and Labour Council (NEDLAC) which advises the government on economic policy issues, labour market issues and Country Programme on Decent Work. 

In the province of KwaZulu-Natal in South Africa, the Co-ordinator of StreetNet is a member of an Informal Economy Steering Committee which is advising the Provincial Minister of Economic Affairs on the development of a policy on the informal economy for the province.  A good policy document (Green Paper) has been produced, but it has not yet been processed in the provincial legislature. 

FUTURE PLANS:  StreetNet has funds committed by the FNV for an international meeting on urban planning and policy development.  It was agreed that we will convene this meeting in Delhi, India in May 2008 just after or before the next International Council meeting (in order to allow us to have more affiliates participating by combining the budget for the international meeting and the International Council). 

Capacity and administration 

The StreetNet International office is run by the following staff:

            Administrator:   Nozipho Lembethe (full-time)

            Co-ordinator:  Pat Horn (full-time)

            Website Manager:  Lou Haysom (part-time)

            Admin Assistant:  Gaby Bikombo (part-time) 

We had funds from the FNV in 2004 and 2005 to employ an Assistant Co-ordinator, but we were not able to find a suitable candidate.  We finally experimented with getting two of our affiliates (AZIEA, Zambia and MUFIS, Malawi) to second somebody for 6 months each as Assistant Co-ordinator (May 2006 – April 2007). This helped to relieve some of the dependence on the Co-ordinator and get more work done – but it was finally agreed that we should try to look for a permanent person, and raise funds for this in our next three-year plan from 2009 – 2011. 

We engaged a temporary part-time staff member, Monica Scott Garzaro, to be responsible for the International Congress work in the Administration department, from June – August 2007.  We also have a team of translators and interpreters who do written translation work and interpretation for meetings, on a contract basis as the need arises.  This means that we pay them for their services instead of employing them. 

Finances and fundraising 

StreetNet is operating with funds from the following donors:

            Ford Foundation (New York) – 3-year contract from 2006 – 2008

            FNV (national trade union centre, Netherlands) – 3-yr contract 2006 – 2008

We applied to DFID for funds for 2007 – 2010, for country workshops, campaigns and some core expenses including for this Congress, but after keeping us waiting for a long time, they rejected our application. 

The Fund-raising Sub-Committee which was formed in accordance with a resolution of the First international Congress, was not successful in raising any funds. 

Some income has been generated by the StreetNet International office and members’ affiliation fees, as follows:

As is obvious from our audited financial report, this self-generated income is a very small part of our operating budget. We have decided to start fund-raising for 2009 – 2011 immediately after this Congress, and to seek new donor organizations, since the Ford Foundation have already given us notice that they will not continue to support core funding for StreetNet – only participation in international civil society forums.  Although the FNV is still indicating that they intend to continue supporting our activities, they are not willing to be our sole donor, so we need to have at least one or two other principal donors supporting us during 2009 – 2011. 

In the meantime, until the end of 2008, we have had to use our self-generated income to run the StreetNet International office (for which we have no donor funding after 2006) and reallocated some of our unspent funds as follows: