Social Protection in Informal Economy Book: ILO's perspectives

The book Extending coverage: Social protection and the informal economy drafted during the RNSF Regional Workshop held last February in Kenya, involved a mixed group of researchers, regional experts, members of civil society organizations, and public officers.

Hellen Magutu and Patience Matandiko, two representatives of the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labour rights, were present.

Hellen works as ILO National Programme Coordinator for the HIV and AIDS / Focal Point - Social Protection in Kenya. She provides leadership on HIV workplace programmes and policies and supports private sector mobilization for the HIV response. Hellen is also a member of the UNDAF Working Group on Social Protection where she has been involved in supporting the development of policy and legislative frameworks to enhance social protection in Kenya and advocate for increasing access to social protection for workers.

Patience works as a Social Security Officer under the lLO led United Nations Joint Zambia Green Jobs Programme, which objective is the promotion of sustainable jobs among Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises (MSMEs) operating in the Zambian building industry.

During the workshop in Kenya, Patience presented several best practices she had identified in Zambia to involve informal workers in the process of defining social protection schemes. She detailed in particular the case of the Alliance for Zambian Informal Economy Associations, which gives a voice to informal workers in particular through its participation to the Technical Working Group on Extension of Social Protection to the Informal Economy, a national led initiative promoted by the ILO. For more details, you can find this best practice in the book (p.51).

Here is Hellen sharing her impressions on her workshop experience:

                                   Hellen Magutu