WIEGO Law School on Administrative Law

Last Februrary, the RNSF team focused on an innovative initiative developed by WIEGO, aiming at supporting informal workers toward a further formalization and recognition of their activities: the “WIEGO’s Law Programme and its Organization and Representation Programme (ORP)”.

Launched in 2017 the, WIEGO’s Law Programme aims to build on its five key objectives:

• To build the capacity of MBOs in each sector to advocate and negotiate for legal change.
• To provide technical legal support to MBOs to advance their rights for recognition as workers (which includes the right to form trade unions, to bargain collectively, to be represented in statutory negotiating fora, to fair wages, to social protection, and to access public space).
• To expand and disseminate knowledge and resources on law and informal work.
• To develop and promote new conceptual frameworks on law and informal workers.
• To collaborate with legal and policy allies to further an understanding of how law shapes different categories of informal workers’ livelihoods and productivity and to support informal workers to realize their rights as workers.

Within this framework, WIEGO has developed a training program, consisting in bringing Administrative Law down to the street level with a “law school” for informal workers called “WIEGO Law School on Administrative Law”. The goal is to educate informal workers of various sectors together on how city bylaws affect them and how they can harness them to gain a voice in their cities.

The sessions covered by-laws regulating street vending and waste reclaiming, Administrative Law, negotiating with authorities, and a panel with two legal organizations: the Legal Resources Centre and the Socio Economic Rights Initiative.

The results of the first sessions held in February 2018, have shown a positive trend among participants and good participation.

Further Law School projects are planned for street vendors in Mexico City, Mexico, and Accra, Ghana. To learn more, see here.

RNSF is also promoting and disseminating knowledge and training on the informal economy, in particular with #InformalTalks, an ongoing series of free public webinars dedicated to the informal economy, and the publication of e-learning courses on the informal economy in the coming months. The next #InformalTalks Webinar is planned on July 26 at 11am (CET) and will focus on key policies and approaches to tackle the Informal Economy.

To register, click on the following link:

RNSF #InformalTalks Webinar 2: How to tackle the Informal Economy? Key policies and approaches