Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) is a global research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. It has associates in over 100 countries around the world. The WIEGO network consists of individuals and institutions from three broad constituencies:
- Membership-based organizations (MBOs) of informal workers such as trade unions, cooperatives, and worker associations
- Researchers and statisticians who carry out research, data collection, or data analysis on the informal economy
- Practitioners from development agencies (inter-governmental, governmental, and non-governmental) who provide services to or shape policies towards the informal workforce
The WIEGO website provides a range of important resources. In particular, the WIEGO Publication Series aims to contribute to existing knowledge on the informal economy and to provide user-friendly documentation for those involved in advocacy, policy and research on the informal economy. The Publication Series includes working papers, briefs (including policy, organizing, statistical and technical briefs) and case studies.
In 2011 WIEGO and AAPS signed a Memorandum of Understanding enabling the two networks to collaborate on promoting initiatives, plans and policies that encourage pro-poor and inclusive cities and towns in Africa. The partnership recognizes that planners play an important role in either facilitating or hindering the inclusion and improvement of informal workspaces and settlements, and that the education of planners has a fundamental impact on their values, understanding, responses and practices in relation to urban informality.
WIEGO International Coordinator Marty Chen signs the AAPS-WIEGO Memorandum of Understanding
