Zimbabwe’s informal workers hope to make their voices heard in the country’s presidential election on July 30. They've been doing so through town hall meetings across the country to urge candidates to take them seriously.

Elections in Zimbabwe are to go ahead as planned despite a suspected assassination attempt on President Emmerson Mnangagwa at a campaign rally on Saturday. The blast, that wounded several people, has soured a political environment characterized by greater democratic space with more than 20 candidates competing.

Despite this, informal workers still hope the July 30 polls will be an impetus for change, as RFI's Christina Okello explains in this week's Spotlight on Africa.

For more news, follow Christina on Twitter @vivalid

Zimbabwe informal workers hope July poll will bring change

In this episode, Anja calls up Dr. Jenna Jambeck and Amy Brooks from the University of Georgia on a research trip in Vietnam to learn about their research on waste management and plastic pollution. In many Asian countries, a booming economy is coupled with more and more people using throw-away items. Informal recyclers and waste pickers who have traditionally sorted the waste cannot keep up. But, like millions of people around the world, they depend on waste as a resource for their livelihoods. How can the systems be reformed without leaving the people behind? To find out more, Anja calls Dr. Sonia Maria Dias, a garbologist from Brazil, who tells her about how waste management should include the working poor.

The Plastisphere is a research and interview podcast by German freelance journalist Anja Krieger.

Transcript with links and pictures http://anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/2018/10/06/ep-3-millions-of-waste-pickers/

Twitter, Facebook, Instagram: @PlastispherePod

Subscribe: anjakrieger.com/plastisphere/
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Music: Dorian Roy and Blue Dot Sessions https://sessions.blue/
Cover art: Maren von Stockhausen
Thanks to: Ines Blaesius, Luisa Beck, Daniella Cheslow, the Wiego staff, and Karl Urban for editing the German version for RiffReporter https://www.riffreporter.de/plastisphere/muell-asien/

Waste Picker Economies

Violence and harassment at the workplace affect many workers all over the world, especially women. It is such a pervasive phenomenon that it was included in the agenda of the next International Labour Conference, which will take place the coming days in Geneva, where the issue will be up for a second round of discussions, with a view to the adoption of an ILO convention.
It is important to bear in mind that violence and harassment at the workplace also affect in distinct ways different workers: men and women, formal and informal workers.
To help us understand more about the implications of this issue for domestic workers and the intersectionality between gender and work status – and the role of social protection in addressing this problem – we invite Adriana Paz. 
Adriana is originally from Bolivia and she has worked as community organizer, women’s rights and migrant rights for community based and non-profit organizations in Bolivia, Mexico and Canada. She is currently the Latin America regional coordinator of the international domestic workers federation – IDWF.

*Violence and Informal Work (Briefing Note) http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/ILC_WIEGO_Briefing%20Note%20Violence%20in%20the%20workplace%20EN%20for%20web.pdf
*Workplace Violence and Harassment: Informal Workers Also Need Protection  http://www.wiego.org/blog/workplace-violence-and-harassment-informal-workers-also-need-protection
*ILO page on the 108th International Labour Conference https://www.ilo.org/ilc/ILCSessions/108/lang--en/index.htm
*Reports of the Standard-Setting Committee on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work: Summary of proceedings (ILO) https://www.ilo.org/wcmsp5/groups/public/---ed_norm/---relconf/documents/meetingdocument/wcms_631807.pdf
*IDWF on gender-based violence http://idwfed.org/en/updates/gender-based-violence
*IDWF Campaign to “End Gender-based Violence at Work” http://www.idwfed.org/en/resources/support-campaign-to-end-gender-based-violence-at-work
*IDWF at Facebook https://www.facebook.com/IDWFED/
*IDWF on twitter https://twitter.com/IDWFED


Our theme music is Focus, from A. A. Aalto (Creative Commons)
The incidental music is Afghanistan Banana Stand, from Eaters (Creative Commons)

#05 Domestic Workers and Violence at the workplace

We hold many assumptions about our workplaces and about what makes a good job, ones that often leave out women’s perspectives. Dr. Sally Roever of Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing, known as WIEGO, explains how social dialogue can broaden our understanding of work, unpack our assumptions about labour, and better working conditions for women around the world.

Host: Kate Lancaster
Producer: Robin Allison Davis

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Social dialogue is a tool for gender equality, says Sally Roever

WIEGO's Waste Picker expert, Sonia Dias, explains the role waste pickers play in keeping many cities across the Global South clean by collecting and recycling waste. With COVID-19, their essential work has become more important and more hazardous. She discusses some of the current challenges and how policymakers need to work with waste pickers to make conditions safer for them to continue their livelihoods where possible.

Photo credit: Juan Arredondo

Waste Pickers and COVID-19: An Interview with WIEGO's Sonia Dias

WIEGO is a global network focused on securing livelihoods for the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. WIEGO creates change by  expanding the knowledge base on the informal economy, and by working with worker organizations to build their capacity to influence local, national and international policies.

Waste Pickers and COVID-19: An Interview with WIEGO's Sonia Dias

WIEGO

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