This research highlights the challenging conditions of maternity protection in the South Asian agrifood sector. Despite existing laws, both formal and informal sector workers face widespread denial of standard maternity benefits such as paid leave and health protections. Informality is rampant even in ostensibly formal sectors, leading to violations of labor laws and further exacerbating the problem.
This research investigates the status of social protection, particularly maternity protection, among agrifood sector workers in Southeast Asia. The agrifood sector encompasses the entire value chain from farm to table, playing a vital role in the region's economies, contributing significantly to GDP and employment. Despite its importance, women in the agrifood sector face various challenges, including lower wages, limited access to resources, and a higher likelihood of informal and precarious employment.
One Year Later: Lao Informal Workers and the Covid-19 Pandemic
Bing Phonkao, 39, informal worker and mother of four, lives in Vientiane Capital, Laos, with her husband and two youngest children. She moved to the capital five years ago in search of work, and after getting married she decided to relocate.
The Grassroots Mutual Aid Practice During Pandemic in Indonesia: A Community of Practice (CoP) Study Case
Prepared by Rizki Estrada and Rozi Hariansyah
Departing from the above problems, the purpose of this study is to address the following key questions: 1) How do the grassroot organizations build social resilience in the period of Large-Scale Social restriction policy amidst a pandemic? 2) What are the actions of grassroots communities when facing a pandemic, and amid the uncertainty of social protection provided by the Indonesian government?
A Participatory Research on impact of COVID 19 of workers in informal economy: Documenting Solidarity-Based Actions as Social Protection Response
By The Homenet Philippines and PATAMABA
1. To describe the impact of COVID-19 in the informal worker
communities identified for the research, with primary focus on Rizal
province (municipalities of Angono and Taytay).
2. To document and assess the solidarity-based actions already
conducted in the sites.
3. To share and derive lessons from the research results not only to the
LOCKDOWN STORIES Workers’ Struggles Amid the Pandemic
By Center for Trade Union and Human Rights & Women Workers in Struggle for Employment, Empowerment and Emancipation
RISKING LIFE AND LIMB IMPACT OF THE PANDEMIC ON ECONOMIC SITUATION OF BPO WORKERS AND THEIR FAMILIES AND THE NEED FOR SOCIAL PROTECTION
by BPO Industry Employees Network
The Impact of COVID-19 on Workers’ Livelihoods, Government and Grassroots Initiatives in Response to COVID-19 and Financing for Social Protection Floor in Bangladesh
By Asad Uddin Program Coordinator Bangladesh Occupational Safety, Health and Environment Foundation (OSHE)
Social Protection action research in the context of COVID19 in Nepal
By HomeNet Nepal (HNN)
HomeNet Nepal came up with an initiative to study the situation of workers in Nepal amid the pandemic, to support informative decisions and strategies of the organization, as well as to provide constructive feedback to the government in developing inclusive, just, and transformative social protection plans for the country.
Social and Economic Impacts of the COVID-19 Pandemic on Vulnerable Groups (Tuk-Tuk Drivers, Street Vendors and Domestic Workers) in Phnom Penh City, Cambodia
By Independent Democracy of Informal Economy Association
STUDY ON ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL IMPACTS OF COVID-19 ON INFORMAL MIGRANT WORKERS IN HANOI AND HO CHI MINH CITY-VIETNAM
by Action For Migrant Workers Network, Vietnam
INITIATIVES ON SOCIAL PROTECTION SUPPORTING VIETNAMESE WORKERS IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19
By Center for Development and Integration, Vietnam
The study’s goal is to document initiatives of key stakeholders’ support to workers in the formal and informal sectors in response to the COVID-19 crisis, including two specific objectives: (i) to identify and map initiatives that support workers; and (ii) to share lessons learned and good practices actors in Vietnam and other countries in the region.
The Recommendation 202 on social protection floors (SPF), promoted by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and adopted in 2012, is intended to ensure essential health care and basic income security worldwide for children, people of working age who are unable to earn a sufficient income and the elderly. The SPF requires country members to develop a comprehensive social protection system including social security guarantees for the whole life cycle of citizens. However, social protection is very new to many grassroots organizations and proves to be complex in many levels.
This action research conducted by EILER examines how women in the informal sector in two urban communities in Manila make the most of available resources in order to rise above their seemingly disadvantaged situation within the economy.
This report describes workers’ strategies of organising and collective bargaining in the informal sector in India. It discusses the organising experiences of the most marginalised workers in society – waste workers, sex workers, domestic workers, rural workers and kite making workers. These are people who were always on the margins of Indian polity and society due to their class, caste and gender.
This study was conducted by Center for Trade Union and Human Rights (CTUHR) between December 7, 2012to March 2013. Personal interviews, focus group discussion and interview of key respondents through email were used to gather data. Twelve worker-leaders from Agusan Plantation Inc. (API), Agumil (API Milling Plant), and Filipinas Palm Oil Plantation Inc. (FPPI) participated in the focus group discussions while five key informants were interviewed: three were conducted in person and two were done through emails.