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Theme: Economic empowerment

Strengthening the effective implementation of pro-tribal legislation and policies

Issue

The indigenous peoples of India known as Adivasi constitute 8.6 per cent of India’s population, equivalent to 104 million people. Although the Indian government has introduced a number of laws and policies that are specifically designed to promote the rights of tribal communities, more needs to be done to monitor the implementation of legislation and policy at the central and state levels of government. A network of Tribal Rights Fora (TRF) was established by Find Your Feet to do just this, but they need to be strengthened so they can effectively engage policy makers and make recommendations to the institutions responsible for implementing legislative changes.

Project

Find Your Feet is designing and implementing a tailored programme of capacity development for TRF members in leadership, advocacy skills and engagement with governance and the media. The project is also forging strategic partnerships between TRF members and other alliances and networks so they can campaign on issues of mutual concern and engage with the government’s implementing bodies, particularly the National Human Rights Institutions (NHRIs). The TRF will document incidences of rights violations, hold regular meetings with NHRI representatives, and contribute to NHRI procedures such as formal complaints, expert inquiries and fact-finding missions.

By the end of the project, it is expected that the TRF will be able to independently engage in policy dialogue and decision-making alongside government institutions. It is also anticipated that there will be improved monitoring of legislation and tribal policies by NHRIs as a result of interaction and information sharing with the TRF.

Find Your Feet

Find Your Feet, established in 1960, works in South Asia and Southern Africa to mobilise local knowledge, skills and resources, so poor, rural families can find sustainable solutions to poverty, exclusion and discrimination. Find Your Feet works with small family farmers who depend on plots of land for their livelihood; tribal people who are often denied access to the land and forest on which they depend for their survival; women who seldom have an equal voice in their communities; and young people who are seeking an opportunity to break the ongoing cycle of poverty for their families. www.find-your-feet.org

Badlao Foundation

Badlao Foundation based in Jharkhand is committed to working with tribal communities for their transformation. For more than three decades, it has been working in the areas of women’s empowerment, gender justice and livelihood development. Lokshakti Samaj Sevi Sanstha, is a non-governmental organisation founded in 1986. It is involved in women’s empowerment, livelihood promotion and rights based advocacy with community based organisations and self-help groups in Chhattisgarh.  www.badlao.org.in

Pioneering financial inclusion for refugees

Issue

In November 2016, the Indian government announced the immediate demonetization of large currency notes, whereby these would no longer be legal tender. The objective was for India to transform into a cashless economy where every individual has a bank account, thus achieving complete financial inclusion. This necessarily excludes those who do not have access to the formal banking system, such as refugees. Their lack of legal status and access to government documentation had already rendered them extremely marginalized, vulnerable, and at risk. With the overnight change in policy and no access to banking services, refugees had no means of acquiring the new currency. They have thus been left completely destitute and excluded from the economy. This has particularly impacted women and children who constitute nearly 70% of the refugee population and are most vulnerable to economic and other forms of exploitation.

Project

The Ara Trust is studying the new financial policy so it can identify the appropriate avenues to help the 40,000 affected refugees, registered with United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) India, to access financial services. Further, it will engage with the relevant authorities to create awareness about the specific needs of this population, advocate for their financial inclusion, and seek clarifications on the implementation of current financial policies. It will share the findings with UNHCR and other interlocutors to inform appropriate interventions. The project will also use these findings to implement a targeted financial education programme for the refugee community and train service providers so as to create a referral pathway between the community and service providers.

At the end of the project, it is expected that government and other relevant authorities will be better able to respond to the needs of refugees, enabling them to access financial services, thus paving the way for their inclusion into the mainstream economy.

The Ara Trust was established in 2013 as a centre for the study of refugee law and forced migration. The Ara Trust is a woman-led organisation with an all-woman staff. It seeks to use innovative methods to expand the protection space available for forced migrants and refugees in India. The Ara Trust works closely on refugee issues with UNCHR, India. It receives funding from several institutional donors including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Clifford Chance Foundation, University of York and AmplifyChange.

The Ara Trust

The Ara Trust was established in 2013 as a centre for the study of refugee law and forced migration. The Ara Trust is a woman-led organisation with an all-woman staff. It seeks to use innovative methods to expand the protection space available for forced migrants and refugees in India. The Ara Trust works closely on refugee issues with UNCHR, India. It receives funding from several institutional donors including the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, The Clifford Chance Foundation, University of York and AmplifyChange.  www.aratrust.in

Johannesburg waste pickers organise to defend their livelihoods

Posted on by Vanessa Pillay

Four months ago, WIEGO’s project with the Commonwealth Foundation Waste integration South Africa (WISA) took an unplanned turn as Johannesburg’s waste-pickers were faced with a major challenge to their livelihood.

The city’s official waste management service provider, Pikitup, signed contracts with private recycling companies to expand Pikitup’s Separation at Source programme.  Separation at Source diverts recyclable waste away from landfills and encourages residents to separate their waste at home. In this way, according to Pikitup, recyclables remain clean and can be resold more easily.  Effectively, however, this would exclude waste-pickers from the recycling service they have provided for decades at no cost to the city and negatively affect the income that they earn from selling recyclable material.

WIEGO has been working with the waste-pickers of Johannesburg who collect, sort, separate and recycle the City’s waste from the main landfills as well as from the street sides.  There are 6,000 to 10,000 people in Johannesburg who depend on waste-picking work.  Unemployment in South Africa has reached a record 27.7 percent, so excluding wastepickers will create additional hardship.  By giving recycling contracts to private companies, the city is opting for a private system, when a less costly, more socially responsible and environmentally–friendly solid waste management programme, including waste-pickers, is possible.

Listen to a radio interview with waste picker representatives, Eva Mokoena and Steven Leeuw from Johannesburg about the  impact of  this troubling development.

Aware of the potential introduction of the Separation at Source programme, WIEGO and waste-pickers have been asking Pikitup and the City to disclose and discuss the contracts since September last year, but to no avail.  As a result, an Interim Johannesburg Reclaimers Committee (IJRC) was set up and in July waste pickers from seven regions of the City marched to protest outside Pikitup’s offices.  Eva Mokoena from the IJRC presented a Memorandum of Demands to the Managing Director of Pikitup on behalf of the Committee.  See a video of the protest on Facebook.

As a result of the campaign, Pikitup put a halt to signing any new contracts and acknowledged wastepickers as principle stakeholders in Johannesburg’s waste economy. Pikitup says that it is requiring the companies to include reclaimers, but it is leaving it up to companies that have no experience in integrating them to figure out how to do this and have not consulted with wastepickers on how they should be included. However, dialogue has now been opened up between Pikitup, the City of Joburg and the wastepickers, which is very much welcomed.

For waste pickers, the four key pillars of integration are: recognition as workers providing public and environmental services for which they should be paid; inclusion in the current and future solid waste management system; consultation on all decisions affecting their livelihoods; and, all of the above to begin with the registration of all waste pickers in a centralised database to ensure that the integration process is well planned, fair, transparent and able to be properly monitored. 

Negotiations to develop a framework of how the integration process will be implemented have been underway for the past three months.

See the WIEGO site for further information.

Vanessa Pillay is the WIEGO Organisation and Representation Programme Officer, Johannesburg

 

Learning exchange between Citizens UK and SAAYE

Posted on by Gillian Cooper

My colleague, Mithika and I are looking forward to our upcoming trip to Johannesburg to work with the full core membership and Secretariat of the Southern African Alliance on Youth Employment (SAAYE). As part of the capacity development support to SAAYE, the Foundation has brokered a learning exchange between Citizens UK and the Alliance, trialling a new model of support.

SAAYE is a recently formed alliance of church-based youth organisations, student groups and activists, trade union representatives and youth development trusts from nine Southern African countries. The Foundation has supported the Economic Justice Network (EJN) in establishing SAAYE; EJN now act as SAAYE’s secretariat. Over the past 18 months, SAAYE has been bringing the group closer together, clarifying their strategic mission, and building partnerships and allies. The Foundation has provided support to the Alliance and its members as they have continued to develop their mission at the regional and national levels. Foundation support is also helping the Alliance to enable working relationships between members.

The learning exchange will take SAAYE’s work from strategic planning to the next step: to formulate their actions for change, over a two-year period. We have linked them up with Citizens UK because of their expertise in organising and building the power of civil society to advocate and act. The sessions will be led by Lead Organiser, Emmanuel Gotora and Yasmin Aktar from the East London Community Organisation (TELCO). In addition to Citizen’s skills in developing the capacity of civil society leaders to constructively engage with people in power, the Learning Exchange will draw on Citizen’s work around employment and work such as the Living Wage campaign and the Good Jobs campaign which directly address youth unemployment using a multi-stakeholder group of leaders from London’s community groups, industry employers and training institutions. These experiences will provide some relevant lessons and ideas.

It is our hope that at the end of the four-day exchange, SAAYE national teams and the Secretariat will have analysed where, with whom and how, in each of their theories of change, they should target specific actions to have the greatest potential impact. Key questions like: Where can SAAYE have most relational power in making change on youth employment in each country? Who has power inside and outside the formal structures regarding youth employment policy nationally and regionally? How do the people who can make decisions relate to each other and how can SAAYE influence them? The outputs from the learning exchange will be available on the Foundation’s website.

The learning exchange between SAYEE and Citizens UK takes place in Johannesburg from 24 to 31 March, 2017. Photo Credit: Alan Levine Flickr CC 

Southern African Alliance for Youth Employment

Issue

The Southern African region (SADC) has a large youth population and low levels of decent employment for its youth, resulting in high levels of youth unemployment and underemployment. The lack of formal employment, irregularity of work and social protection means that youth in the SADC region face poverty and inequality.

Researchers have described the effect of this insecurity on youth as a ‘transitional limbo’. Without a secure income, young people are unable to meet their social roles that accompany adulthood. These challenges are compounded by a lack of credible information and a lack of mobilisation around youth employment. Youth voices in designing and implementing prevalent national and regional youth employment strategies and policies has been limited.

Project

The Southern African Alliance for Youth Employment (SAAYE) was formally established in February 2016 by the Economic Justice Network with the Commonwealth Foundation’s support. The Alliance is made up of representatives from trade unions, church councils, student unions, and civil society organisations across nine Southern African nations. Trade unions, churches and the civil society organisations, cumulatively have considerable potential power to determine the shape of policy for youth employment in Southern Africa.

The Economic Justice Network (EJN) performs as the Secretariat of SAAYE. SAAYE aims to play a coordinating and facilitating role for youth formations to inform and influence public discourse about youth employment; contribute to reforming employment and youth related policy; and, to hold governments accountable to their commitments to address youth unemployment across the SADC region – both nationally and regionally.

The Commonwealth Foundation’s capacity development approach has facilitated training, engagement and development of structures within the Alliance. A six member Working Group serves as the highest decision-making body of SAAYE. They also represent the Alliance at events such as the SADC-CNGO Civil Society Forum and to plan regional actions.

Improving the environment and the livelihoods of waste pickers

Issue

The 2012 National Waste Information Baseline Report from the Department of Environmental Affairs in South Africa found that in 2011 approximately 108 million tonnes of waste was generated, 90% of which ended up in landfills. On these sites, and in inner-city streets, informal waste pickers are collecting and recycling what others have thrown away, a service for which they are not paid.

Project

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) will support waste pickers and their organisations in Johannesburg, Sasolburg, and Pretoria, South Africa, to effectively participate in decision-making in order to secure better working conditions and improved livelihoods. The research in many cities suggests that the formal inclusion of waste pickers in municipal waste management contributes to higher recycling rates, increased efficiency and cost effectiveness, as well as significant environmental benefits. Despite these contributions, waste pickers in the project locations struggle for formal recognition and inclusion in solid waste management plans, and for decent working conditions and fair compensation.

Through this project WIEGO will support the organising efforts of local waste picker organisations, to ensure the official inclusion of waste pickers in municipal waste management policies and systems, and to secure better working conditions and more secure livelihoods. This will be achieved through training, awareness-raising (both for waste pickers and decision makers), and facilitated negotiations and liaison with key officials and allies. Further, waste picker organisations will be strengthened within the context of vibrant regional, national, and international networks.

Endorsed project title: Improving the environment and livelihoods of waste pickers in South Africa

Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organising

WIEGO is a global action-research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy, through increased organization and representation; improved statistics and research; more inclusive policy processes; and more equitable trade, labour, urban planning, and social protection policies. Alongside informal workers, WIEGO uses its credible, grounded knowledge of the informal economy to leverage supportive policies, services, and resources for the working poor.www.wiego.org

The Caribbean Consultative Working Group (CCWG)

The CCWG is a mechanism of the Caribbean Policy Development Centre (CPDC), which is supported by the Commonwealth Foundation, and allows civil society from six Commonwealth countries to mobilise themselves around policy advocacy for the Caribbean, with the aim of getting the attention of government and stakeholders within their countries who influence public policy.

Commonwealth Insights: The SAMOA Pathway

Commonwealth Insights: The SAMOA Pathway

The second in a series of civil society reflections on participatory governance The SAMOA Pathway: Recommendations from Commonwealth civil society provides an analysis of the main conclusions of the Third UN Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Summit held in September 2014.

It offers recommendations from civil society in the Commonwealth from the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean 1 on the critical issues raised in the SAMOA Pathway, the principal output from the SIDS Summit, on how to begin to turn these commitments into a transformative agenda for the sustainable and inclusive development of SIDS.

Commonwealth Insights: The SAMOA Pathway

Commonwealth Insights: The SAMOA Pathway

The second in a series of civil society reflections on participatory governance The SAMOA Pathway: Recommendations from Commonwealth civil society provides an analysis of the main conclusions of the Third UN Small Island Developing States (SIDS) Summit held in September 2014.

It offers recommendations from civil society in the Commonwealth from the Caribbean, Pacific and Indian Ocean 1 on the critical issues raised in the SAMOA Pathway, the principal output from the SIDS Summit, on how to begin to turn these commitments into a transformative agenda for the sustainable and inclusive development of SIDS.