ORGANIZING AND EMPOWERING HOMEBASED WORKERS IN ASIA:

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ORGANIZING AND EMPOWERING HOMEBASED WORKERS
IN ASIA EXPERIENCES, LESSONS, AND
CHALLENGES   Presented by Rosalinda Pineda
Ofreneo Regional Coordinator, Homenet Southeast
Asia
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MOVEMENT BUILDING......

• AMONG HOMEBASED AND OTHER INFORMAL WORKERS
  WORLDWIDE
• FOCUS ON SOUTHEAST ASIA

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Overview Informal Employment in Asia

• In the whole of Asia, the share of employment in
  the formal economy for both men and women tends
  to be relatively low for both men and women,
  informal employment usually provides the majority
  (65 percent) of non-agricultural employment.
• In the member countries of Homenet Southeast
  Asia, the percentages are 78 percent for
  Indonesia, 72 percent for Philippines, and 51
  percent for Thailand. (ILO 2002).

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Informal Employment in Asia

• The informal economy has been growing due to the
  combined effects of liberalization, deregulation,
  and privatization which drove out millions of
  workers from the formal economy .
• But women have been the mainstay of the informal
  sector even before the onslaughts of
  globalization since informal work (e.g.,
  homebased work) is compatible with their
  reproductive work (child care,domestic chores).

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Informal Employment in Asia

• Women are particularly involved in informal
  employment (averaging 65 percent of all women in
  non-agricultural employment) , and when
  agriculture is added in, womens share of
  informal employment goes way up, since women tend
  to be very much involved in agricultural work.

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Source Martha Chen, WIEGO (2008)?
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Strengthening of Workers Organizations

• Homeworkers and other workers in the informal
  economy hope to realize their economic,
  political, and social rights through the
  strengthening of their own organizations and
  networks, the improvement of their working and
  living conditions, the enjoyment of income and
  employment security, including social protection,
  and participation in governance related to
  homeworkers and informal workers concerns.

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Inspiring Strategies from SEWA

• Among homebased workers in Asia, their
  organizing herstory/history drew inspiration
  from the Self-Employed Womens Association (SEWA)
  in India and its multi-pronged approach to
  womens empowerment- --- mass mobilization and
  negotiation along industry lines (particularly in
  the case of the bidi workers) formation of
  production and service cooperatives
  establishment of a bank where even illiterate
  women can borrow provision of insurance and
  other social protection schemes and engagement
  in trade facilitation, international advocacy and
  networking.

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Organizing Women Informal Workers

• SEWA (India)?
• SEWA's main strategies are
• increasing employment opportunities for women
• developing women's assets
• capacity-building and leadership development of
  rural women
• providing food and social security
• becoming self-reliant, economically

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Emergence of HOMENET SOUTHEAST ASIA
In Southeast Asia, there are national homebased
workers networks - HomeNets - in Thailand,
Indonesia, the Philippines They emerged as part
of a major subregional project undertaken from
1988 to 1996 by the International Labor
Organization (ILO) and funded by DANIDA. Network
now includes Laos,Cambodia
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Responding to the Changing Global Employment
System

• Homenet SEAs persistent advocacy towards the
  ratification of ILO Convention on Homework aims
  to protect millions of homeworkers in terms of
  their right to organize, non-discrimination in
  employment and occupation, attention to
  occupational safety and health, ability to access
  and receive capacity development training in
  various aspects, and obtaining other entitlements
  to be of equal status with workers in other
  occupations defined as employee.

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Homenet Thailand

• Serves 6,637 homebased producers and homeworkers
  (5, 031 females and 1,606 males) as well as
  concerned NGOs active in five regional networks
  located in the Northeast, the North, the South,
  Central, and Bangkok.

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Homenet Thailand

• Homenet Thailand has had high visibility in
  advocating for occupational safety and health,
  and for the approval of the 30 baht health
  insurance scheme for all.
• It has had the most success in focusing on OSH
  issues through its OSH project for homebased and
  other informal workers conducted in cooperation
  with the Ministry of Labor and Health

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National Network of Informal Workers (PATAMABA)
- Philippines

• PATAMABA is a peoples organization led by
  grassroots women who sought to empower themselves
  by founding and running their own organization.
• Its main strategies are 1) participation in
  governance and institution building 2) human
  development services 3) socio-economic
  assistance and 4) networking, advocacy and
  para-legal work.

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National Network of Informal Workers (PATAMABA)
-Philippines

• PATAMABA has expanded its membership to more
  than 16, 295 members in 276 chapters in 12
  regions and 34 provinces.
• It has 2,567 members under subcontracting,
  12,069 are self-employed, and 1,524 are both.

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National Network of Informal Workers (PATAMABA) -
Philippines

• Networking spans a wide range of different
  sectors and groups - from informal ones to
  official policy-makers, formal academic
  institutions, trade unions and women's
  organizations .
• Advocates and lobbies for legislation through
  Homenet Philippines and MAGCAISA (Magna Carta for
  the Informal Sector Alliance.)?

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MWPRI (National Network of Friends of Women
Homeworkers) - Indonesia

• MWPRI has 42 collaborating NGOs serving 19,248
  homebased workers (12,609 of whom are
  subcontracted and 6,639 are self-employed) in 9
  provinces.
• MWPRI has been instrumental in the formation of
  HWPRI as an independent association of Indonesian
  women homeworkers.

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MWPRI - Indonesia

• In terms of homeworkers access to social
  protection benefits, the unsuccessful effort to
  push for their social security coverage from
  state funded social security institutions gave
  way to the development of indigenous social
  protection schemes such as the social welfare
  scheme, health scheme, savings loan scheme and
  the arisan.

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CDEA - LAO PDR

• CDEA Laos affiliated with Homenet Southeast Asia
  in 2006 and is now engaged in organizing and
  consolidating homeworkers groups engaged in
  various product lines into Homenet Laos.
• CDEA is an organization that also draws together
  sustainable community and environmental
  development that acknowledges the co-dependency
  of people with their environment.
• One of the objectives of the CDEA is to empower
  women by creating a strong platform for building
  income generating activities and social welfare
  initiatives.

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• CDEA began undertaking occupational skills
  development training for women in year 2004,
  with support from Homenet SEA through Homenet
  Thailand.
• Social development is practiced in Laos by giving
  out loans for education, health, maternity, etc.
  and organizing savings groups as well as village
  banks where members can obtain
  benefits/interests have been highly encouraged.

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ARTISANS ASSOCIATION OF CAMBODIA
Fair trade group comprised of craft producers and
sellers, including landmine and trafficking
survivors, people with disabilities,
etc. Promotes networking, advocacy, business
development, marketing and promotion, design and
product development, direct sales assistance
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Homenet SEA Meaningful Successes Towards
Achieving Common Goals
HomeNet Southeast Asia, now based in Manila,
enables the four countries to coordinate their
activities particularly in advocacy work at
subregional level. Expansion to Cambodia is
ongoing.
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Regional Networking and Advocacy

• Channeled through Homenet SEA are common goals
  -- greater visibility, recognition and
  participation of homebased workers in the ASEAN
  context access to resources and social
  protection (including occupational safety and
  health) and better policies and programs through
  improved legislation and the ratification of ILO
  Convention 177 on Home Work.

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Meaningful Successes

• Homenet SEAs ability to sustain subregional,
  regional, and global networking despite limited
  funds, holding three subregional workshops (on
  sharing mapping results, social protection, fair
  trade and social marketing), launching a
  newsmagazine as well as a website, and
  consolidating expansion work in Laos.
• Substantial membership increase in all the
  national Homenets.
• Acquiring a legal personality and clear mandate
  to empower the network of homebased workers
  through the approval and registration of its
  Constitution and By-Laws.

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Meaningful Successes

• Enhanced homeworkers and informal workers
  access to social protection.
• Advocacy within ASEAN
• Participation in various regional and intl fora
• Linking the micro and the macro through fair
  trade advocacy and practice

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Some Challenges Ahead

• The challenge for Homenet SEA has always been to
  find ways of continuing and sustaining activities
  already built up through years of collaboration
  with main partners.
• Thus, attaining sustainability remains a
  lingering challenge among the Homenets, at the
  institutional and financial levels.

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Some Challenges .

• Homenet SEA must continue to strengthen and
  institutionalize itself, in order to serve as an
  effective mechanism for the various Homenets in
  the subregion to project themselves, strengthen
  their international visibility, generate
  resources, exchange information, coordinate
  their efforts, motivate and inspire each other.

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Bridging the Gender and Formal/ Informal
Divide in Labor Movements within a Globalizing
ASEAN
By Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo, Ph D
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Women and Labor Movements

• women have always been under-represented at the
  leadership level
• Why are women not more assertive in the trade
  unions?
• women have more responsibility in the family
  and therefore lack time for union work
• society has a negative attitude to such
  involvement
• women workers low self esteem their belief
  that unionism is a male turf

Time to build the formidable alliance between
feminism and labor, by addressing proletarian
anti-feminism
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Much more needs to be done -

• Strengthen membership-based organizing
  -Homeworker-members of Homenet SEA workers in
  the informal economy are still very much in need
  of pivotal support in order to --- improve their
  productivity and harness their potentials for
  better access to resources, technology and social
  protection and for responsive policies and laws
  that will make their working environment
  conducive to the realization of their rights and
  simultaneously supportive of social enterprise
  development.

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M- Motivation through awareness and
inspiration O Organizing and seizing
Opportunities V- Vision, Visibility, Voice,
Victories E- Energy and Empowerment
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M Money and Multiple Stakeholder Approach E-
Ecology and Solidarity Economy N- Networking and
New Technologies T- Trust in grassroots women, in
young women S- Security Sustainability,
Solidarity in diversity
M O V E M E N T S
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Thank you!
Elected Members of the Homenet SEA Subregional
Council (behind,left to right) Duangduan
Kamchai, Kanoknart Ngamnetra, Boonsom Namsomboon,
Sujin Rungsawang (proxy for Somkid Duangern) ,
Primar Jardeleza, Josephine Olive Parillla,
and Lourdes Baby Gula (front,left to right)
Cecile Susiloretno, Sutarti, Hesti Wijaya,
Rosalinda Inday Ofreneo.