Resources

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.

The COVID-19 Pandemic and the Crisis of Social Protection 
By Surendra Pratap, Center for Workers Education, New Delhi  

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 COVID-19 pandemic has been occurring worldwide, and become more serious, with additional waves of the virus being experienced globally, reaching more than 151 million positive cases and over 3 million deaths, of which more than 39 million cases and over 500,000 deaths by 28th April 2021 (worldometers.info). According to the International Labour Organization, working-hour losses in 2020 were 8.8% or 255 million full time jobs, approximately four times greater than during the global financial crisis in 2009.

After an unprecedented yearlong pandemic spread over the world claiming almost 3 million lives and destroying the livelihoods of millions more, the rollout of vaccines has provided some hope of resuming economic activities. Yet, the impact of COVID-19 continues to magnify inequality and expose the long existing systemic problems faced by marginalised workers all over the world.

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.