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New Publication: Mainstreaming Informal Employment and Gender in poverty reduction

7 October 2004

The Handbook... highlights the lack of attention to employment.

This publication presents a strategic framework for how best to promote decent work for the poor and, in so doing, reduce poverty. It provides practical examples of how to assist working poor women and men to minimise the constraints and maximise the opportunities arising from trade liberalisation and growth.  

The International Labour Organisation defines 'decent work' as employment opportunities accompanied by rights, protection and voice. In this Handbook, authors Martha Alter Chen, Joann Vanek and Marilyn Carr argue that hopes for poverty reduction largely hinge on the creation of more employment opportunities, particularly those accompanied by rights, protection and voice.

While the vast majority of the world's poor work, few are able to work their way out of poverty. The authors state that this is because poor people working in the informal economy face lower incomes, greater financial risks, lower standards of human development and greater social exclusion compared to better-off workers, especially those who work in the formal economy. They point to the links between being informally employed, being a woman or a man, and being poor. They also look at the changing nature of informal employment and describe the impacts of economic restructuring and liberalisation on different categories of informal producers and workers.

The Handbook, which is part of a Commonwealth Secretariat series on gender mainstreaming in critical development issues, highlights the lack of attention to employment -- especially informal employment -- in poverty reduction strategies. The informal economy includes both self-employment in informal enterprises and wage employment in informal jobs, or those without secure contracts, worker benefits and social protection.

The publication draws widely on recent data and evidence of the global research policy network called 'Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising', as well as the knowledge and experience of the grassroots organisations in the network. It provides a convincing case for an increased emphasis on informal employment and gender in poverty reduction strategies. 

Published by the Commonwealth Secretariat

ISBN: 0-85092-797-8; 250 pages; price: £12.99 

HOW TO ORDER 

This title can be bought online at http://www.publications.thecommonwealth.org/. 

A full catalogue of Commonwealth Secretariat publications can be viewed on the website, which provides a secure online buying facility, and orders can also be made through e-mail or by post. Pre-payment is essential. Payment by sterling cheque, international money order, postal order or bank draft must accompany your order.  

Payment should be in sterling, drawn on a UK bank and made out to the Commonwealth Secretariat. If you require the order form as an attachment in Word format please e-mail Rupert Jones-Parry of the Publications Section (see address below). Post and packaging charges should be added to every order in the following way: UK orders: 15 per cent of order value (minimum charge £2.00). Non-UK orders: 25 per cent of order value (minimum charge £3.50).  

Send orders to: Rupert Jones-Parry, Publications Section, Commonwealth Secretariat, Marlborough House, Pall Mall, London SW1Y 5HX, United Kingdom.

Tel: +44 (0)20 7747 6342; Fax: +44 (0)20 7839 9081;

E-mail: r.jones-parry@commonwealth.int