HNSEA AND HNSA JOINT MEETING IN NEPAL

Representatives of  Homenet Southeast Asia(HNSEA) and Homenet South Asia(HNSA) met in Nagarkot Hotel, Kathmandu, Nepal on July 26 to 30, 2011 to reflect on the experiences in relation to the Inclusive Cities Project and to plan for the remaining period of project implementation.

With 42 participants comprised of  country focal persons, programme managers, and homebased workers from seven countries of Southeast Asia(Cambodia, Philippines, Thailand) and South Asia(India, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh), a series of presentations and workshop activities made the participants fully understand the basic situation of homebased workers in each country, their livelihoods and working conditions.

Discussions during the first three days focused on the progress of implementation of the projects in each country and experiences of homebased workers in relation to the long term goals of effective and democratic representation and advancement of the central needs and concerns of urban poor homebased workers. 
With milestones presented, groups were engaged in a workshop on the third day and they carefully planned and discussed actions for the remaining period of project implementation. A field visit to  Bhaktapur provided opportunity for interaction to see how a group of Radi weavers was organized, issues affecting their work and living conditions  and the benefits of being organized in terms of capacity building, creating awareness on relevant issues, and providing market linkages.
The last two days focused on financial training and involved the country project accountants from both HNSEA and HNSA. Features of a software called FLAMINGO was introduced to the group for project management purposes that allows tracking of project activities in line with the logical framework.

HNSEA Joins STRATEGIC WORKSHOP at SEWA Academy

HNSEA delegates attended a three-day Strategic Organizing Workshop conducted by SEWA Academy in Ahmedabad on February 1-3, 2011. About 20 participants from Homenet Southeast Asia, Homenet Thailand, Homenet Laos, and Homenet Cambodia were enlightened on how SEWA emerged from a movement to a big membership organization whose objective is to empower poor women working in the informal economy so they can achieve secure employment and self-reliance.

 As a membership organization with firmly democratic procedures and based explicitly on Gandhian principles, all other SEWA activities have emerged and evolved in direct response to members’ needs. Members are both rural and urban poor women working in the informal economy, who have empowered themselves by organizing into a labor union to struggle for their rights, and into more than 100 cooperatives to improve their economic security.

Participants gained conceptual understanding of the four strategies of organizing used by SEWA to expand their membership – Area approach, Trade approach, Campaign approach and Service or Needs -Based approach. By organizing poor women and providing training and capacity building of various kinds, SEWA has developed their leadership abilities, their self-confidence, and their life skills for alternative employment opportunities. 

Women increased their bargaining power with labor subcontractors and employers, gained access to markets through information campaigns, assistance with product improvement, access to  SEWA-run marketing and other services that are essential to a secure livelihood, access to banking facilities that allow them both to save and to borrow in small amounts and on reasonable terms, and so gradually build up assets. Various tools and methods of organizing were demonstrated through role playing and videos to illustrate the principles and benefits of organizing.

After the Heritage walk to Kalupur Swaminarayan Temple in the old city of Ahmedabad, the group visited the Peace Center at Sanjaypur where leaders explained their activities in teaching young girls and women skills in sewing, bidi rolling and other skills from which they can start some livelihood activities and augment their family income.

HNSEA conducted a briefing among affiliate organizations in the Philippines to share insights derived from the SEWA Workshop. The seminar led by Myrna Magbitang, HNSEA IUP Programme Manager, was conducted at the College of Social Work and Community Development on July 10, 2011 and participated in by about 30 leaders of various organizations  of homebased and informal workers belonging to Homenet Philippines. 

HNSEA VISIONING WORKSHOP
 23-24 APRIL 2011, BANGKOK, THAILAND

Homenet Southeast Asia conducted a two-day visioning exercise on 23-24 April 2011 at Sena Hotel in Bangkok.

The workshop involved all participants from all the country Homenets from Cambodia, Laos, Philippines, Indonesia, Philippine, and the focal point for homebased workers in Malaysia (eHomemakers)  in a round-table discussion on current perspectives, experiences, and visions for the future.

Dave Spooner from WIEGO facilitated the two-day workshop. He started by requesting each Homenet   to make a presentation on how they are organized and governed. There was also a presentation of the organizational structure to illustrate how each Homenet is being governed and also with whom they work with and find support to carry out their objectives in working with homebased workers. This was presented by drawing a map illustrating its linkages and relationships with various stakeholders and partners from the local government, academe, national and international organizations.

 Dave Spooner then presented the concept of membership based organizations (MBOs) and the processes in organizing zeroing in on how each country Homenet work towards building MBOs.  With the main challenges faced in developing and building MBOs, the homenets discussed  their current and potential roles in  encouraging and developing MBOs among groups of homebased workers.

In the international context and perspective, there was also a presentation followed by a fruitful discussion on the international Homenet movement and other related networks of informal economy workers, international trade unions, cooperatives, federations, and international NGOs working closely with homebased workers. The presentation focused on how they are organized and governed, their priorities, challenges and lessons that we can learn from them in building MBOs.

The second day had a lengthy discussion on the future directions, vision and rationale for working with other country Homenets.  Priorities were set for more cooperation and joint activities that can be done laterally among the Homenet SEA countries and those from South Asia and probably later with Southern Europe   that can be the basis for the long-term vision of forming an international homebased workers’ movement or Homenet International. However, it was greatly emphasized that subregional bodies such as HNSEA be maintained as an umbrella organization that will continue  working and capacitating individual country Homenets.