HOMENET SouthEast Asia

Presented by Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo
Regional Coordinator, Homenet Southeast Asia

Introduction

Most of the employed people in Asia are workers in the informal economy. Among them are homebased workers, vendors, stall sellers, waste recyclers, small transport drivers, construction workers, etc. Many of them are women who aside from having to work to earn a pittance to ensure survival, also shoulder the burden of housework, child care, and community service.

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

The unprecedented growth of the informal economy worldwide has given birth to a global movement to redefine the concept “worker” away from very narrow notions associated with formality, regularity, and clear employer-employee relations which refer only to a shrinking male minority of working people in the world. A much more inclusive definition of worker is “anyone who lives by selling his or her capacity to work, either for wages or for other forms of income.” (Gallin, 2002: 1). Such a definition covers the majority of workers in the world who work in the informal economy, or all those who have unprotected and unregulated work. This means “all work in informal enterprises as well as informal jobs (jobs that pay no benefits or provide no social protection), thus including the self-employed in informal enterprises (for example home-based workers or street vendors) and paid workers in informal jobs (for example casual workers without fixed employers, most domestic workers, even factory workers in unregulated and unprotected work).” (Ibid).

The informal economy has been growing in both North and South, due to the combined effects of liberalization, deregulation, and privatization which altogether drove out millions of workers from the formal economy ( 24 million, according to the ILO, in East Asia alone in the aftermath of the Asian financial crisis, in itself a consequence of the liberalization and deregulation of financial markets culminating in the successive domino-like devaluation of Asian currencies). At the same time, as exemplified by the production or value chains spearheaded by transnational corporations particularly in the garments industry , the informal economy serves as the bottom end of the production ladder, providing cheap and unprotected labor vulnerable to exploitation while management saves on costs by retaining a small core of permanent and regular workers.

The informal economy is also highly gendered, consisting mostly of women who were among the first to be displaced from formal work as globalization progressed. But women have also 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), and since their status as secondary or supplemental earners often deprive them of opportunities to find formal employment. In their particular case, class, gender, ethnicity, and other issues often intersect.
Among the informal and homeworkers’ groups, one significant development that stands out is the realization of being organized. Their continuing growth and increase in membership is a manifestation of awareness that indeed they need collective strength for better representation and advocacy towards uplifting their plight, and advancing ways towards the improvement of their working conditions in accordance with globally acceptable standards on fair trade and occupational safety and health.
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.

Inspiring Strategies from SEWA

Organizing among homebased workers in Asia has had a long herstory/history, beginning with the founding of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) in India and its multi-pronged approach to women’s empowerment which include 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, engagement in trade facilitation, international advocacy and networking.

Organizing workers in the villages in 1979, at a time the Gujarat government had announced minimum wages for agricultural laborers, SEWA employed traditional union strategies, where rural workers were initially organized focusing on this issue. In the process, many struggles, experiences, and hard lessons were learned. The village women who constitute 50 percent of the work force, had left aside obtaining minimum wages, but, as a result of the union action, lost whatever low-paid work they had. In such a situation where there was an almost unending supply of labor and limited employment, the workers were unable to bargain for higher wages. If workers were to empower themselves and increase their bargaining power, the only viable strategy was one of increasing local employment opportunities. Thus, the strategy followed by SEWA for its rural members had focused on: a) increasing employment opportunities for women and thus increasing women’s bargaining power; b) developing women’s assets; c) capacity-building and leadership development of rural women; d) providing food & social security; and e) becoming self-reliant, economically.
On the other hand, SEWA’s growth in the city three decades ago began by organizing the self-employed women workers (head-loaders of the main city cloth market) of Ahmedabad City. Developed considerably through the campaign approach, workers of the main trade groups participated in their own economic issue-based campaigns. Thus, bidi-workers, readymade garment workers, vendors, construction workers and those engaged in small industries as contract workers, organized struggles to improve their working conditions and wages or earnings.

To date, SEWA which serves as a microcosm of the informal economy in India, has a membership of nearly 700,000 members all of whom are women in the informal economy, both rural and urban. Recent findings from SEWA’s research studies explored the three key consequences of globalization - a) lagging behind of the productivity and wages of the unskilled as a result of global and national technical progress; b) an increased vulnerability and insecurity in the new market and trade oriented world, despite significant benefits from these same trends; and c) a decrease in bargaining power of unskilled workers as a result of the greater mobility of capital and skilled labor.

In order to deal with these consequences SEWA is working on four key strategies: a) organizing of women into membership based like trade unions, co-operatives, associations; b) capacity building which includes both technical as well managerial skills; c) capital formation in their own names either individually or preferably collectively in their groups and organizations; and d) social security, including access to health care, child care, insurance, housing and old age benefits. At the same time SEWA is actively undertaking research to continually trace the effects on its members, and is actively influencing policy in their favor. (Globalisation and Women in the Informal Economy SEWA’s Responses, www.sewa.org/globalisation)

The SEWA experience has inspired organizing in other Asian countries, but this has taken different forms, given the specificity of national and even regional contexts.

Emergence of Homenet Southeast Asia

National homebased workers' networks in Southeast Asia are called HomeNets - in Thailand, Indonesia, the Philippines and Lao PDR. The first three emerged as part of a major subregional project undertaken from 1988 to 1996 by the International Labor Organization (ILO) and funded by DANIDA. Regional networking, advocacy and networking is channeled through Homenet Southeast Asia, where common goals include 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. Coordination with Homenet South Asia and WIEGO (Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing) has led to an even broader global solidarity anchored on a rights-based approach.

Homenet SEA’s persistent advocacy towards the ratification of ILO Convention on Homework is in response to the changing global employment system, characterized by lack of social security, particularly among homeworkers, majority of whom are women. The Convention 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’.

The institutional base of the HOMENET SEA rests on the relative strengths of the national networks of its members. Growing membership within the networks of Homenets Indonesia, Thailand, the Philippines and more recently, CDEA Laos has been a continuing trend from year 2001 up to the present.

The National Homenets

PATAMABA is a people’s organization led by grassroots women who sought to empower themselves by founding and running their own organization. PATAMABA’s main strategies are: 1) participation in governance and institution building through organizing, coalition building, representation in national, local and international bodies and institutionalizing programs and projects for the informal sector; 2) human development services such as skills training and skills upgrading (production related), capability-building, training on gender awareness, health and reproductive rights, computer literacy and connectivity, workers’ and working children’s rights under the law, participatory research, fieldwork data collection, facilitation and linkages; 3) socio-economic assistance as exemplified by its credit facility program and microfinance, enterprise development, and marketing of homebased products through a showroom and participation in trade fairs and bazaars; 4) networking, advocacy and para-legal work for fair trade, a Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy, ratification of the ILO Convention on Home Work, anti-poverty strategies, as well as other policy changes, through building partnerships with government organizations, local government units, non-governmental organizations, people’s organizations, academic institutions, international development agencies, trade unions, and cooperatives.
Included in PATAMABA’s agenda are: 1) recognition and representation of informal workers; 2) access to productive resources; and 3) access to social protection and justice, the components of which are social security (SSS, Philhealth, Red Cross, community based health insurance schemes, alternative and indigenous schemes such as damayan and paluwagan), occupational safety and health, local ordinances on workers’ security and protection and asset reform.

Founded in 1989 as the first organization formed by Filipino homebased workers, PATAMABA started out as the Pambansang Tagapag-ugnay ng mga Manggagagwa sa Bahay (National Network of Homeworkers). In its May 2003 National Congress, its expanded name was changed to the Pambansang Kalipunan ng mga Manggagawang Impormal (National Network of Informal Workers) to reflect fundamental changes in its targeted membership which now includes, in addition to homeworkers, vendors, small transport operators, construction workers, and young workers. From being primarily a women’s organization (98 percent of the members are women between the ages 18 to 75), it has started its evolution into an organization that seeks to address the concerns and uplift the plight of both female and male workers belonging to the informal economy.

PATAMABA’s networking spans a wide range of different sectors and groups - from informal ones like street and market vendors to official policy-makers and formal academic institutions. It actively advocates and lobbies for proper legislation to protect the rights of the homeworkers in the Philippines as workers and as women. It is now affiliated to different trade unions and women's organizations with similar values. Moving further towards group formation and strengthening of mass- based organizations saw the successful launching of Homenet Philippines in May 2006, a broad coalition of 23 organizations comprised of homeworkers’ groups and NGOs with a membership coverage of about 60,000. The formal launching of Homenet Philippines’ advocacy agenda helped to boost the advocacy campaign on ILO Convention 177 and the Magna Carta for Workers in the Informal Economy (just recently filed in Congress).
Through the years, PATAMABA’s policy advocacy work has occurred at various levels. It has influenced the national anti-poverty policies and programs through its presence and leadership in the Workers in the Informal Sector Council (WISC) of the National Anti Poverty Commission (NAPC). After more than a decade of trying, it has aided in persuading the Social Security System (SSS) to allow self-employed homeworkers to avail of social insurance and to facilitate this process through the automatic Debit Account (ADA) arrangement whereby self-employed SS members can use the facilities of partner banks to make their contributions.

PATAMABA’s expanding influence among the informal workers has been manifested in orientation activities for new members and organizing in other subsectors. To date, PATAMABA has a membership of 16, 128 members, 15,805 women and 323 men in 12 regions and 30 provinces in its formal registry. It has 237 chapters, 23 of which are composed of members under subcontracting, 186 of self-employed, and 43 of both. It has subcontracted workers producing garments, handicraft, papier mache, bags, Christmas balls, sawali, fashion accessories, embroidery . Its self employed members are into livestock, agri-based products, garments, bags, slippers, fashion accessories, novelty items, food, woodcraft, and weaving.

.As a people’s organization (meaning it is membership-based) its leaders are elected at every level – from the barangay or village, to the municipal, provincial, regional, and national. In terms of organizational management and administration, PATAMABA has eight National Executive Committee members . It has a National Council elected every three years during a national congress, and an Executive Committee based in Metro Manila which manages its day-to-day operations. Through its coordinator for organizing, PATAMABA regularly monitors local chapters throughout the country on a quarterly basis. The PATAMABA youth sector has been actively recruiting from among their ranks, and has reported a membership of at least 2,000. Training of youth and local leaders is ongoing to facilitate later accession to national leadership positions.

As an organization, PATAMABA continues to be relevant in the current context of globalization, with an increasing number of workers finding refuge in the informal economy.. There is conscious effort among PATAMABA leaders in seeking for practical solutions regarding the management of homeworkers’ time particularly those in the local communities who can hardly cope juggling organizational and income generating activities. One solution forwarded to sustain membership was to find ways of balancing organizational work and economic activities without sacrificing organizational commitment.

Homenet Thailand’s overall mission is to consolidate, support, protect, and strengthen the identity and role of the homebased workforce in Thailand. Officially established in June 1998, Homenet Thailand now serves 6,637 homebased producers and homeworkers (5, 031 females and 1,606 males) , as well as concerned NGOs in four regional networks located in the Northeast, the North, the South and Central Bangkok. (There are 151 groups in all, 80 of which are composed of own account members, 31 of subcontracted homeworkers, and 40 of both types). Each of the four regional networks has its own committee and an office with a regional coordinator who works part-time for the network. The national committee is composed of two representatives from each region and provides the coordination at the national and international levels on policies and issues related to homeworkers. During its July 2006 meeting, Homenet Thailand announced its action plan to strengthen regional and national HBW networks by giving more attention to the different situations of HBW networks in each region and in Bangkok, that call for specific types of assistance towards an improved network management. Homenet Thailand was instrumental in the formation of the Foundation for Labor and Employment Promotion (FLEP) which serves as a fund manager for its various projects.

Homenet Thailand through the regional networks has been reaching out to groups of informal workers comprised of own-account workers or home producers mainly in handicraft, food and herbal production; subcontracted workers involved in the production of garments, artificial flowers, jewelry, leather, and other products; and agricultural labor, especially contracted farmers. The strategies employed by Homenet Thailand are: 1) strengthening homeworkers’ capacities in production and management through skills training and other development activities for omeworkers; 2) promotion of the homeworkers’ organization by coordinating and maintaining a good network and organizational system; 3) promotion of labor standards and social protection among homeworkers and home producers through campaigns for homeworkers’ welfare in the areas of occupational health and safety as well as wages and social security, and 4) exercising influence over government policies in relation to the legal and social protection of homeworkers.

Included in Homenet Thailand’s agenda are: 1) visibility of homebased workers for representation in in national statistics and policies; 2) labor and social protection; 3) capacity building through training in promotional, marketing and marketing skills; 4) policy advocacy through dialogues with parliamentarians, academics, government officials, policy makers, international agencies and the general public; and organizing and networking.

Moreover, Homenet Thailand has drawn an action plan to strengthen regional and national HBW networks by giving more attention on the different situations of HBW networks in each region and in Bangkok, that call for specific types of assistance towards an improved network management. Other issues have also been included such as resource mobilization and economic security through cluster approach in production and marketing.

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. Among the national Homenets, Homenet Thailand 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 the Ministry of Health. It has also been working closely with formal sector workers’ groups in advocating for occupational safety and health, and favors strengthening these ties through more joint activities to forge greater solidarity among all workers.

Organizing of women home-based workers in Indonesia was started in the early ‘90s. Funded by the ILO – Danida Project, Sidoarjo Regency and Tulungagung in East Java were selected as initial areas for undertaking the participatory action research.

The entry point for organizing in each area was different. Occupational safety and health was employed in Tulungagung Regency because most of the garment assembly homeworkers during the study period, manifested many health problems. In Sidoarjo, the strategy addressed the low piece rates and the need for a computerized embroidery machine. This was because women homeworkers who did embroidery work complained of low piece rates, and lack of orders since the demand for embroidered products could only be made through the use of “Juki” computerized sewing machines which home-based workers could not afford to own. In Yogyakarta, the development of a credit program or cooperative that extended borrowing/lending to address the economic and social needs of homebased workers inspired the establishment of a similar type of cooperative in Banten Province. In West Java, organizing was initiated following the bad practice of hit and run subcontractors, who left the group of home-workers unpaid. In Malang, East Java, handloom mat workers were organized using as entry point occupational safety and health while for the embroidery workers, a borrowing/lending program specifically for production purposes was organized through a cooperative. In South Sumatra, a large number of women homeworkers were organized following a project on women’s political empowerment. Finally, in the province of East Java, a unique scheme expanded coverage to reach homeworkers in five regencies, made possible through the Petugas Sosial Masyarakat (Community Social Workers), with assistance from a PSM in East Java functioning as the Team Leader of the Oxfam Hongkong Project dedicated to organizing home-based workers.

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”. The latter scheme is not only meant to address the urgent needs of members, but can effectively be used to organize and develop cohesiveness among homeworkers.

Homenet Indonesia (MWPRI- or the National Network of Friends of Women Homeworkers) ) now covers 19,248 homebased workers , 12,609 of whom are subcontracted and 6,639 are self-employed. (These numbers, however, are quite fluid due to loss of homeworkers’ employment as result of natural disasters such as earthquakes; i.e., the recent one in Jogjakarta, and threat of terrorism which led to a decline in tourism and therefore in the demand for homeworkers’ artisanal products). They are in nine provinces, concentrated in Java (East, Central and West) as well as Yogyakarta, but some groups can also be found in Sumatra (West and South) as well as in Banten and Madura. They are engaged in a variety of activities: batik-making, sewing, embroidery, beadwork, leather craft, food processing (banana, ginger, sticky rice, fish, vegetable and ledre crackers, smoked and dried fish, snacks), weaving (bamboo, rattan, pandan, and cloth) , shuttle cock and racket mounting, making rope, stove wicks and dolls, among others. All of these homebased workers are served by MWPRI , a network of 26 member organizations. The MWPRI has been instrumental in the formation of HWPRI as an independent association of Indonesian women home workers. HWPRI is now engaged in leadership formation and capacity building, beginning in East Java but aiming at building a national organization and eventual registration.

In Laos, guidance and support to grassroots community groups and not-for-profit community based projects are provided in cooperation with the CDEA, 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. In pursuance of the said objective, CDEA networked with Homenet Thailand and other Laos NPOs (not for profit organizations) and women’s union. CDEA began undertaking occupational skills development training for women in year 2004, with support from Homenet SEA through Homenet Thailand. A number of women from the villages and members of the Lao Women’s Union of Xaythani district have participated in skills training on dish washing liquid , shampoo, soaps, and powder production; natural dye silk and cotton fabric making; marketing and business management; organic fertilizer (natural); and doll making from used fabric.

Social welfare is practiced in Laos by giving out loans for education, health, maternity, etc. There is also a savings group run by CDEA Laos where members can obtain benefits from the interest at the end of the year. The group also provides support for income generating activities and in the marketing of homeworkers’ products. 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.

Homenet SEA’s 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 were meaningful successes despite some external problems. Membership in all the national Homenets has increased substantially, and in the Philippine case, this has expanded to other workers in the informal economy. Capability building activities for home workers in the three countries were conducted in the areas of leadership, entrepreneurship development, social protection, occupational safety and health, computer connectivity, etc. Additionally, there have been increasing visibility and recognition through the mapping project in Indonesia; policy and implementation advances in terms of health insurance and occupational safety and health in Thailand; and progress in terms of informal workers’ representation, access to resources, social protection coverage, and local government initiatives in the Philippine case.

The second half of 2004 and the first half of 2005 comprise an important transition period for Homenet Southeast Asia, not only in terms of transferring to its new Manila office, but also to transform itself from an informal adhoc mechanism to an institution with a structure and mandate. One notable achievement within the period in pursuit of Homenet SEA’s acquiring a legal personality and clear mandate to empower the network of homebased workers was the approval of its Constitution and By-Laws, duly signed by incorporators, on 23 October 2005, and its subsequent registration with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) in Manila, Philippines, in February 2006.

Social protection initiatives that emanate from the subregional level and eventually integrated into activities at the local sites affirm national Homenet ‘s commitment to promote HBWs’ rights to social protection and healthy working conditions. One of these is the Asian Social Protection Dialogue (ASPD) brochure translated in Thai, Filipino and Bahasa Indonesia disseminated at the local communties in both countries. As an advocacy tool, the brochure will help to increase awareness on informal workers’ issues and their need for social protection.

Homenet Thailand and PATAMABA conducted an ILO supported case study on the garments industry focusing on social protection for workers in the informal economy in 2002. Results of the joint study implied that the organizing of both informal and formal workers in labor organizations, networks and community based organizations is crucially important in order to broaden and strengthen their access to different forms of social protection in an-going and effective way. (Doane, Srikajon, and Pineda Ofreneo, 2002).

Both countries, thus far, have accomplished some ways forward to enhance homeworkers’ and informal workers’ access to social protection. Homenet Thailand has had high visibility in the approval of the 30 baht health insurance scheme for all. Along similar directions, PATAMABA’s lobbying efforts together with other informal workers’ groups saw concrete results when the Social Security System (SSS) and the Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) instituted better ways by which informal sector workers can access formal social protection benefits. The promotion of alternative and indigenous social protection schemes are also encouraged in both countries. In Indonesia, 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. In Laos, social welfare is practiced by promoting savings groups and by giving out loans for emergency and basic family needs.

Toward expanding its membership base, the groundwork for expansion of the Homenet SEA in other countries such as Vietnam, Cambodia and Timor Leste has been laid. In 2006, representatives from the three countries were invited to participate in the subregional workshop on fair trade and marketing held in Manila and there were expressions of interest in terms of
networking and affiliation by persons involved.

Many women workers in the informal economy have been adversely affected by trade liberalization. Those at the bottom of the value or production chain in the garments industry have been hit by foreign competition in both the domestic and the export markets. In many countries in the region , cheap imports and second-hand clothing from abroad are flooding local outlets and streets, driving out or marginalizing many local producers. A similar trend may be seen in weaving and other handicraft. In insular Southeast Asia, those who are in food production and processing also feel the negative effects of unfair trade. Vegetable raisers find their markets contracting with the influx of cheap and often smuggled vegetable items from abroad. Poultry and hog producers are disadvantaged by imported chicken parts and pork dumped at unbelievably low prices in the local markets. The prevalence of chemical-based agriculture and animal husbandry, which is propagated by transnational suppliers of farm inputs and feeds, also does irreparable harm to the environment as well as to the health of consumers.

In the face of all these challenges, informal workers have attempted to be involved in both the macro and micro levels. They have issued position papers and joined demonstrations on trade-related issues. They have been active in various forms of fair trade advocacy in collaboration with trade unions, business groups, and civil society organizations.

Through this exposure and their own discussions, informal worker leaders in several Southeast Asian countries have evolved their own conception of fair trade – taking it to mean changes in macro-economic policies (including tariff reform, stopping smuggling and dumping of cheap foreign products) to give an even chance to local producers to have their rightful share of the domestic market; enhancing sustainability of production by making use of locally available resources, catering to basic community needs, and safeguarding the environment; ensuring workers’ rights to just remuneration, job security, social protection, and safe working conditions; and promoting gender equity through recognition of women’s work, greater equality in the division of labor, and stronger participation of women in decision-making.

In relation to larger trade advocacy groups, informal workers have asked to be assured representation and participation in decision-making and implementing bodies. They have suggested that a strong gender perspective be infused in information, education, and communication materials and campaigns, given that it is the productive labor of women which brings in the most dollar earnings (through the export mainly of domestic workers and entertainers, of electronics products assembled locally, of garments, home décor, and other handicraft items) and it is their unpaid reproductive labor at home which keep families alive and functioning.

In addition, they have suggested that value chain as well as gender analysis be employed in researches on various industries, in order to better understand the roles, issues, and problems of producers and workers at every level of the chain based on their gender and resource status , and to devise realistic strategies that could best serve the interests of various stakeholders in the chain. They have also asserted that the interests not only of industry survival but also those of workers in terms of ensuring just remuneration, social protection, decent working conditions, occupational health and safety, gender equity, etc., be emphasized in fair trade advocacy. They have heeded the call of “tangkilikan” and other mutual support movements, whereby fair trade groups are motivated and mobilized to patronize each other’s products. And they have done a lot of community work and advocacy on fair and sustainable trade, employing theater and other popular forms of education involving women workers and youth groups.

At the micro level, informal sector trainers have promoted the concept of social enterprise. They have conducted numerous alternative skills training in communities where traditional homeworker products and jobs are in decline in several countries in Southeast Asia. In the Philippines, for example, garments and embroidery workers have been trained in the making of slippers, rugs, candles, lace, Christmas balls, and soap, and these are already being produced and marketed by them, although still on a limited scale. Given their concern for food security and the environment, they are also going into organic vegetable and chicken raising, herbal gardening and solid waste management. Knowing that food is a basic need that will always have a market, informal sector community leaders have also gone into the making and selling of dried vegetable toppings (Budbod Sustansya) . dried fish, boneless milkfish(bangus) , pork or chicken-based dumplings, sweet and sour pork (tocino) and sausages (longganisa), milk-based snack items (polvoron), pickled vegetables (atchara), young coconut (buko) salad, crispy sweetened pili nuts, and chocolates.

What they feel they need to develop right now is a strong marketing network . To really make a difference, they have to promote trade among themselves, and between themselves and other consumer groups locally, nationally, regionally, and globally. Homenet Indonesia is exploring production of new products, including modern batik drawing, food crackers, and artistic household articles made of rattan and pandan. Homenet Thailand has always been strong in traditional woven products, clothing, bags, and other accessories. This is where Homenet Southeast Asia thinks it can play an important role, in cooperation with its sister network, Homenet South Asia, which has done a lot on marketing and trade facilitation following the lead of the Self-Employed Women’s Association (SEWA) of India.

In the light of ongoing efforts by social movements and civil society groups to recast international trade policies to defend the interests and promote the welfare of the most vulnerable and marginalized, organizations of homebased workers and other women workers in the informal economy now also feel the need to focus on global advocacy for better terms of trade.

It is in this context that in the WTO meetings in Hongkong, Homenet Southeast Asia supported the positions of alliances of developing countries to get better terms and concessions from the developed market economies regarding the Agreement on Agriculture (AoA), Non-Agricultural Market Access (NAMA) , General Agreement on Trade and Services (GATS), and Trade Related Intellectual Property Rights Agreement (TRIPS). In the face of the increasingly exclusionary and undemocratic processes under which trade deals are forged, it called for openness and transparency in negotiations within the WTO so that all stakeholders are properly informed of what is going on and can ventilate their reactions and agendas through their representatives. It declared that the interests of women and working people, especially those in the informal economy need to be articulated, recognized, and carried forward in trade policies, programs, and mechanisms locally, nationally, regionally, and globally

Surfacing homebased workers visibility in recent years would not have been attained without the inspiration and support provided by advocates and supporters from the ILO, UNIFEM, Ford Foundation, Oxfam Hong Kong , trade unions such as FNV, sister networks such as Homenet South Asia and WIEGO, various universities and research institutions, and other civil society groups. The importance of bringing together homeworkers’ and informal workers’ organizations, academics, activists, policy makers and others to highlight, promote and give voice to homeworkers’ and informal sector concerns needs to be highlighted.

As far as Homenet Southeast Asia is concerned, the challenge 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.

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, Homenet SEA must continue to strengthen and institutionalize itself. Already, Homenet SEA as a network has paved the road towards empowerment that is enhanced by a right-based frame work covering the economic, political, social and reproductive spheres of women’s lives. What is crucial and genuinely needed at this point is sustained support behind the network, and more active involvement among the general membership.

Today, Homenet Southeast Asia’s years of hard work, since its formation in the late ‘90s, have yielded results that serve to motivate organized groups of homebased workers (HBWs) to further strive for more concrete gains that will ultimately spell a difference in their lives. The collaboration among the Homenets of Thailand, Indonesia, and the Philippines has been a long standing one. And very recently, Laos joined the Homenet SEA family, made possible through networking activities of Homenet Thailand with other Laos NPOs (not for profit organizations) and the Lao Women’s Union.

At this time, funds for organizational sustainability are difficult to secure. Hence, initiatives for resource generation (especially for core funding) possibly, among the national Homenets, will need to be seriously thought out and attended to.

Based on membership feedback, much more needs to be done in order for these initiatives and efforts to really transform their lives. They are still very much in need of pivotal support to improve their productivity and harness their potentials. They need assistance for better access to resources, technology and social protection. More importantly, they need responsive policies and laws that will make their working environment facilitative and conducive to the realization of their rights and simultaneously encouraging and supportive of social enterprise development. Thus, the next two years of Homenet Southeast Asia’s work is focused on strengthening the capacity of homebased workers’ networks for national and regional advocacy.

References:
Doane, Donna L., Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo and Daonoi Srikajon (2002): Social Protection for Workers in the Informal Economy: A Case Study of the Garments Industry, a research report presented during the Technical Consultative Workshop on Social Protection for Workers in the Informal Economy held by WIEGO in collaboration with ILO-STEP and the World Bank, 11-12 April, 2002, Chamonix, France. This study was later published in Francie Lund and Jillian Nicholson, eds., Chains of Production, Ladders of Protection, published by the School of Development Studies, University of Natal, South Africa, in 2003

Doane, Donna L, Rosalinda Pineda Ofreneo, Benja Jirapatpimol and the Research Teams of PATAMA and Homenet Thailand. Social Protection for Homebased Workers in Thailand and the Philippines. Quezon City, Ford Foundation, 2006.

Gallin, Dan (2002): “Organising in the Informal Economy.” http://www. wiego.org/papers.lab_ed.pdf.

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Organizing and Empowering Homebased Workers in Asia: Experiences, Lessons, and Challenges

Introduction

Inspiring Strategies from SEWA

Emergence of Homenet Southeast Asia

The National Homenets

Organizing and Empowering Homebased Workers in Asia:
Experiences, Lessons, and Challenges