Paper short abstract:

The paper talks about the perils of extractive agriculture and how it is affecting local ecology leading to poor livelihood generation for the majority of cultivators. It calls for a de-centralized approach to development planning sensitive to the local socio-ecological conditions and needs.

Paper long abstract:

This paper aims to examine the capitalist development of agriculture and the persistence of agricultural petty production in India. It is based on fieldwork conducted in 2018 in two villages in South India, which have been previously studied in 1993-95.

With the advent of the green revolution, agriculture in the study villages got incorporated into the circuits of capitalist production. Though green revolution technologies had a positive effect on farmers in the initial years, the long-run consequences of this on the petty producer-dominated agriculture scenario is seen to be less desirable especially by adversely affecting the local ecology. Ecological degradation is found to be an important contributor to the agrarian crisis that the villages have been undergoing for more than a decade. This evolving crisis has made agriculture unprofitable with a higher effect on the petty producers.

However, despite the heavy odds faced in crop production, the petty producers in the study villages are still surviving. The study finds that the working of social institutions has a great role in keeping petty production afloat. On the whole, the agrarian capitalist transformation underway in contemporary India is ecologically and socially embedded. While ecological embeddedness puts limits to sustainable livelihood generation in the sector, the social embeddedness of the village economies and lack of gainful alternative employment ensure that petty production goes more or less unfettered even amidst distress.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation interrogates how informal livelihoods are governed in the context of worsening climate change. I seek to identify gaps in discourses on climate change policy and governance of informal economic actors with a focus on street vendors and market traders in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

Paper long abstract:

Dar’s prevalent informal economy is comprised of diverse communities pursuing vulnerable and precarious informal livelihoods, including informal street vending and market trading. These livelihoods are undertaken in a rapidly urbanising context where the population is expected to exceed 10 million by 2030. Alongside rapid growth, climate-related shocks such as flooding and heatwaves are becoming increasingly severe in Dar. While there is an extensive body of literature on street vending/trading in Dar – see Msoka (2007), Lyons (2013), Malefakis (2019), Munishi (2020), Hamidu & Munishi (2021) inter alia – there is no work to date on vendors’ response to such shocks, despite emergent evidence that livelihoods of informal street vendors/traders are increasingly threatened by climate-related events. Although recent scholarship has demonstrated vendors’ tactics to assert their right to the city in the face of evictions by Dar’s authorities, an examination of urban governance of informal actors in this context of worsening climate change remains unexplored. Following recent calls for interdisciplinary linkages between human and environmental aspects of urban equity (Wagle, P., & Philip, K. 2022) this working paper sits at the intersection of scholarship on informal street vending/market trading, climate justice, and urban governance. Although primarily theoretical, this paper will draw on my past empirical work studying informal vendors in 2016 and my subsequent work with a Dar-based NGO that works to advocate for the rights of market traders to increase the organisation’s work on climate change awareness, responsiveness, and resilience in their strategic programming.

Paper short abstract:

A survey among waste pickers in Brazil shows their understanding of the impacts of climate change and how they can respond. Waste pickers receive limited support in dealing with the challenges of climate change, despite their proven role in delivering urban resilience and sustainability.

Paper long abstract:

Waste pickers are at the front line when facing climate change impacts. Waste pickers face direct impacts on their lives and employment. Lack of access to services and infrastructures, precarious employment, and lack of social support increase their vulnerability to climate change impacts. Empirical evidence has shown that waste picking activities reduce the vulnerability to climate change impacts, improve urban resilience and reduces waste, hence making a substantial contribution to urban sustainability (Dodman et al, 2023). However, there are few studies that engage with the perspectives on climate change expressed by waste pickers themselves, partly because of the assumption that there is limited climate change awareness of climate change among waste pickers and the organizations that represent them.

To fill this gap, Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) conducted an exploratory survey with 61 waste pickers in the state of Minas Gerais, Brazil to understand waste pickers’ perceptions and knowledge of climate change, in collaboration with the ERC project Low Carbon Action in Ordinary Cities (Urban Institute, University of Sheffield). WIEGO also conducted semi-structured interviews and participatory focus groups, to capture the heterogeneity of perspectives across contexts. The analysis explores how waste pickers experience climate change impacts at home and at the workplace, their adaptive strategies, and the specific actions and actors needed to address these impacts.

The analysis demonstrates the difficulties in linking waste pickers’ understanding of climate change with current adaptation planning. Specifically, the survey shows that waste pickers have practical knowledge and experience that is already shaping how they respond to climate change events. The qualitative analysis also shows that waste pickers perceive significant gaps in the way their activities and risks are understood among decision makers, which results in their exclusion from formal adaptation planning.

Paper short abstract:

We discuss an array of climate-related and other threats facing informal workers in Harare and Masvingo (Zimbabwe), drawing on action-research implemented from 2019-2022 with waste-pickers and urban agriculture workers. We also explore emerging solutions and partnerships with the local authority.

Paper long abstract:

The informal economy is the lifeblood of many African cities, but there is only limited attention to the climate-related and other risks facing urban informal workers. In prior research on occupational health and climate change, the focus is generally limited to the impacts of excessive heat. Climate-related threats will interact with longstanding challenges such as hazardous living conditions, limited social protection, and gendered inequalities that urban informal workers already face.

This presentation will explore the occupational, environmental, and climate-related health threats facing informal workers in Harare and Masvingo (Zimbabwe), drawing on action-research implemented from 2019-2022. We conducted surveys (N=420) and focus group discussions (N=207) with urban agriculture workers and informal waste-pickers involved in plastic recycling. We also explored access to water as a key cross-cutting concern for workers’ health and livelihoods. According to our surveys, heat extremes led to reduced working time, exhaustion, and lower incomes amongst 56% women and 55% of men. Our qualitative findings explore the interplay between low-quality working and living environments linked to inadequate WASH, rubbish collection, and unclean energy. Additionally, we explain how informal workers are generating inclusive solutions in the face of climate change. In Masvingo, a ‘champions team’ comprised of informal workers and a Memorandum of Understanding signed with the local authority have led to co-created solutions with benefits for health, climate resilience, and livelihoods.

Climate change should be recognised as a key health and livelihoods concern facing informal workers, and inclusive partnerships with these labourers can foster appropriate, equitable, and multifaceted solutions.

Paper short abstract:

This framework explores the social, political, and environmental determinants of informal workers’ health and livelihoods by synthesising our key findings from Zimbabwe and India. We highlight the need to analyse multi-level factors shaping informal livelihoods, including climate change.

Paper long abstract:

Informal workers’ health and livelihoods are often rooted in multi-level social, environmental, and political factors that remain poorly understood. Key cross-cutting factors may include official regulations and enforcement (or lack thereof); migration patterns; global economic transformations; and zoonotic diseases (as illustrated by COVID-19). We argue that climate change represents another far-reaching determinant of informal workers’ health, well-being, and livelihoods. In this presentation, we offer a new framework exploring how climate change as well as other environmental, socioeconomic, and political factors (across scales) jointly affect informal workers’ health.

This presentation will synthesise major findings on how climate change intersects with other risks facing informal workers, based on recent research in Harare, Masvingo (Zimbabwe), and Indore (India). Heatwaves, drought, floods, and multiple sources of air pollution emerged as major threats to informal workers’ health. Informal workers often face difficult trade-offs, which reflect competing priorities and minimal social safety nets. We argue for additional qualitative data-collection and participatory action-research, which can help co-produce solutions with informal labourers and better address such complex challenges.

Additionally, we highlight opportunities for interventions with multiple benefits such as shelter upgrading; enhanced access to social protection; and clean energy at the home and workplace. Workplace WASH can foster gender equality and decent work, especially in the context of water scarcity and rising temperatures. Civil society organisations can mobilise informal workers and residents for better living and working conditions, while grassroots savings groups and microfinance agencies can support incremental upgrading to foster climate-resilient housing.

Paper short abstract:

We discuss the effects of climate change on informal workers’ living and working conditions in Indore (India), using recent qualitative research. The study explored bottom-up solutions to enhance shelter, improve access to social protection, and implement inclusive strategies with local officials.

Paper long abstract:

Most workers in Indian cities labour in the informal economy. Climate change is contributing to water insecurity, water-logging, and other hazards that may significantly affect informal workers' health. Low-quality living environment and gendered inequalities may further aggravate informal workers’ challenges.

The research explored the occupational, environmental, and climate-related health threats facing informal workers in Indore (India). We conducted 90 qualitative interviews with informal workers including street vendors, domestic workers, home-based workers, youth, casual labourers, and factory workers. We examine several climate-related risks facing informal workers such as heavy rains, heatwaves, and water scarcity. The study also uncovered the interplay between low-quality working and living environments, including linkages to inadequate WASH and shelter. Corrugated metal sheets absorb and transmit heat into small houses, where women often also have to cook. During heavy rains, water often enters homes and may damage workers’ documents, stored food grains (heightening food insecurity), and house structures. Water shortages in Indore (partly linked to climate change) only compound the problems facing informal workers and residents of informal settlements. Where toilet facilities are limited, workers (especially women) may deliberately limit drinking water, contributing to dehydration and exhaustion.

Additionally, we explain how informal workers are pursuing solutions to foster health and well-being such as grassroots saving schemes, incrementally building more resilient housing, and constructing water-storage systems to deal with water scarcity. Supported by a local NGO, workers negotiated successfully for improved living environment with local authorities and helped to expand access to social protection.

Paper short abstract:

This presentation explores possibilities for bringing together policy approaches to the climate crisis and informal work, focusing on issues surrounding the state, class coalitions and formal employment creation.

Paper long abstract:

Efforts to address the climate crisis and informal work remain largely separate on the international policy agenda. This presentation offers some reflections on how this divide might be bridged, focusing on three issues that are central to thinking about informality that will have to be addressed if a coherent policy approach is to be put forward. First, it considers the possible implications of the disconnect between the central role of the state in responding to the climate crisis and the fact that the relationship between the state and the informal economy is frequently adversarial and defined by forms of exclusion. Second, it examines the importance of class in thinking about climate change and informality, focusing particularly on the class alignments that might be needed to mobilize around addressing each, how these might be reconciled and how they might be formed across the Global North and the Global South. Finally, it explores the question of where and how informal work might fit within policy proposals that seek to combine efforts to address inequality and climate change, and, in particular, if what should instead be prioritized is formal employment creation in the Global South.