work for all” (ILO 1999). The WIEGO program will seek to catalyze an international comparative program of research which leads to strategic and policy-oriented interventions. One task is to create a framework for cross-country analysis, which is developed here. The framework rests on a core question: “Under what conditions can what kind of workers in the informal economy (and especially poorer women) get access to what core measures of provision, which can be incrementally improved upon in the future?” (Lund and Srinivas 2000, 2). This chapter presents the next stage in the development of this approach. It gives a brief international overview of the changing world of work, of the informal economy, and of the position of women in the informal economy, with special reference to access to social security and protection. It then presents the main components of the new approach, with a framework that can be used for cross-country analysis. Examples are specifically chosen to reflect the worldwide situation, including Latin America. We will leave it to Armando Barrientos’s companion chapter to focus more specifically on Latin American and Caribbean countries.
Aspects of the informal economy It is not the intention here to give a wide-ranging account of the development of and dynamics within the informal economy. In what follows, certain key aspects of the gendered dynamics of informal work have been selected which have a bearing on men’s and women’s access to and exclusion from secure work, and social protection through work. Reasons for entry into the informal economy There are regional and country variations in the reasons people give for entering the informal economy. Some exercise a positive choice: men and women may want to be their own boss, they may see the possibility of higher earnings, they may see advantages in flexible working arrangements, and they may want to be free of what they perceive to be unrea-
are Statistics, Global Markets, Urban Policies, Organization and Representation, and Social Protection. The framework for the WIEGO approach to social protection for the informal economy was initially developed with Smita Srinivas (Lund and Srinivas 2000); this chapter builds on and develops that framework.
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A FRAMEWORK FOR ANALYZING SOCIAL PROTECTION FOR WORKERS IN THE INFORMAL ECONOMY