International researchers focus on improving the life of working poor

Pictured at the Slave Lodge at the launch of the research conference (from left) Caroline Skinner; ACC senior researcher; Ravi Kanbur; TH. Lee, Professor of World Affairs at Cornell University; Jeremy Cronin, SA Deputy Minister of Transport; Martha Chen, WIEGO International Co-ordinator and lecturer in public policy at the Kennedy School at Harvard University; and Prof Edgar Pieterse, ACC director.

SA Deputy Minister of Transport, Jeremy Cronin, addressed 60 delegates from 16 countries at a talk titled Place of the Informal Workforce in the New Growth Path at the opening of the Women in Informal Employment: Globalising and Organising (WIEGO) research conference. This was hosted recently by UCT's African Centre for Cities.

In response to Cronin's address Ravi Kanbur of Cornell University and WIEGO International Co-ordinator Martha Chen spoke on international experience in this sector.

WIEGO is a global research-policy network that seeks to improve the status of the working poor, especially women, in the informal economy. During the conference participants explored future policy research priorities in the informal economy, focusing on South Africa, Mexico and India.