All publications: informal employment + informal enterprises + informal economy

Guidebook for policymakers, workers’ and employers’ organizations and other stakeholders

Extending social security to workers in the informal economy: Lessons from international experience

For most workers in the informal economy, the lack of social protection is a challenge not only in their daily struggles to make ends meet but in their aspirations to obtain decent work, rights and dignity. For the societies in which they live, the...

Case Study: Update on improving apprenticeship in the informal economy in Benin

In Benin, access to formal technical and vocational education and training (TVET) is conditional on finishing the second year of secondary school, equivalent to completing nine years of education. However, among 5- to 17-year-olds, the median years...

Case Study: The role of apprenticeships in the informal economy for skills development in Tanzania

The Tanzanian government first recognized the importance of informal education and training in its 1995 Education and Training Policy, which states that nonformal and informal education and training shall be “recognized, promoted, strengthened,...

ILO Working Paper 33

Preferential tax regimes for MSMEs: Operational aspects, impact evidence and policy implications

Situation analysis on the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on enterprises and workers in the formal and informal economy in India

To enable evidence-based social dialogue for designing and implementation of policies and programmes responding to COVID-19 pandemic, the ILO-India prioritised situation analysis of enterprises and workers from three States of the country.

A comprehensive analysis of policies and frameworks governing foreign employment for Nepali women migrant workers and migrant domestic...

One of the principal causes and risk factors for forced labour and trafficking, identified by past research led by the International Labour Organization (ILO)’s Work in Freedom (WiF) Programme, is restrictive and gender-insensitive migration...

A comprehensive analysis of policies and frameworks governing foreign employment for Nepali women migrant workers and migrant domestic...

DIILM updates

Developing International and Internal Labour Migration project update no.5, migrant centres

The Developing International and Internal Labour Migration (DIILM) project has supported Labour organisations and Civil Society Organisatioins (CSOs) to run Migrant Centres in different strategic locations across Myanmar. The centres are places...

E-formalization case study

e-Estonia: A digital society for the transition to formality

Book

Is the future ready for youth?

How do we ensure that the policymakers and the global community prioritize youth employment, so essential for sustainable development and social justice? This book brings together contributions from ILO with broad global experience in successful...

Policy resource package

Extending social security to workers in the informal economy. Information and awareness

If workers and employers do not know what social protection schemes are available to them, what their rights and responsibilities are and how they can access such schemes, then social protection policies and programmes have little chance of...

Policy resource package

Extending social security to workers in the informal economy

Key lessons learned from international experience

Policy resource package

Extending social security to domestic workers

Key lessons learned from international experience

Extending social insurance for informal workers

ILO Working paper 25

Homeworking in the Philippines: Bad job ? Good job ?

This report focuses on two categories of homeworkers in the Philippines: industrial homeworkers, who assemble or fabricate goods for factories, retailers or their agents under subcontracting arrangements; and online workers, who render services to...

Case Study: Update on improving apprenticeship in the informal economy in Togo

In Togo, there is strong social recognition among the population of traditional apprenticeship as a way of qualifying in a trade. Craftspersons simply transform their workshops/enterprises into training centres that take on apprentices for a set...

Case Study: Update on improving apprenticeship in the informal economy in Togo

In Togo, there is strong social recognition among the population of traditional apprenticeship as a way of qualifying in a trade. Craftspersons simply transform their workshops/enterprises into training centres that take on apprentices for a set...

WIEGO Statistic Brief no. 27

Home-based Workers in the World: A Statistical Profile

Globally, 260 million women and men are employed in home-based work, including 35 million in developed countries.

Executive summary: Opportunities for extending social security coverage in Jordan

The report aims to support Jordanian policymakers in the extension of social security to informal workers. It formulates typologies for informal workers outside the social security system, analyses the main constraints to coverage and outlines a...

Opportunities for extending social security coverage in Jordan

The report aims to support Jordanian policymakers in the extension of social security to informal workers. It formulates typologies for informal workers outside the social security system, analyses the main constraints to coverage and outlines a...