StreetNet

📘 Our 2025 Global Report is out!

Available in English, French, Spanish and Russian 🌍

One of the report's key messages is clear:

⚖️ Formalization without dignity is not justice.

Too often, "formalization" means more control, more policing, and more barriers for workers. But real formalization must mean:

✔️ Social protection
✔️ Social security
✔️ Safer workplaces
✔️ Legal recognition
✔️ Participation in decision-making

Street and market vendors are not asking to be managed. They are demanding to be recognized as workers with rights, protections, and a voice in shaping the policies that affect their livelihoods.

✊🏾 Nothing for us without us.

📖 Learn more about the formalization street vendors are demanding in our 2025 Global Report:
https://buff.ly/G55VGy0

🌍 As the 114th International Labour Conference begins, one question remains urgent: who gets a seat at the table in shaping the future of work?

For millions of informal economy workers, including street vendors, market traders, and platform workers, exclusion from labour protections and social dialogue continues. Digitalisation is reshaping informality, not ending it.

✊ A just transition to formality must include workers’ own organizations in decision-making. Read our Position Papers below:

📄 Social Dialogue:
https://streetnet.org.za/document/position-paper-advancing-inclusive-social-dialogue-for-street-vendors-and-informal-economy-workers/

📄 Platform Economy:
https://streetnet.org.za/document/position-of-streetnet-international-on-the-platform-economy-and-the-digitalisation-of-the-informal-economy/

Nicole Ramírez, a street vendor in Medellín and member of our affiliate Ugti-Cut Colombia , found an alternative to predatory loan sharks through the support of Corporación Fomentamos 💪🏽✨

Through low-interest loans, savings, and collective support 🤝, she was able to expand her business, pay for surgery without falling into unmanageable debt 🏥, and strengthen her role as a community leader 🌱

Her story is a powerful example of how worker-led social and solidarity economy initiatives can create protection, dignity, and economic empowerment for informal economy workers ❤️✊🏽