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Who we are

We are a global organization of committed informal traders, with the goal to promote and leverage an autonomous and democratic alliance of street vendors, market vendors, hawkers, and cross-border traders. We are now present in more than 50 countries and represent over 700,000 members worldwide.

Our mission is strengthening and empowering members organizations to protect and promote street and market vendors’ rights and livelihood, especially of women, through advocacy actions, capacity building, education, democratic governance, representation and solidarity among all workers. Our goals are to:

Improve street vendors’ and informal economy workers’ access to their human and economic rights;
Reduce poverty and inequality, and improve the livelihoods of these workers;
Address key challenges and problems facing workers in the informal economy (including issues such as access to health care, childcare, safe workplaces, income security etc.);
Ensure recognition of informal economy workers to get access to inclusive social dialogue in the countries at national and local levels;
Enhance capacity to articulate interests and build innovative approaches to enable progress with the formalization of the informal economy as stipulated in the ILO Recommendation 204 on the Transition from the Informal to the Formal Economy.

Our vision: Street and market vendors and hawkers selling goods and/or services are legally recognized workers, empowered and democratically organize live and enjoy decent work.

7th International Congress in 2023

We were founded in Durban, South Africa, in 2002. The direct inspiration for the foundation of StreetNet was the Self-Employed Women’s Associations (SEWA), created in India in 1972. SEWA started to organize women workers in the informal economy and it was established as a trade union, a unique innovation that contradicted traditional thinking that workers could only be recognized as such if there was a formal employer. SEWA’s commitment to worker control and a bottom-up way of structuring unions inspired the way of organizing that StreetNet, many years later, would adopt as part of its structure.

After a three-year preparation period with workshops in Lima, Peru (2001), Patna, India (2002), and Accra, Ghana (2002), StreetNet was officially created on 14 of November of 2002, with founding policy resolutions that demonstrate our commitment to internal democracy, participation and women’s leadership.

In 2004, StreetNet was accredited by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and invited to go to International Labor Conferences, participating on equal footing as international trade unions.

Setting up StreetNet and getting accepted by the international trade union movement was a stimulus for organizing in the sector along the lines of democratic trade unions.

Since StreetNet’s foundation, street vendors are better organized, more united and have carved up a space for their issues in the global agenda. We will continue to honor StreetNet’s legacy and make our motto come true: Nothing for us without us!

Listen to the full story of StreetNet’s creation in the words of founding International Coordinator, Pat Horn.

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NOTHING FOR US WITHOUT US!

© 2024 StreetNet International

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