Who should bear the main burden of social service: is it the state, the private sector, NGOs, communities or individuals? This is a very complex discussion, so central to questions of rising inequality. In order to contribute to this debate, Laura Alfers has published a paper for the UNRISD Conference “Overcoming Inequalities in a Fractured World: Between Elite Power and Social Mobilization”, which took place in Geneva, last November.
Laura’s paper is concerned with how informal workers’ organizations have become involved in health service provision – something that is often termed “co-production.” She draws from two case studies, one from India and another one from Thailand, to explain how grassroots organizations have taken important roles in the provision on social services.
Laura Alfers is WIEGO’s Social Protection Director and Research Associate in Rhodes University, in South Africa. She is here again with us to discuss the issues surrounding “Informal Workers Co-Producing Social Services in the Global South”, the title of her paper.
RESOURCES
Conference paper: Informal Workers Co-Producing Social Services in the Global South: Task Shifting or Political Strategy towards a New Social Contract?, by Laura Alfers. Draft paper prepared for the UNRISD Conference Overcoming Inequalities in a Fractured World: Between Elite Power and Social Mobilization 8–9 November 2018, Geneva, Switzerland. http://www.unrisd.org/80256B42004CCC77/(httpInfoFiles)/3DB49A55A790DBFCC12583390051DA55/$file/Overcoming%20Inequalities%205b_Alfers---Final.pdf
Blog: In India, One-stop Shops Increase Access to Healthcare, Nutrition and Social Security Services for Working Poor, by Laura Alfers http://www.wiego.org/blog/india-one-stop-shops-increase-access-healthcare-nutrition-and-social-security-services-working-
Bridges to Better Lives: SEWA's Community Health Workers, by Annie Devenish and Laura Alfers. Workers’s Lives brief 7. http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/WL7_Devenish_Alfers%20final%20for%20web.pdf
Forging a New Conceptualization of “The Public” in Waste Management, by Melanie Samson. WIEGO Working Paper 32. http://www.wiego.org/sites/default/files/publications/files/Samson-Public-Waste-Management-WIEGO-WP32.pdf
Our theme music is Focus, from A. A. Aalto (Creative Commons)
