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Through research, writing and advocacy, the Informal Sector desk strives
to highlight the problems faced by the country's economic backbone, the
informal workers. Informal workers are street vendors, scavengers, farmworkers, laborers, etc., who toil without protection from risks in
unregulated forms of work. Presently, the desk is involved in a study on the participation and non-participation of residents in Payatas, Quezon City in a community-based savings program. The study will compare the attitudes of savers and non-savers in an area where money is hard to come by. It will determine what convinces people in an urban poor area to save. It is also undertaking a process documentation of a slum upgrading project in Golden Shower, Payatas, Quezon City. The project is partly funded by the Asian Development Bank (ADB) and will run for two years. Golden Shower is a 3.2-hectare housing community. Around 1993, the community began negotiating to buy the land on which their houses are built. Payment for the land would come from loans from the Community Mortgage Program. Earlier this year, the ADB gave the community a grant of $1 million for the upgrading of the area, including the creation of programs for livelihood, health and education. The task of the Informal Sector desk is to document the improvements implemented by the community. Aside from conducting researches, the desk also responds actively to the need of informal laborers for information on how to avail of social security. The desk will produce a simplified manual on the requirements and procedures for becoming members of the Social Security System, as well as on how to avail of other social security benefits from the government.
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| Urban Poor and Housing |