Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing

Name

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing

Legal name

Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) Limited

Website

https://wiego.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

2000

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Headquarters

HQ city

Manchester

HQ country

United Kingdom

HQ region

Europe

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales, Others

Revenue model

1. Donor Funding and Grants: WIEGO is a nonprofit organization that operates primarily through donor funding and grants. The organization receives support from various international donors to fund its programs, research, and advocacy work on behalf of informal workers globally.

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels3 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

WIEGO is a global research and advocacy network that produces policy analysis, statistics, and educational resources on the informal economy, with a focus on women workers. Its five core programmes (Law, Organization & Representation, Social Protection, Statistics, and Urban Policies) generate publications, briefs, and data products that are disseminated free of charge to informal worker organizations, policymakers, and researchers worldwide. The organization's central deliverable is a Research Library containing over two decades of informal economy research, complemented by advocacy support and worker education resources.

Product overview

WIEGO is a global advocacy and research network, not a technology product company. Its core offerings consist of knowledge products and resources focused on informal employment: the Research Library serves as the central repository with over two decades of publications organized by programme (Law, Organization and Representation, Social Protection, Statistics, Urban Policies), region, and theme; the WIEGO Publication Series disseminates Working Papers, Briefs, and Resource Documents; Statistics on Informal Employment provides global, regional, and country-level data; Worker Stories profiles informal worker leaders; and the Advocacy and Worker Education Hub offers toolkits and educational resources. These offerings are complemented by newsletters (monthly newsletter, MBO newsletter, Law & Informality newsletter) available in English, French, and Spanish. The organization does not offer a commercial software product, API, or AI-powered technology platform.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• WIEGO Research Library

Quantifiable outcome

• WIEGO's advocacy over 25 years influenced the creation of international labor instruments at the International Labour Conference
• +2 more outcomes

Named customers5 records

Segments5 records

Ideal customer profiles3 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration2 records

Partnerships

Eight partnerships are on record, tiered core and major.

• StreetNet InternationalcoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerStreetNet International is a global alliance of street vendor organizations and WIEGO works closely with this partner on research, advocacy, and capacity building for street vendors and market traders worldwide. Both organizations collaborate on policy analysis and advocacy to improve street vendors' rights and working conditions.
• International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerIDWF is a global federation of domestic worker organizations and WIEGO collaborates on joint publications, research reports, and advocacy initiatives to advance domestic worker rights, including implementation of ILO Convention 189 on decent work for domestic workers.
• International Labour Organization (ILO)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWIEGO engages with the ILO as a key partner in developing international labor standards and research on the informal economy. WIEGO has participated in the International Labour Conference to influence conventions on platform economy work and has collaborated on various research publications with ILO offices.
• Inclusive CitiesmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerInclusive Cities is a partner organization working on urban informal economy issues. WIEGO collaborates on research and documentation of organizing efforts, particularly related to street vendors, waste pickers, and other informal workers in urban settings.
• Circle EconomymajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWIEGO has collaborated with Circle Economy on research reports including work published in June 2026 on the circular economy and labor rights. The partnership explores connections between informal workers and circular economy transitions.
• International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC)coreStrategic or Co-development PartnerITUC is a global union federation and WIEGO collaborated on research assessing Nigeria's Micro Pension Plan from the perspective of self-employed workers, working with FIWON and other partners to analyze social protection for informal workers.
• International Alliance of Waste PickerscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWIEGO works with the International Alliance of Waste Pickers on climate-related research and technical briefs documenting waste pickers' role in greenhouse gas emissions reduction and their impact on climate mitigation efforts.
• Mahila Housing SEWA TrustmajorStrategic or Co-development PartnerWIEGO has partnered with Mahila Housing SEWA Trust on research to make home-based work environments safer, healthier, and more productive, promoting energy efficiency and climate resilience for women home-based workers in India.

Scale indicators6 records

Recent moves5 records

Emerging players

• Restless Development: International nonprofit focused on youth-led development and youth informal-worker livelihoods across Africa and Asia. Operates a comparable research-plus-advocacy model for an overlapping but more age-restricted informal-worker segment.
• Clean Clothes Campaign: International alliance focused on garment workers' rights — many of whom are informal or in subcontracted supply chains. Comparable in network-of-NGOs structure and in using research-backed advocacy, but narrower in sectoral focus.
• Global Labor Justice: International labor-rights strategy project that bridges worker organizations, brands, and policymakers on supply-chain and informal-worker issues. Smaller than WIEGO but methodologically aligned in combining worker-led advocacy with international standard-setting work.

Direct peers

• International Domestic Workers Federation (IDWF): Global federation of domestic-worker organizations co-advocating with WIEGO for the implementation of ILO Convention 189. Shares WIEGO's model of combining research, member organizing, and international advocacy for an informal-worker constituency.
• StreetNet International: Global alliance of street-vendor organizations, formally partnered with WIEGO on research, advocacy, and capacity building. Operates with the same membership-based network model focused on a single informal-worker sub-sector, making it the closest structural peer.
• HomeNet International: Network of home-based worker organizations across Asia and Africa. Operates as a peer network-of-networks model and a WIEGO programme partner, with overlapping research and advocacy priorities around informal labor rights.
• International Alliance of Waste Pickers: Alliance of waste-picker cooperatives globally. Core WIEGO partner on climate and circular-economy research; matches WIEGO's structure of federating worker organizations and producing advocacy-oriented publications.

Broad incumbents

• International Trade Union Confederation (ITUC): Main global union federation representing 200 million workers through affiliated national centers. Larger and broader than WIEGO, but collaborates directly with WIEGO on informal-worker social-protection research and shares the global labor-advocacy mission.
• Solidarity Center: AFL-CIO affiliated international labor-rights NGO. Operates in overlapping geographies and worker constituencies (including informal workers) with comparable research, training, and advocacy delivery models, but with a U.S.-labor anchor.
• Oxfam International: Global confederation focused on poverty and inequality, including significant programming on informal workers and women's economic empowerment. Operates at much larger scale than WIEGO but overlaps on research production and global advocacy targeting informal-economy populations.

Market position

Strengths5 records

Weaknesses5 records

Competitive moat5 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• Xx.com/wiegoglobal
• YouTubeyoutube.com/user/wiegoglobal
• Facebookfacebook.com/wiegoglobal
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/wiego

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

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M&A

Investments

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Frequently asked questions about Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing