This workshop was open to all Conference delegates and was accessible for online participation as well. Flowing from the opening panel discussion Popular Education for Building Power, this workshop explored the topic further through inputs from four IFWEA affiliates operating in different contexts. Participants in the workshop contributed to a discussion on how the education they are providing builds power, identifying best practise in popular education approaches, strategies, and methods.

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Assistant Professor, Labor Studies and Employment Relations (LSER), Rutgers State University of New Jersey USA
Tamara L. Lee, Esq. is an industrial engineer and labor lawyer by professional training. She received her Ph.D. from the department of labor relations, law and history from the ILR School at Cornell University. Her academic research focuses on the popular participation of workers in macro-level political and economic reform in Cuba and the United States. She also conducts research on the political practice of workers under the National Labor Relations Act, the intersection of labor and racial justice, cross-movement solidarity building and the impact of radical adult education on workplace democracy. Her teaching focuses on identity politics in the workplace, and labor market discrimination.

Namrata Bali is currently a member of the IFWEA Executive Committee and is the director of the SEWA Academy, also known as the Indian Academy for Self Employed Women (IASEW) in India. Namrata has organized urban and rural women for 30 years and provides trainings to women in the informal economy. She also specializes in training in documentary work and other applications related to ICT and on issues of the poor.

Isabelle Palanchon is currently a member of the IFWEA Executive Committee and is the deputy director of CEMEA France, in charge of the international department. She has been involved in CEMEA since 2001, where she worked on projects relating to education, social intervention, and community development. She currently coordinates international projects relating to the recognition of non-formal education, intercultural dialogue, and capacity building of civil society.

Wisborn Malaya is currently a member of the IFWEA Executive Committee and is the Secretary General of Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA). As a seasoned and passionate informal workers activist, he is often invited as a key resource person in organizing informal economy workers through his extensive experience in ZCIEA since he became a member in 2002. He is also a GLU-Engage Programme alumnus (2013) and was a Reagan Fiscal Foundation Fellow (March-July 2022).

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This workshop was open to all Conference delegates and was accessible for online participation as well. Four IFWEA affiliates shared experiences and lessons of their work in their countries applying IFWEA education programme activities. Participants in the workshop shared their own experiences of work on similar or related themes and shared and identified best practise in these themes.

Facilitated by the IFWEA Secretariat team.

Click here to download the Workshop Two report

Goma Pandey has completed Master’s degree in Management and a Bachelor of Law. She has gained a lot of experience in the social sector along with the labor movement.
She has worked in different NGOs/INGOs such as the Nepal Country Office of HomeNet South Asia Trust, the HIV Prevention program of USAID/ASHA Project, the Dil Se Project of Switzerland, UNDP/ROLHR, and Oxford Policy Management. She is the treasurer of CLASS Nepal as well as the focal person for worker’s education and advocacy campaigns. She has also experience campaigning for ILO conventions, dealing with trade unions, government, and stakeholders on labor issues, collective bargaining and providing training, conducting online courses, etc. She has been continuously engaged with CLASS Nepal since 2012 as a staff and now as the Treasurer cum educator. She has been involved in study circles and online courses of IFWEA in worker’s education since 2013. She was also a YGAP participant in 2016.

I am Jasen Mphepo, a Development Communication Expert with a lifelong passion for Theatre for Development (TfD). My mission in life is to see a generation of young people become champions in their own spaces and witness positive changes in people’s lives and attitudes through the transformative power of the arts.
Over the course of my career, I have dedicated myself to researching and addressing critical social issues, particularly in the areas of HIV and AIDS, gender activism, and child rights. With a focus on development communication strategies, including theatre, film and television, radio, and social media platforms, I have developed program concepts, scripted, produced, and directed Theatre for Development programs.

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Linnea Wennberg is currently occupying the position of International Secretary of ABF, the Worker’s Education Association of Sweden. She has a vast experience from popular education and lifelong learning in various positions in Sweden, on both local and national level. Linnéa has a background in the Social Democratic Youth.

Linnéa is also a former participant of YGAP and is now a part of the coordination team from the same. Globally, Linnéa has a broad experience of international solidarity work—from volunteer positions to project leader and currently as a board member of Olof Palme International Center.

My background as a trade unionist started in the South African labour movement as a shop steward in the finance union affiliated to the Congress of South African Trade Unions and later as a worker educator.  I served workers for eleven years through the national workers’ education institute in South Africa, DITSELA (which means pathways to a stronger labour movement in Sotho). During this time, I focused on the value of building workers’ power through active worker education programmes, especially building women’s leadership in male dominated workplaces and trade unions.

I’ve been serving workers in informal employment through my work at  Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO) https://www.wiego.org for the past eight years. Supporting membership-based organizations to strengthen their organization and representation for greater visibility and recognition among authorities and employers at national and regional level in Africa.  I recently took up the position of WIEGO School Coordinator to focus on deepening the leadership capacity of membership-based organizations especially women and young workers in informal employment to understand, analyze and advocate in the fast-changing policy contexts that directly affect their livelihoods.

WIEGO works with local, national, regional organizations and global networks of domestic workers IDWF, home-based workers HomeNet International, street vendors StreetNet International and waste pickers the International Alliance of Waste Pickers.

The transformative role of education in social contexts interests me the most. Therefore, I explored the areas of transformative education to obtain an MPhil Degree in Adult Education from the University of Cape Town.

I am a feminist activist for social justice in the ongoing struggle for an egalitarian society.

I’m also a grandmother of four adorable kids and I live in the Gauteng province of South Africa with my husband and our three dogs.

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Study Circles for Social Change Programme

Youth Global Awareness Programme(YGAP)

IFWEA Online Education Programme

Foundation Skills for Social Change Programme

This workshop highlighted the Transformative Global Leadership Program (TGLP), a joint initiative of the Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at Rutgers University in the United States and Labour Research Service (LRS) in South Africa, exploring transformative practices and experimental approaches to leadership development. TGLP emphasises leadership development with a gender frame as well as network and movement building in worker and economic justice movements. TGLP attends to the many barriers that women and gender oppressed people experience getting into key decision-making roles, often due to race, gender, and other forms of discrimination.

Workshop participants experienced a visual mapping tool called the “Leadership Journey Map.” They also joined a discussion on lessons learned about the use of technology, graphic notation, and metaphor to bridge cultural, language, digital and geographic divides. The workshop centred transformative leadership development designed for those who are most excluded from leadership roles due to gender-based marginalisation. The Leadership Journey Map has been offered both virtually and in-person, completed by more than 150+ women in countries including Nigeria, Sri Lanka, Belgium, Pakistan, South Africa, Philippines, United States, the Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Zimbabwe, and others.

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This presentation by partners of the Olof Palme International Centre and the ABF Sweden was open to all Conference delegates and was also accessible for online participation.

A panel presented four case studies of methods used by workers’ education organizations and trade unions to involve their members in political election campaigns and put their issues on the political agenda. Workshop participants shared their own experiences and discussed the key lessons for educators.

Click here to download the Workshop Four report

Maura is an IFWEA executive Committee member and an Associate Professor of Politics at the University of Limerick, Ireland. She is also the Head of Community Engagement at the University and Director of ENGAGE University of Limerick, and IFWEA affiliate.

Luis Garcia is the workers’ education program coordinator at the Labor Education and Research Network, a non-governmental organization in the Philippines that provides education, research, and networking assistance for workers and their organizations. He collaborates with unions and other workers’ organizations to design education programs that suit their needs and interests. He has also been involved in organizing workers from various sectors, such as public service, media, and manufacturing.

Hiller Alberto Hernández Muñoz, is Colombian, Social Worker, specialist in Educational Management and Master in Education; social researcher, university professor, director and coordinator of several educational organizations in Medellín Colombia.

He is currently the General Director of the Escuela Nacional Sindical, a Colombian civil society organization and think tank dedicated to the promotion of human and labor rights, research on the world of work, training and trade union innovation, as well as the management of international cooperation projects and the design of public policies related to the world of work.

Daniel Vencu Öhrlund Castro is a Swedish MP for the social democratic party in Sweden and board member of ABF.

He has a broad experience from international work concerning democracy and equality in Latin America. He has also been the secretary general for the Young Falcons movement in Sweden.

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In these parallel sessions, the following organisations conducted their meetings. There was no online access.

SOLIDAR FOUNDATION: Presented the foundation’s 2024 strategic plan. Attendance was open on registration at the conference.

Olof Palme International Centre: Partner meeting. Attendance by invitation only.

Center for Innovation in Worker Organization (CIWO) at Rutgers University in the United States and Labour Research Service (LRS) in South Africa: Partner meeting. Attendance by invitation only.