1 Environment & Urbanization Copyright © 2016 International Institute for Environment and Development (IIED).
1–14. DOI: 10.1177/0956247816647845 www.sagepublications.comPromoting workplace health and safety in urban public space: reflections from Durban, South Africa
LaUra aLfErs, PHUMZILE XULU anD rICHarD DOBsOn
ABSTRACT This article is a critical reflection on the Phephanathi Platform, an ongoing collaboration among organizations of informal traders working in the Warwick Junction markets in Durban, South Africa and their support organizations. The purpose of the Platform is to experiment with the extension of occupational health and safety to informal workers working in urban public space through the establishment of an integrated urban health platform. The article is concerned not only with the practical aspects of the Platform, but also assesses the Platform as a political strategy. It focuses on two key pieces of work – the design and rollout of first aid stands into the markets, and the attempt to institutionalize occupational health and safety for informal workers within the local municipality. The article concludes with a meta-reflection on the work, elaborating on some of the important questions that are raised and drawing out the implications for integrating occupational health and safety into the urban environment.
KEYWORDS occupational health & safety / street traders / urban health / urban governance
I. INTRODUCTION
The problems attendant on urbanization in the global South are often framed in terms of the challenges they pose to housing provision and the provision of basic services to informal settlements. Within the global urban agenda far less attention has been paid to the need to accommodate the many informal workers who earn their incomes from urban public spaces, whether those spaces are located in informal settlements or in more central parts of the city.(1) With some important exceptions,(2) this has also been largely true of the urban health literature,(3) which often nods to the issue of employment without delving any further into the question of how a focus on livelihoods might alter the shape of proposed solutions to urban health problems. Certainly, when informal urban livelihoods are moved to the centre of the analysis, the argument for integrated urban health planning(4) takes on an additional dimension. Most notable is the need to add occupational health into the institutional mix alongside basic services, adequate infrastructure and general curative health services. Whilst there are clear overlaps between occupational and environmental health, an occupational health perspective that foregrounds the importance of livelihoods is essential to protecting the interests of informal workers.Laura Alfers is the Deputy Director of the WIEGO Social Protection Programme, and a post-
doctoral fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University. She has worked for several years on action-research projects focused on improving the health of informal workers in South Africa, Ghana, India, Peru and Brazil.
Address: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa; e-mail: l.alfers@
ru.ac.za
Phumzile Xulu is a Project Officer focusing on social facilitation at Asiye eTafuleni, which she joined in February 2010. Before moving to Asiye eTafuleni, Phumzile worked on the World Class Cities for All Campaign, led by StreetNet International, which focused on protecting the rights of street vendors operating out of public spaces during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. She is also currently completing a Master of Laws Degree at the University of KwaZulu-
Natal.
Address: e-mail: phumzile@
aet.org.za
Richard Dobson is an architect who, whilst on contract to the eThekwini Municipality [Durban], headed the implementation of the Warwick Junction Urban Renewal Project. In 647845 EAU0010.1177/0956247816647845Environment & UrbanizationShort Title
research-article 2016 at Harvard Libraries on September 12, 2016 eau.sagepub.com Downloaded from ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION 2December 2006 he resigned to co-found the NGO Asiye eTafuleni. He is the co-author of the book Working in Warwick , which documents 10 years of innovative urban development in Warwick Junction.
Address: e-mail: richard@
aet.org.za
1. skinner, C (2012), “It’s time to welcome the informal workforce to the urban policy table”, The Global Urbanist , 23 October, available at http://globalurbanist.
com/2012/10/23/the-informal-
workforce.
2. Barten, f , V s santana, L rongo, W Varillas and T a Pakasi (2008), “Contextualising workers’ health and safety in urban settings: The need for a global perspective and an integrated approach”, Habitat International Vol 32, pages 223–236.
3. Global research network on Urban Health Equity (2010), Improving urban health equity through action on the social and environmental determinants of health , final report of the Global research network on Urban Health Equity, University College London and The rockefeller foundation, London, 92 pages.
4. Barten, f , D Mitlin, C Mulholland, a Hardoy and r stern (2007), “Integrated approaches to address the social Determinants of Health for reducing Health Inequity”, Journal of Urban Health Vol 84, suppl 1, pages 164–173; also satterthwaite, D (2011), “Editorial: Why is urban health so poor even in many successful cities?”, Environment and Urbanization Vol 23, no 1, pages 5–11; and Vearey, J, I Palmary, L Thomas, L nunez and s Drimie (2010), “Urban health in Johannesburg: The importance of place in understanding intra-
urban inequalities in a context of migration and HIV”, Health & Place Vol 16, no 4, pages 694–702.
5. Initial funding for the Phephanathi Platform was awarded by the rockefeller foundation’s Centennial Innovation Challenge in 2014.This article, written by the project staff, is a critical reflection on a project that began as a means to think through and experiment with extending occupational health and safety to informal workers operating in urban public space. The project is called the Phephanathi Platform (Phephanathi means “to be safe with us” in isiZulu).(5) It is an ongoing collaboration between street trader organizations working in Warwick Junction, in the inner city of Durban, South Africa, and their support organizations, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)(6) and Asiye eTafuleni (AeT).(7) Both WIEGO and AeT are non-governmental organizations working with the informal economy. The Phephanathi Platform has attempted to link traders to various parts of the health system – local government, occupational health professionals and the public health system – through a number of different strategies. The paper is intended to highlight the key debates and challenges encountered during the process of establishing the Platform. It is hoped to be a means by which to generate greater discussion about how to extend occupational health and safety to informal workers operating in urban public space.
Importantly, the strategies chosen have been informed by an agenda of empowerment and participation of the street traders involved – something that Barten et al. have argued is central to improvements in health equity.(8) Whilst the Phephanathi Platform is a practical response to the very real health and safety needs of these informal workers, who operate in a highly insecure and often violent environment, it has also been part of a political strategy. Just as residents of informal settlements have had to strategically engage in ways to legitimate their presence in the city,(9) so street traders have had to legitimate their presence as workers in urban public space.(10) This has been an important issue in Warwick Junction, where contestations between the local government and traders over the use of public space as a workplace are an almost constant feature of the urban environment. Through its health-related activities, which link informal traders to the formal and informal institutions that impact on their health and safety at work, the Phephanathi Platform has attempted to increase street traders’ awareness of their role as workers and economic contributors, and their right to occupy and engage with the public spaces in which they work. In this way the Platform could be seen as an example of Henri Lefebvre’s proposition on operationalizing the “right to the city” through urban praxis and experimentation, where theoretical ideas are “tested against real conditions”.(11)
This article integrates a discussion of occupational health and safety in the urban environment with these political aspects of the work. As such the article situates itself not only within the literature on urban and occupational health, but within the large and diverse literature on the political strategies of grassroots organizations. It starts with a brief review of relevant literature on this topic, before moving onto a more detailed discussion of the Warwick Junction context and the Phephanathi Platform itself. This is followed by a discussion of some of the key project activities, drawing on both an external, independent evaluation of the project and an internal evaluation conducted by project staff members. The article ends with a meta-reflection on the work, elaborating on some of the important questions that it raised and drawing out the implications for integrating occupational health and safety into the urban environment. at Harvard Libraries on September 12, 2016 eau.sagepub.com Downloaded from
1–14. DOI: 10.1177/0956247816647845 www.sagepublications.comPromoting workplace health and safety in urban public space: reflections from Durban, South Africa
LaUra aLfErs, PHUMZILE XULU anD rICHarD DOBsOn
ABSTRACT This article is a critical reflection on the Phephanathi Platform, an ongoing collaboration among organizations of informal traders working in the Warwick Junction markets in Durban, South Africa and their support organizations. The purpose of the Platform is to experiment with the extension of occupational health and safety to informal workers working in urban public space through the establishment of an integrated urban health platform. The article is concerned not only with the practical aspects of the Platform, but also assesses the Platform as a political strategy. It focuses on two key pieces of work – the design and rollout of first aid stands into the markets, and the attempt to institutionalize occupational health and safety for informal workers within the local municipality. The article concludes with a meta-reflection on the work, elaborating on some of the important questions that are raised and drawing out the implications for integrating occupational health and safety into the urban environment.
KEYWORDS occupational health & safety / street traders / urban health / urban governance
I. INTRODUCTION
The problems attendant on urbanization in the global South are often framed in terms of the challenges they pose to housing provision and the provision of basic services to informal settlements. Within the global urban agenda far less attention has been paid to the need to accommodate the many informal workers who earn their incomes from urban public spaces, whether those spaces are located in informal settlements or in more central parts of the city.(1) With some important exceptions,(2) this has also been largely true of the urban health literature,(3) which often nods to the issue of employment without delving any further into the question of how a focus on livelihoods might alter the shape of proposed solutions to urban health problems. Certainly, when informal urban livelihoods are moved to the centre of the analysis, the argument for integrated urban health planning(4) takes on an additional dimension. Most notable is the need to add occupational health into the institutional mix alongside basic services, adequate infrastructure and general curative health services. Whilst there are clear overlaps between occupational and environmental health, an occupational health perspective that foregrounds the importance of livelihoods is essential to protecting the interests of informal workers.Laura Alfers is the Deputy Director of the WIEGO Social Protection Programme, and a post-
doctoral fellow at the Institute for Social and Economic Research at Rhodes University. She has worked for several years on action-research projects focused on improving the health of informal workers in South Africa, Ghana, India, Peru and Brazil.
Address: Rhodes University, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa; e-mail: l.alfers@
ru.ac.za
Phumzile Xulu is a Project Officer focusing on social facilitation at Asiye eTafuleni, which she joined in February 2010. Before moving to Asiye eTafuleni, Phumzile worked on the World Class Cities for All Campaign, led by StreetNet International, which focused on protecting the rights of street vendors operating out of public spaces during the 2010 FIFA World Cup. She is also currently completing a Master of Laws Degree at the University of KwaZulu-
Natal.
Address: e-mail: phumzile@
aet.org.za
Richard Dobson is an architect who, whilst on contract to the eThekwini Municipality [Durban], headed the implementation of the Warwick Junction Urban Renewal Project. In 647845 EAU0010.1177/0956247816647845Environment & UrbanizationShort Title
research-article 2016 at Harvard Libraries on September 12, 2016 eau.sagepub.com Downloaded from ENVIRONMENT & URBANIZATION 2December 2006 he resigned to co-found the NGO Asiye eTafuleni. He is the co-author of the book Working in Warwick , which documents 10 years of innovative urban development in Warwick Junction.
Address: e-mail: richard@
aet.org.za
1. skinner, C (2012), “It’s time to welcome the informal workforce to the urban policy table”, The Global Urbanist , 23 October, available at http://globalurbanist.
com/2012/10/23/the-informal-
workforce.
2. Barten, f , V s santana, L rongo, W Varillas and T a Pakasi (2008), “Contextualising workers’ health and safety in urban settings: The need for a global perspective and an integrated approach”, Habitat International Vol 32, pages 223–236.
3. Global research network on Urban Health Equity (2010), Improving urban health equity through action on the social and environmental determinants of health , final report of the Global research network on Urban Health Equity, University College London and The rockefeller foundation, London, 92 pages.
4. Barten, f , D Mitlin, C Mulholland, a Hardoy and r stern (2007), “Integrated approaches to address the social Determinants of Health for reducing Health Inequity”, Journal of Urban Health Vol 84, suppl 1, pages 164–173; also satterthwaite, D (2011), “Editorial: Why is urban health so poor even in many successful cities?”, Environment and Urbanization Vol 23, no 1, pages 5–11; and Vearey, J, I Palmary, L Thomas, L nunez and s Drimie (2010), “Urban health in Johannesburg: The importance of place in understanding intra-
urban inequalities in a context of migration and HIV”, Health & Place Vol 16, no 4, pages 694–702.
5. Initial funding for the Phephanathi Platform was awarded by the rockefeller foundation’s Centennial Innovation Challenge in 2014.This article, written by the project staff, is a critical reflection on a project that began as a means to think through and experiment with extending occupational health and safety to informal workers operating in urban public space. The project is called the Phephanathi Platform (Phephanathi means “to be safe with us” in isiZulu).(5) It is an ongoing collaboration between street trader organizations working in Warwick Junction, in the inner city of Durban, South Africa, and their support organizations, Women in Informal Employment: Globalizing and Organizing (WIEGO)(6) and Asiye eTafuleni (AeT).(7) Both WIEGO and AeT are non-governmental organizations working with the informal economy. The Phephanathi Platform has attempted to link traders to various parts of the health system – local government, occupational health professionals and the public health system – through a number of different strategies. The paper is intended to highlight the key debates and challenges encountered during the process of establishing the Platform. It is hoped to be a means by which to generate greater discussion about how to extend occupational health and safety to informal workers operating in urban public space.
Importantly, the strategies chosen have been informed by an agenda of empowerment and participation of the street traders involved – something that Barten et al. have argued is central to improvements in health equity.(8) Whilst the Phephanathi Platform is a practical response to the very real health and safety needs of these informal workers, who operate in a highly insecure and often violent environment, it has also been part of a political strategy. Just as residents of informal settlements have had to strategically engage in ways to legitimate their presence in the city,(9) so street traders have had to legitimate their presence as workers in urban public space.(10) This has been an important issue in Warwick Junction, where contestations between the local government and traders over the use of public space as a workplace are an almost constant feature of the urban environment. Through its health-related activities, which link informal traders to the formal and informal institutions that impact on their health and safety at work, the Phephanathi Platform has attempted to increase street traders’ awareness of their role as workers and economic contributors, and their right to occupy and engage with the public spaces in which they work. In this way the Platform could be seen as an example of Henri Lefebvre’s proposition on operationalizing the “right to the city” through urban praxis and experimentation, where theoretical ideas are “tested against real conditions”.(11)
This article integrates a discussion of occupational health and safety in the urban environment with these political aspects of the work. As such the article situates itself not only within the literature on urban and occupational health, but within the large and diverse literature on the political strategies of grassroots organizations. It starts with a brief review of relevant literature on this topic, before moving onto a more detailed discussion of the Warwick Junction context and the Phephanathi Platform itself. This is followed by a discussion of some of the key project activities, drawing on both an external, independent evaluation of the project and an internal evaluation conducted by project staff members. The article ends with a meta-reflection on the work, elaborating on some of the important questions that it raised and drawing out the implications for integrating occupational health and safety into the urban environment. at Harvard Libraries on September 12, 2016 eau.sagepub.com Downloaded from
