1st International Conference on Informal Work: Health, Safety and Wellbeing

November 9-11, 2026

This First International Conference on Informal Work, themed ‘Health, Safety and Wellbeing of Workers’, seeks to generate a space for dialogue and reflection to better understand the reality of informal work globally, exchange experiences, and propose innovative methods for improving the health, safety, and wellbeing of informal workers.

This three-day in-person conference aims to bring together academic, institutional, community and worker perspectives to reflect, discuss, and share experiences regarding the multifaceted realities of informal labour. From an interdisciplinary and global standpoint, the conference will address the implications for health, safety, wellbeing, labour conditions, and social protection.

The conference will summon researchers, policy makers, labour organizations, civil society, public institutions, occupational health and safety practitioners, ergonomics specialists, professional societies in the health sector, and community actors interested in analyzing and debating occupational health and safety for the informal sector, and the transformations of informal work within rural, urban, and new
digital technologies contexts.

Event Organizers

The Conference will be organized and hosted by the School of Public Health at Universidad del Valle in Santiago de Cali, Colombia, and co-organized by the Global Coalition on Informal Workers’ Health, Safety, and Wellbeing (GCIW), with endorsement from the International Ergonomics Association (IEA), the International Commission on Occupational Health (ICOH), Scientific Committee on Occupational Health in Small-Scale Enterprises and the Informal Sector (SC OHSSEIS), the International Occupational Hygiene Association (IOHA) and in collaboration with other academic networks and national and international organizations including the Sociedad Colombiana de Ergonomía (SCE), the International Labor Organization (ILO), International Social Security Association (ISSA), and Women in Informal Employment Globalizing & Organizing (WIEGO).