Climate change and informal workers: Towards an agenda for research and practice

Abstract

The informal economy is crucial for making cities function, and it provides the main means of income for a significant proportion of all workers globally. At the same time, informal workers are extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with higher temperatures and more intense weather events causing direct physical harm and contributing to ill-health. This paper analyzes research from three cities in India and Zimbabwe (Indore, Harare, and Masvingo) to describe the vulnerability of informal workers in several sectors. It highlights the ways in which the direct impacts of climate change are compounded by other factors, including low-quality living conditions and the absence of provision for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). Informal workers in the three cities have adopted a range of responses to reduce risk, and there are some recent inclusive engagements with local officials to enhance living and working conditions. However, key interventions such as expanding access to social protection (which has important potential to foster climate resilience) often fail to reach the most vulnerable urban informal workers. We conclude with recommendations and an agenda for more equitable policy and practice that can support multiple benefits for informal workers' health, livelihoods, and climate resilience in urban areas.

Full text

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
2212-0955/© 2023 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. This is an open access article under the CC BY license
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Climate change and informal workers: Towards an agenda for
research and practice
David Dodman
a
, Alice Sverdlik
b
,
*
, Siddharth Agarwal
d
, Artwell Kadungure
c
,
Kanupriya Kothiwal
d
, Rangarirai Machemedze
c
, Shabnam Verma
d
a
Institute for Housing and Urban Development Studies (IHS), Erasmus University Rotterdam, Burgemeester Oudlaan 50, 3062 PA Rotterdam, the
Netherlands
b
Global Development Institute (GDI), University of Manchester, 1.012 Arthur Lewis Building, Oxford Road, Manchester, M13 9PL, United Kingdom
c
Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC), 47 Van Praagh Avenue, Milton Park, Harare, Zimbabwe
d
Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC), 136 First Floor, Humanyunpur, Safdarjang Enclave, Delhi 110029, India
ARTICLE INFO
Keywords:
Informal employment
Climate vulnerability
Urban poverty
Social protection
India
Zimbabwe
ABSTRACT
The informal economy is crucial for making cities function, and it provides the main means of
income for a signicant proportion of all workers globally. At the same time, informal workers are
extremely vulnerable to the effects of climate change, with higher temperatures and more intense
weather events causing direct physical harm and contributing to ill-health. This paper analyzes
research from three cities in India and Zimbabwe (Indore, Harare, and Masvingo) to describe the
vulnerability of informal workers in several sectors. It highlights the ways in which the direct
impacts of climate change are compounded by other factors, including low-quality living con-
ditions and the absence of provision for Occupational Health and Safety (OHS). Informal workers
in the three cities have adopted a range of responses to reduce risk, and there are some recent
inclusive engagements with local ofcials to enhance living and working conditions. However,
key interventions such as expanding access to social protection (which has important potential to
foster climate resilience) often fail to reach the most vulnerable urban informal workers. We
conclude with recommendations and an agenda for more equitable policy and practice that can
support multiple benets for informal workers’ health, livelihoods, and climate resilience in
urban areas.
1. Introduction
Informality is one of the dening features of urban areas globally. As cities have expanded, formal housing has been unable to keep
up with rising shelter demands, much as the formal economy has not provided meaningful levels of employment for the growing
number of city dwellers. Urban expansion on hazard-prone land with inadequate services and shelter has created high levels of risk for
a growing number of people in informal settlements, particularly in the face of climate change (Satterthwaite et al., 2020; Dodman
et al., 2022). Governments and international agencies are increasingly implementing interventions in informal settlements (‘slums’),
with the intention of reducing these risks from climate change and unsustainable urban growth (Dodman et al., 2019). But there is less
attention to how climate change is affecting the urban informal economy, and few studies have analysed the array of environmental,
* Corresponding author.
E-mail addresses: dodman@ihs.nl (D. Dodman), alice.sverdlik@manchester.ac.uk (A. Sverdlik).
Contents lists available at ScienceDirect
Urban Climate
journal homepage: www.elsevier.com/locate/uclim
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.uclim.2022.101401
Received 30 June 2022; Received in revised form 20 November 2022; Accepted 21 December 2022

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
2
socioeconomic, and climate-related threats facing precarious informal workers in urban areas.
Informal labourers comprise most of the workforce in low- and middle-income nations (LMICs), and they can potentially play a
central role in fostering social development and climate resilience. ‘Informal employment’ encompasses all livelihoods lacking in legal
or social protection, whether in informal enterprises, formal enterprises, or households (ILO, 2018). Approximately 2 billion workers,
or 61.2% of the world’s employed population, are in informal employment (ibid.). As many as 88% of livelihoods in sub-Saharan Africa
and South Asia are informal (WIEGO, 2022). Although informal workers can be highly vulnerable to climate-related risks (as discussed
below), their work can substantially promote environmental sustainability and urban food security (as exemplied by waste-pickers,
food vendors, and urban agriculture workers). Addressing the risks facing informal workers will be critical for meeting the Sustainable
Development Goals (SDGs) including on climate change (SDG13), sustainable urbanization (SDG11), and decent work (SDG8).
With past climate research rarely considering urban informal workers in LMICs, this paper aims to help ll gaps and spur further
studies of informal workers’ health, livelihoods, and climate resilience. In particular, it will use case study evidence of urban informal
workers in India and Zimbabwe to demonstrate that climate change is likely to have signicant effects on their health and well-being,
to indicate potential causal pathways for this, and to analyse how to build resilience. Section 2 will review prior research on the links
between informal livelihoods, climate change, and health; subsequently, we discuss the key risks observed and analyse the underlying
drivers of risk for informal workers in the cities of Indore (India) and Harare and Masvingo (Zimbabwe). As detailed in Sections 3 and 4,
the mixed-methods research analysed several climate-related and other health risks facing informal workers. Section 5 will discuss
emerging and potential responses to reduce these risks in the 3 cities – and that can build workers’ resilience to multiple shocks and
stresses. The paper closes with policy recommendations and a future research agenda.
2. Climate change, informal workers, and health
A wide range of climate change impacts are projected to affect cities in the coming decades, often with signicant implications for
health and informal livelihoods. In the Sixth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), Arias et al.
(2021) conclude with high condence that urban areas “will be affected by more frequent occurrence of extreme climate events, such
as heatwaves, with more hot days and warm nights as well as sea level rise and increases in tropical cyclone storm surge and rainfall
intensity that will increase the probability of coastal city ooding.” According to the IPCC, urbanization has exacerbated the effects of
the Urban Heat Island and in some cases has also worsened the effects of air pollution (ibid.). The health effects of climate change in
urban areas are increasingly well understood (Dodman et al., 2022), such as higher levels of mortality from heat waves (Fernandez
Milan and Creutzig, 2015), worsened respiratory illnesses through the combination of higher temperatures and air pollution
(Knowlton et al., 2004), the spread of infectious diseases associated with ooding (Alcayna et al., 2022), kidney disease associated with
heat stress (Sasai et al., 2021), and higher levels of diseases from contaminated groundwater during droughts (Kubicz et al., 2021).
These impacts may disproportionately affect the health of low-income urban residents, and as explained below, some are particularly
salient for informal workers.
Many residents of low-income and informal settlements work in the informal economy, where the unregulated nature of their
neighbourhoods and work can combine to create several health risks (Brown et al., 2014; Brown and McGranahan, 2016; Ezeh et al.,
2017). Informal settlements and informal employment are linked but not identical: many (but not all) residents of informal settlements
work in the informal economy. Where they do overlap, precarious living conditions and precarious working conditions can compound
the risks faced by individuals and households (Ahmed et al., 2015; Loewenson, 2021). Indeed, it is the combination of haphazard city
planning; profound economic crises; socioeconomic and political exclusions (based on gender, race, class, and other intersectional
sources of disadvantage); and escalating climate change that creates the deep-rooted problems facing urban residents in many LMICs
(Amorim-Maia et al., 2022; Reckien et al., 2018). At the same time, it is important to note many workers engaged in ‘formal’ en-
terprises can also face high levels of precarity, with insecure and uncertain labour conditions (Pang, 2019).
To date, the links between climate-related and other occupational hazards facing informal workers remain poorly understood;
research on climate change and workers’ health often has focused narrowly on heat. Excessive workplace heat may result in reduced
productivity, decreased social and psychological well-being, as well as exhaustion, cardiovascular stress, kidney damage, or even death
(Nunfam et al., 2019; Kjellstrom et al., 2016; Habibi et al., 2021). According to the latest Lancet Countdown, in 2021, heat exposure led
to a loss of 470 billion potential labour hours globally (Romanello et al., 2022). Few studies consider the array of climate-related
challenges facing urban workers, with attention mainly on the impacts of workplace heat for construction and rural agricultural
workers (e.g., Flouris et al., 2018; Varghese et al., 2018; ILO, 2019). Meanwhile, climate impacts other than heatwaves have received
less attention in the occupational health literature, but climate change will likely increase air pollution, ultraviolet radiation, vector-
borne diseases, and other biological hazards that may substantially affect workers’ health (Ansah et al., 2021; Schulte et al., 2016).
Climate change is also expected to heighten occupational health concerns linked to oods and water scarcity, while curtailing access to
critical infrastructure and healthcare (Gough et al., 2019; Codjoe et al., 2020).
Informal workers are largely invisible in past research on climate change and occupational health, and they already face consid-
erable workplace risks, gendered inequalities, and limited voice. Due to their unregistered status, informal workers are frequently
ignored in ofcial data and neglected by interventions to promote occupational health and safety (OHS) (Lund et al., 2016). Typically,
informal workers have lower incomes and less training than formal workers, in addition to poorer access to protective equipment
(Chen, 2016). Informal workplaces vary widely, but usually lack key services and infrastructure; many informal workers are regularly
exposed to hazardous substances, are at elevated risk of injuries, and may be exploited by employers (Chen, 2016; Santana and Loomis,
2004). Women are more likely to work in poorly paid, more precarious informal sectors such as domestic or home-based work (Chen
and Carr´
e, 2020), and there is a need to jointly analyse gender, race, migration status, and other overlapping sources of disadvantage
D. Dodman et al.

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
3
(e.g., Hogan et al., 2018). Strategies to support informal workers’ well-being have only become more important during COVID-19: the
pandemic disproportionately affected precarious informal workers, who earn on a daily basis and typically cannot afford to stop
working in the face of shocks (ILO, 2021; WIEGO, 2020). The number of days that informal workers were able to work, as well as the
amount of income earned, markedly declined at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic and have remained low (Reed et al., 2021).
There are several case studies of heat or ooding impacts upon informal workers in Asian cities, but rarely with attention to
multiple risks. Research on heat stress with over 440 workers in Indian cities (Chennai, Tiruchirapalli, Bengaluru, Mumbai) found that
during hot seasons, as many as 82% of workers were exposed to higher-than-recommended wet-bulb globe temperature thresholds
(WBGT) (Venugopal et al., 2016). Research in Da Nang (Vietnam) analysed the impacts of heat upon 319 informal workers: lower work
productivity was reported by 42% of female and 30% of male survey respondents (Hoa et al., 2013). After Bangkok’s devastating oods
in 2011, many informal home-based workers experienced lost livelihoods, rising indebtedness, and heightened food insecurity, with
some homes deluged for over two months (Chen, 2014, p. 34).
Fewer studies have focused on climate change and informal workers in Africa, although there is rising interest in heat and African
outdoor workers (e.g., Moda et al., 2019). In a notable exception, research in Accra and Tamale (Ghana) explored the impacts of both
heat and ooding on informal livelihoods (Gough et al., 2019). During heatwaves, informal workers struggle to operate in their usual
workplaces, such as a single room or kiosk built of metal or wood. Temperatures of up to 50.3 ◦C were recorded in metal kiosks where
seamstresses were working, and the highest recorded temperature was 61 ◦C in a blacksmith’s wooden structure (ibid.). Additionally,
the same workers in Ghana’s cities are vulnerable to ooding, and they may spend several days cleaning, drying, and trying to salvage
their items after oods (ibid.). Below we will continue analysing the multifaceted climate-related risks to health and informal liveli-
hoods, as well as their interactions with other challenges facing informal workers.
3. Research approach and context
This paper presents ndings from two very different contexts, which highlight how diverse informal workers are affected by, and
respond to, climate-related threats in LMICs. While not intended as a comparative case study, the research does present contrasting
institutional frameworks to address these complex issues. The research design originally envisaged a survey and focus group dis-
cussions in Zimbabwe and India, but this was modied as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.
1
As seen in Table 1, mixed-methods data
collection was conducted in Zimbabwe (i.e., surveys and focus groups in two neighbourhoods per city), while qualitative research in
Indore engaged informal workers in several sectors (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021; Agarwal et al., 2022a).
In India, the research took place in Indore, a city in Madhya Pradesh facing several health and climate-related threats. According to
ofcial statistics, Indore had a population in 2011 of approximately 1.9 million, of whom 590,000 (or 30%) lived in slums (Ofce of the
Registrar General and Census Commissioner, India, 2011). However, a more recent mapping exercise identied a higher gure of
918,000 people living in 633 slums (Agarwal, 2016). Due to climate change, Indore is expected to face rising temperatures and several
associated health impacts (Agarwal et al., 2022a). Monthly minimum temperatures may rise by about 2 ◦C by the 2030s, and 3–4 ◦C by
the 2080s, with the urban heat island potentially adding another 2–4 ◦C above these gures. Most models suggest that the largest
increase in temperature will take place during the winter months, which may extend the viability period of some disease vectors.
Precipitation trends are less clear, but more intense rainfall may increase short-term ood risks and water logging (TARU, 2012).
Indore has a large informal economy, and many workers face food insecurity as well as other health risks linked to poverty and low-
quality living conditions. Not all health statistics are available at the city level, but the state of Madhya Pradesh (where Indore is
located) has India’s highest infant mortality rate of 69 per 1000 live births in rural areas, and 52 per 1000 live births in urban areas
(Brahmapurkar, 2019). Per-person monthly food expenditure is the lowest in Madhya Pradesh (out of India’s 28 states), and extreme
weather events negatively affect food production and availability (Sen, 2013). Figures for Indore’s informal economy are not available,
but approximately 90% of all employment in Madhya Pradesh state is informal (Mohaptra, 2012). Informal activities in Indore include
domestic work, street vending, casual labour, and home-based work.
The study implemented by the Zimbabwe institutions gathered data in Harare and Masvingo, two cities where climate change is
again expected to substantially affect health and livelihoods. Harare is the capital city with approximately 2.4 million people; Mas-
vingo is located 300 km south of Harare and has an urban population of approximately 100,000 (Government of Zimbabwe, 2022).
Climate projections for Zimbabwe indicate an expected rise in temperatures throughout the year: the RCP4.5 scenarios project that
maximum temperatures will increase by at least 1 ◦C for all months of the year (except May), while maximum temperatures may even
rise by 2.5 ◦C or more in September, November and December. Projections for rainfall are less clear: while total monthly rainfall in May
and October is expected to decrease by up to 20%, for all other months either a rise or fall in rainfall could be experienced.
2
Informal livelihoods and informal settlements are pervasive in Zimbabwe, where there has been a prolonged period of economic
challenges; a lengthy spell of hyperination ended in 2009 with the adoption of a multi-currency system. But the formal economy has
not fully recovered, while levels of informality are increasing: the share of informal employment (in relation to total employment) rose
1
Due to COVID-19, it was impossible to conduct a quantitative survey in Indore; eldwork in Zimbabwe was completed shortly before the spread
of pandemic in 2020. Research in Zimbabwe was conducted by Training and Research Support Centre (TARSC) with local partners (TARSC et al.,
2021), while in Indore, eldwork was conducted by Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC) with grassroots partners (Agarwal et al. 2022b).
2
Projections from University of Cape Town, Climate Systems Analysis Group (https://www.csag.uct.ac.za/)
D. Dodman et al.

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
4
from 84% in 2011 to as much as 94% in 2014 (International Monetary Fund IMF, 2018).
3
In Masvingo and Harare, informal economic
activities typically include urban agriculture, waste-picking and recycling, vending, trading in clothes and other commodities, and
various services. Although many livelihoods remain precarious, Zimbabwe’s informal economy has demonstrated substantial entre-
preneurship, creativity, and innovation; it has offered a complex but positive social organisational fabric where ‘apprenticeship’ and
knowledge transfer are shared. Representative structures also exist, such as the Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations
(ZCIEA), a project partner that advocates for informal workers’ rights and policy recognition (Section 5 below).
In India and Zimbabwe, ofcial climate-related strategies usually pay limited attention to urban areas (and urban informal workers
in particular). Zimbabwe’s climate initiatives make little explicit reference to cities, which is a problematic gap given the rapid levels of
urbanization and elevated levels of urban deprivation (Dodman and Mitlin, 2015). The 2016 Climate Policy (Government of
Zimbabwe, 2016) has as one of its 8 key goals to “reduce vulnerability to climate variability and climate-related disasters by
strengthening adaptive capacity”, but the Policy only identied a single worker group of smallholder and subsistence farmers. In India,
the 2008 National Action Plan on Climate Change laid the foundation for several State Action Plans on Climate Change, including in
Madhya Pradesh (Revi, 2008). Some cities recently developed municipal heat action plans (e.g., Ahmedabad), and there is a National
Action Plan on Heat-Related Illness (Khosla and Bhardwaj, 2019, Ministry of Health, 2021). But Indore’s City Resilience Strategy for
Climate Change does not address informal workers (TARU, 2012). Indore has a history of climate interventions during the Asian Cities
Climate Change Resilience Network (ACCCRN), but these initiatives often focused on small-scale, immediate issues like rubbish
collection (Bahadur and Tanner, 2014). Meanwhile, the climate-related risks facing urban informal workers and residents of informal
settlements are usually ignored. Below we discuss how these issues come together and emerging responses in Indore, Harare, and
Masvingo.
4. Understanding how climate-related and other hazards jointly affect informal workers’ health and livelihoods
In India and Zimbabwe, informal workers already face hazardous living and working conditions, which will interact with a range of
climate-related risks. While the effects of climate change never operate in isolation from other socio-economic, political and envi-
ronmental factors, they will nonetheless exacerbate some issues and will create additional ones for informal workers. Low-quality
shelter and working conditions often deteriorate further due to extreme weather events, with the potential to result in escalating
ill-health and deepening poverty amongst informal workers.
In Harare and Masvingo, informal waste-pickers and agriculture workers reported experiencing several interrelated workplace risks
from their unregulated, often hazardous worksites, which may only worsen in the face of climate change. Commonly reported health
concerns included diarrhoea, prolonged coughing, skin rashes, headaches and respiratory problems (e.g., asthma); respiratory illness
and headaches are only heightened as a result of heatwaves and rising air pollution (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021, also below). Urban
farmers reported exposure to chemicals (especially pesticides and fertilisers), whose hazards were frequently aggravated by poor
storage, handling and use. Typically, chemicals purchased from unregulated, informal markets were poorly labelled or not labelled at
all; some are counterfeit or substandard. Additionally, occupational injuries were commonly reported, with waste-pickers suffering
injuries more frequently than those involved in urban agriculture (ibid.). Waste-pickers’ major physical hazards included cuts from
sharp objects; trafc accidents as they walk along busy roads; and burns, skin irritation and coughing (including from res at
dumpsites). These res, which contribute to respiratory illness and rising greenhouse gas emissions, highlight the overlapping
occupational, environmental, and climate-related health risks facing informal workers.
Zimbabwe’s changing rainfall and temperatures due to climate change (noted above) are expected to exacerbate longstanding
concerns, such as decient water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH), and many informal workers already experience major challenges
with heat and water scarcity. Extreme heat has substantially affected workers in both waste-picking and urban agriculture (TARSC,
Table 1
Sample framework for quantitative surveys (only in Zimbabwe) and qualitative research (Indore, Masvingo and Harare).
Indore (total sample size of qualitative interviews: 90, plus 20 key informant interviews with
local ofcials, ward councillors, health workers, and civil society)
Harare and Masvingo (total survey sample of 418; total focus group
sample of 207 in six focus groups)
Informal sector workers involved in solid waste collection and
recycling of plastic waste
Women and men working as informal labourers in factories (8 men, 7 women: 15 total) Informal workers in urban agriculture and food marketing in
informal settlements
Women and men casual labourers (peri-urban agriculture workers and construction
workers) (8 men, 7 women: 15 total)
NB: Survey respondents were 70% female, 30% male, while FGD
participants were 76% female, 24% male.
Female domestic workers (15 total) Surveys in Harare were conducted in Hopley and Mabvuku-Tafara; in
Masvingo, the surveys were in Rujeko and Mucheke.
Female home-based workers (15 total)
Women and men street vendors (in markets close to slums) (8 men, 7 women: 15 total)
Slum youth (18–26 years old) pursuing miscellaneous informal livelihoods (8 men, 7
women: 15 total)
3
In 2014, Zimbabwe’s Government similarly reported that of the 1.5 million paid employees, 1.4 million (93%) were in informal employment
(GOZ, 2016).
D. Dodman et al.

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
5
ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021). In the Zimbabwe survey, 56% of waste-pickers reported that heat extremes have already reduced worktimes and
lowered their working efciency; the report also found that rising temperatures have led to unavailability of water for 76% of urban
agriculture workers (N =418) (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021). While workers understood the need to drink additional water in hot
conditions, many could not (e.g., as they could not carry it to distant worksites) and therefore had to miss work or reduce working times
(ibid.). As a plastic waste-picker in Harare noted, ‘We know we need to drink more water when it is very hot, but safe water is not easy
to get so we end up drinking less and just stay indoors’ (quoted in TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021, p.20). Heat effects are both physical (e.
g., headaches and collapsing due to dehydration) and economic due to reduced working time and lower working efciency, with
correspondingly detrimental impacts on workers’ health and incomes (ibid.).
In Indore, extreme heat and heavy rains are the main climate-related hazards that affect informal workers, which can amplify their
food insecurity and gendered inequalities while also heightening inadequate working and living conditions. For instance, informal
factory labourers already face elevated levels of heat from working in enclosed, poorly ventilated spaces and near to machinery that
emits heat (Agarwal et al., 2022a). Street vendors identied summer afternoons as being the hottest and most difcult time to work,
but drinking extra water was usually impractical because of the absence of workplace toilets. In particular, dehydration and decient
toilets disproportionately affect women informal workers, highlighting the gender-inequitable burdens of inadequate workplace
WASH (ibid., Alfers et al., 2019). Meanwhile, heavy rains often created major challenges for domestic workers and other commuters,
who struggle to travel through water-logged streets. Downpours also prevent street vendors from selling their products, which was
particularly problematic for those vending food or other perishable items (Agarwal et al., 2022a). Food insecurity is exacerbated by
climate stresses (e.g., reduced agricultural productivity can result in urban price ination) and by the direct impacts of climate hazards.
For example, ooding can destroy stored foods in informal settlements, in addition to key documents that are necessary to access
entitlements (ibid.). When these factors are combined with reduced incomes due to extreme weather, many households in Indore can
face severe food insecurity and escalating health risks.
Informal workers in Indore face several OHS concerns that may interact with climate-related hazards to increase the risk of ill-
health, and workers often rely on low-quality private clinics for treatment. Qualitative interviews in Indore highlighted how these
factors combine to generate vulnerability stemming from inadequate shelter and occupational risks, as well as the lack of social
protections and the impacts of extreme weather events, as follows:
Sunil,
4
a male casual labourer in Indore, lives in semi-permanent (poor quality) housing located in a low-lying area next to a
drain that oods during heavy rains; its tin roof is linked to very high temperatures during the summer. Sunil faces the risk of
injury while unloading and carrying heavy items. He lacks a ration card (providing food subsidies) and therefore has limited
access to entitlements, resulting in food insecurity (Agarwal et al., 2022a).
These ndings indicate key underlying drivers of risk facing informal workers that, taken together, may combine with the impacts
of climate change to deepen ill-health and socioeconomic exclusions. First, many informal workers cannot work as a direct result of
extreme weather events, which may also lead to sharply deteriorating shelter and working conditions. Heatwaves and related chal-
lenges of accessing adequate WASH profoundly affect informal workers in all 3 cities, with substantial constraints on working hours
and/or productivity. While these climate drivers may not, in themselves, result in major hardship, they may combine with and
compound other local issues (e.g., air pollution) to worsen health outcomes. A farmer in Harare identied several sources of air
pollution (such as local enterprises and unclean cooking fuels), which crystallise the interrelated risks at homes and workplaces and
may interact with climate change to exacerbate ill-health, as follows:
“Our air is not clean. It has a lot of dust from roads, from the nearby cement factory and smoke from use of rewood, tyres and
shoes for cooking. We have informal generator repair shops in residential areas, and the smoke [has caused] the air to be dirty”
(quoted in TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021, p15).
Second, climate-related impacts and consequences are not homogeneous, as demographic, occupational, and living conditions
together shape whether a worker is more or less likely to be adversely affected. These vulnerabilities may be linked to individual
characteristics like age, gender and pre-existing health status; housing and neighbourhood conditions may also magnify workers’
vulnerability (Loewenson, 2021). Third, while some social protection initiatives are in place to support Indore’s informal workers,
access to benets is highly uneven and such shortfalls often contribute to workers’ ill-health (Agarwal et al., 2022a, also below). In
Harare and Masvingo, public health clinics are available but often lack adequate medicines, personnel, and services (TARSC, ZCTU,
ZCIEA, 2021). More generally, informal workers’ long and irregular working hours may hamper their access to healthcare facilities,
and recent migrants may not possess the requisite identication documents to access social protections (see also Section 6).
Fourth, there are several interrelated, potentially reinforcing pathways between extreme weather events, ill-health, and deepening
poverty for urban informal workers. For instance, the effects of disasters and climate change can result in rising healthcare or other
expenditures for low-income households, even as they suffer lost assets and disrupted livelihoods. Urban poverty is a result simul-
taneously of low incomes and higher costs of living in cities (Mitlin and Satterthwaite, 2013); if expenses rise for low-income urban
residents, this can severely affect their nutrition, health and wellbeing. With extreme weather events imposing heavy economic costs
(e.g., repairing damaged homes, constructing water storage tanks to cope with drought), this can lead to escalating debts and erosion of
assets that are especially unmanageable for the poorest city dwellers (Agarwal et al., 2022a; Boubacar et al., 2017). In addition to
4
Names have been changed.
D. Dodman et al.

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
6
damaging privately owned assets, disasters and climate change can cause loss and/or damage to productive infrastructure (both in-
dividual and collective) that are essential to low-income urban groups – and without which, they will incur additional costs. Un-
derstanding how climate change will affect poverty and ill-health across the heterogeneous informal economy, as well as co-creating
equitable responses with urban informal workers, all represent key priorities for practice and research (see Section 6).
5. Responding to climate hazards
Informal workers in Indore, Harare and Masvingo reported adopting several strategies to reduce risks and potentially build
resilience in the face of these complex challenges (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021; Agarwal et al., 2022a). The study uncovered a range of
individual and collective initiatives, as follows:
•Diversied livelihoods: Pursuing multiple economic activities can help to stabilise earnings and to cope with seasonality, extreme
weather, or other shocks (a tactic utilised in all 3 cities).
•Improved living conditions by strengthening household assets (e.g., private toilets, improved housing quality) and enhancing
community access to infrastructure in all 3 cities (see below).
•Household-level coping strategies with extreme weather in Indore’s informal settlements include a) elevated plinths, b) improved
food storage, and c) construction of underground water tanks (Agarwal et al., 2022a).
•Social networks and community organisations: in Zimbabwe, there were several instances of mutual assistance and strong social
networks amongst informal workers (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021, as discussed below). In Indore, informal workers’ strategies to
enhance food security included connections with relatives in rural areas and relationships with peri-urban agricultural producers
(thereby accessing food at lower cost).
•In Indore, ration cards (food subsidies) can also foster food security (Agarwal et al., 2022a).
In Masvingo and Harare, many responses centred upon local organisations’ efforts to promote community assets and other bottom-
up action, as well as enhancing education to address climate-related concerns and strengthen livelihoods (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA,
2021). Community organisations were considered a pivotal way of building resilience, including to improve market conditions for
informal waste-pickers (e.g., selling in bulk to obtain better prices). Additionally, waste-pickers reported having pooled their funds to
maintain roads, in order to transport plastics to market (ibid.). Zimbabwe’s Environment Management Authority has organised health
clubs for waste-pickers in Masvingo, which not only help to manage occupational risks but also have enhanced skills and sought to
reduce exploitation by waste-buyers (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021). Meanwhile, education was seen as particularly important for urban
agriculture workers to improve yields and respond to climate-related risks, including through novel approaches for water conserva-
tion, land preparation, and reduction of post-harvest losses (ibid.).
Civil society organisations can foster state recognition and access to social protection, as demonstrated by grassroots advocacy,
inclusive partnerships, and collective organising in the 3 cities. During this research in Indore, Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC)
worked with slum-based women’s groups to help over 630 informal workers apply for E-shram labour cards and other social pro-
tections (Agarwal et al., 2022a). UHRC and slum-based women’s organisations successfully mobilised for improved living conditions
by writing letters and meeting with local ofcials, who subsequently intervened to improve rubbish collection, water connections,
sewerage, streetlights, and paved lanes in several informal settlements (ibid.). UHRC also mentored existing grassroots savings groups
and helped women to access loans for more climate-resilient housing (e.g., with elevated plinths and permanent walls). Meanwhile, the
Zimbabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) advocates for the decriminalisation of informal workspaces, simplied
regulations, and provision of social protection to informal workers. As part of the research, ZCIEA signed a Memorandum of Un-
derstanding in July 2021 with Masvingo’s City Council to collaborate on strategies that can support workers’ health, climate resilience,
and livelihoods.
5
There are plans in Masvingo for waste-to-energy initiatives with informal workers and provision of climate-proofed
markets; ZCIEA’s new ‘champions team’ has begun gathering data on the risks facing communities (including workers), with ndings
routinely shared with local ofcials to inform future interventions.
Access to assets can strengthen informal workers’ resilience to climate change (cf. Moser and Satterthwaite, 2010), especially when
they can benet from social protection and utilise multiple strategies at once. In particular, the combination of state-provided social
protection with individual-level responses can signicantly promote the resilience of low-income urban residents. Social welfare
schemes can provide a strong cushion for informal workers, including in the face of climate change (UNDP, 2021; Rana et al., 2022).
But in Zimbabwe, the Government’s social protection systems currently offer limited support to urban residents and informal workers
in particular (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA, 2021). In Indore, despite existing legislation for social protection schemes, informal workers
typically struggle to access such benets because of a lack of necessary documents and reliable information (Agarwal et al., 2022a, also
Section 6).
The above responses can help to reduce risks facing urban informal workers, but efforts to build their resilience will require more
structural, intersectoral, and enabling interventions. For urban grassroots processes to be effective, they will require actions by civil
society, local, and national ofcials to address the underlying drivers of risks at multiple scales. In the 3 cities, there were few examples
of holistic efforts to address both infrastructural and social needs, but these approaches will be essential in light of the complex climate-
5
See https://www.iied.org/making-strides-improve-health-climate-resilience-zimbabwes-cities
D. Dodman et al.

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
7
related and other risks facing informal workers (see below).
6. An agenda for research and practice
City and ward-level ofcials will need to recognise climate change as a signicant threat to informal workers’ health and liveli-
hoods, which has sweeping impacts and intricate links with urban development trajectories. As discussed above, climate change will
interact with an array of entrenched risks in informal settlements and occupational hazards in the informal economy. The ndings also
underscored the pivotal role of social networks, grassroots organisations, and inclusive partnerships with local ofcials in addressing
climate-related and other challenges facing informal workers. Below we offer an agenda for future interventions in the Global South,
where the informal economy provides the majority of urban livelihoods but is often neglected in climate policy and practice.
The ndings suggest the need to integrate informal workers into social protection schemes, which is perhaps the single most
signicant policy change that can build climate resilience for this group (cf. Bharadwaj, 2022). In Indore, where some informal workers
can access food subsidies and health care, these protections can help to cushion shocks and stresses while enhancing households’
nutrition and wellbeing (Agarwal et al., 2022a). However, a range of barriers frequently prevents people – often the most vulnerable –
from accessing these provisions. For instance, there have been frequent changes in the ways by which India’s labour cards are issued,
and acquiring a food ration card is difcult especially for those with limited education and access to information (ibid.). While India’s
National Food Security Act mandates that migrant workers and their families can claim entitlements wherever they reside, imple-
mentation of this commitment is weak (ibid.). Moving forward, provision of social protection can be expanded in response to the
specic challenges from climate change: for example, by providing income supplements when workers cannot work due to heatwaves
or oods. Policymakers will need to extend access to social protection via proactive, comprehensive strategies that can benet urban
low-income residents, who are scarcely featured in past research on climate-responsive social protection (Rana et al., 2022). The
design of such schemes should also be gender-sensitive, including consideration of childcare, parental leave, and other gendered
concerns in the diverse informal economy (UNDP, 2021).
Further action-research is needed to explore and bolster grassroots strategies in the face of climate change, drawing on detailed,
mixed-methods data into multiple risks and workers’ key concerns. Researchers can delve into the climate-related health and economic
risks facing informal workers via the use of heat monitors, GIS data-collection (e.g., of ooding risks), and analysis of the associated
health impacts, combined with qualitative data into workers’ strategies and priorities to foster resilience (cf. (Taylor et al., 2020).
There is also a need to quantify informal workers’ climate-related losses, thus providing the basis of appropriate remedial measures.
Crucially, future studies can continue exploring how climate-related threats may interact with existing vulnerabilities (across informal
workplaces and residences) and build upon ongoing risk-mitigation efforts. Researchers should also analyse how these risks vary
spatially and between informal workers (differing in age, gender, disability, etc.), which can inform equitable, appropriate in-
terventions designed in close collaboration with these labourers.
The above responses underscore the need to encourage ‘demand side’ measures (e.g., community requests for upgrading in Indore,
emerging collaborations in Masvingo) as a means to ensure that government commitments to low-income urban residents are fullled.
Effective responses to reduce the climate risks facing informal workers will require partnerships between governments and civil society
actors. Community organisations and informal worker groups often have existing mechanisms to support vulnerable people, which can
provide the foundation for targeted measures such as to identify recipients of social protection schemes (UNDP, 2021). As noted above,
grassroots organisations can help to promote OHS and informal workers’ rights, including via efforts to decriminalize informal eco-
nomic activities (without putting in place unmanageable regulatory burdens). This is vital not only for these groups’ wellbeing, but
also for the broader functioning of urban economies and the potential for more equitable, sustainable urban development.
Climate change responses can present considerable opportunities for informal workers, with promising entry-points in waste reuse
and clean energy provision (amongst others). Government policies and investments that promote low-carbon livelihood opportunities
can substantially benet low-income urban residents, including informal workers in the circular economy (Brown et al., 2014). The
informal economy already plays a signicant role in waste reuse and recycling, although often with poor-quality working conditions
for informal waste-pickers (Dias, 2016). Appropriate policy recognition could help in providing safeguards for waste-pickers and other
informal workers, while also upgrading their skills and supporting value chain regularisation (Agarwal et al., 2022b). Meanwhile, as
noted above, there can be multiple sources of polluting fuels in informal settlements and informal economy (TARSC, ZCTU, ZCIEA,
2021), and many informal workers’ health and livelihoods would benet substantially from access to clean energy (e.g., food vendors
and home-based workers). Clean energy providers can develop inclusive strategies to support uptake and strengthen informal live-
lihoods, with careful consideration of gendered dynamics in the informal economy (cf. de Groot et al., 2017).
A focus on informal livelihoods may help to catalyse far-reaching urban climate action, especially when equitable strategies are co-
developed with workers and seek to realise multiple benets. Given how pervasive informal employment is in LMIC cities, where
climate change may amplify and interact with longstanding vulnerabilities, it will be vital to tackle several interrelated challenges.
Efforts to support informal workers’ climate resilience can encompass policy reforms and economic responses (e.g., supporting green
jobs and appropriate trainings), combined with adequate services and infrastructure at homes and workplaces (Agarwal et al., 2022b).
We argue that policymakers can seek to foster several benets for climate, health and informal livelihoods via clean energy, WASH,
improved housing, and complementary initiatives co-developed with informal workers. By better appreciating the links between
health, informal livelihoods, and climate change, municipal actors may galvanise action and help realise opportunities for trans-
formative resilience in urban areas.
D. Dodman et al.

Urban Climate 48 (2023) 101401
8
Funding
This research was commissioned by the National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR), Global Health Research Group 17/
63/145, using aid from the UK Government. The views are solely those of the authors.
CRediT authorship contribution statement
David Dodman: Conceptualization, Writing – original draft. Alice Sverdlik: Conceptualization, Writing – review & editing.
Siddharth Agarwal: Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Artwell Kadungure: Investigation, Writing – review & editing.
Kanupriya Kothiwal: Investigation, Writing – review & editing. Rangarirai Machemedze: Investigation, Writing – review & editing.
Shabnam Verma: Investigation.
Declaration of Competing Interest
The authors declare that they have no known competing nancial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to
inuence the work reported in this paper.
Data availability
Data will be made available on request.
Acknowledgements
The authors acknowledge the insights and inputs of Rene Loewenson, Wisborn Malaya, Nathan Banda, Oyinlola Oyebode and
Christy Adeola Braham during the preparation of the paper. The Zimbabwe research obtained permission from the Medical Research
Council of Zimbabwe (MRCZ/A/2467). The India research obtained permission from Sigma-IRB (CIN No:
U74140DL2008PTC182567). In the UK, the partners received clearance from the University of Warwick (BSREC REGO-2019-2340).
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