The Climate Crisis Hit Them Hardest. They Answered With Solutions.
On 20 October, International Home-Based Workers Day, HomeNet International (HNI) continues to celebrate the millions of workers who produce goods or provide services from in or around their homes for local and global markets.
This year, climate related shocks- from floods and storms, to extreme heatwaves have once again hit home-based workers hardest, although they have done the least to cause the climate crisis. When the home is also the workplace, a flooded room means lost stock, damaged tools and missed orders. A heatwave means fewer hours of productive work, higher electricity bills and a heavier burden of unpaid care work, particularly for women. Yet home-based workers remain largely excluded from the social protection and support they need to withstand these growing risks. But home-based workers are not waiting to be rescued. Findings from HomeNet International’s forthcoming research across six countries shows how they are organising, innovating and building collective ways to protect their livelihoods and support one another in the face of climate-related challenges.
Three solutions, built by workers
250,000
members covered by a heat insurance scheme
India · SEWA
30–60%
government subsidies on clean energy equipment
Uganda · Ngalo Buwereza
Solar
pumps bringing water up from shared deep wells
Kenya · HOMENET KENYA
In Ahmedabad, India, SEWA piloted a heat insurance scheme that covered 250,000 members in 2025. When temperatures pass an agreed limit, it pays out to make up for lost work. Members can borrow the yearly premium from SEWA’s own bank. SEWA is also using data from a study with Harvard University to press the government and insurers to expand it. Members are also coating roofs with heat-reflective paint and opening skylights to cool the rooms where they live and work.
In Uganda, the Ngalo Buwereza network of home-based workers’ organisations joined forces with a trade union to bring their climate concerns to the Ministry of Environment. Following these discussions, the government announced subsidies covering 30 to 60 per cent of the cost of clean energy and energy-saving equipment in December 2024.
In Kitui, Kenya, home-based workers formed groups to drill shared boreholes powered by solar panels, securing water for their families, gardens and work.
These solutions work, but they are funded by the workers who earn the least. Social protection systems must include home-based workers and protect them against climate risks through insurance, income support when disaster strikes, and access to affordable credit. Governments must fund what workers have already proven works, include their organisations in climate planning, and ratify ILO Convention 177 on Home Work.
Home-based workers have shown the way.
It is time for governments to follow.
This is why HomeNet International is leading a global campaign for the ratification of ILO Convention 177 on Home Work. It is the only international labour standard dedicated to homeworkers, and it calls for equal treatment between homeworkers and other wage earners, including in social protection. Together with ILO Recommendation No. 184 (R184), which provides further guidance on protecting homeworkers, it offers an important framework for advancing decent work. For other home-based workers, including own-account workers, ILO Recommendation No. 204 (R204) provides a broader framework for facilitating the transition from the informal to the formal economy.
Join us: share these stories, follow the campaign and call on your government to ratify ILO C177, so that decent work becomes a reality for every home-based worker.