Streetnet International
International Alliance of Street Vendors

Executive Committee

The Executive Committee is a sub-committee of the International Council consisting of seven, which meets quarterly.

Lorraine Sibanda (Zimbabwe)

President

Lorraine Sibanda ( nee Ndhlovu) is the current President of the Zimabwe Chamber of Informal Economy Associations (ZCIEA) and StreetNet International. She is based in Gwanda town, which is about 600kilometres south of Harare, Zimbabwe. Her life line business is cross border trading and goat farming. Prior to her new life and positions of engagement, Lorraine is a qualified teacher and taught primary school for 10 years. She left teaching to start self-help projects in 2008 when the Zimbabwean economy became complicated for civil servants. This is when she started becoming a member of civic organizations. In 2011 she was voted ZCIEA Gwanda territorial President.

As a result, she started growing through the ranks of ZCIEA work and activism until 2015 when she was voted ZCIEA National President. In 2016, Lorraine was voted StreetNet International President. This StreetNet Presidency was renewed in April 2019 in Kyrgyzstan.

During her National and International portfolios, Lorraine has raised the unsung song of the recognition of the informal economy workers in the global working world as people who contribute to their countries’ economies. They must be recognised and not criminalised. Part of this campaign includes her meaningful participation at the International Labour Conference in 2018 and 2019, where she headed informal economy workers’ International advocacy on inclusion of the informal economy workers in the convention on eradication of violence and harassment in the world of work. She even presented a position paper at the ILC in both years. This advocacy was a formidable success. Lorraine has been a champion of the informal economy workers’ advocacy for change since her International engagement. She has been at various International platforms to defend the rights of workers in the informal economy. This includes expressing vulnerability of women in various forms of precarious work for their lives to be improved. Read Lorraine’s full biography here. 

Alberto Santana (Dominican Republic)

Vice-President

Alberto Santana is the Vice President of Streetnet Internacional, President of FUTTEINCO, and Secretary for projects of the Confederación Nacional de Trabajadores Dominicanos – CNTD. He started in the union of self-employed metalworkers, in his native Barahona, Dominican Republic, then he studied Industrial Engineering and started his own business. He was Secretary of International Relations of the CNTD, where he studied immigration, international development cooperation and social protection. Alberto graduated as a lawyer and works on projects for the protection of labor rights and social security for independent and self-employed workers.

Read Alberto’s full biography here.

Jamaladdin Ismayilov (Azerbaijan)

Secretary

Jamaladdn Ismayilov was born in the village of Slavyanka, Gadabay region of the Republic of Azerbaijan. After graduating from secondary school, he was accepted in the Kharkov Civil Engineering Institute, from which he successfully graduated in 1972 with a degree in construction engineer of industrial and civil facilities. He worked in the city of Uralsk in Kazakhstan, and during this time he advanced in his career from a  foreman to chief engineer to head of a construction department to an instructor and part of the city executive committee. Then in 1988, he moved to the city of Baku, Azerbaijan, where he have been working in a trade union since 1990. At present I am the vice-president of the Federation of Trade Unions of Azerbaijan Xhidmat-ISH. The Federation unites trade workers such as street and market vendors, and other service industries. It has always been a priority for Jamal to protect the social and labor interests of ordinary workers right up to litigation. Xhidmat-ISH has defended the interests of their union members in labor dispute litigation in more than thirty sessions and twice in the Supreme Court, and won all of  them. In addition, Xhidmat-ISH engaged in cooperation with local municipalities on the problems of creating worthy places of trade for street vendors in the region. They pay great attention to the promotion and awareness to the public about the problems of street vendors and the activities of StreetNet. Read Jamal’s full biography here.

Annie Diouf (Senegal)

Treasurer

Annie Diouf is the Confederal Secretary in charge of the informal economy department of the National Confederation of Workers of Senegal (CNTS). She is also the General Secretary of the National Union of Informal Economy Workers, Street and Market Vendors (SYNATREIN) and the coordinator for the Union for the Formalization of Informal Economy Workers (UFTEI). Annie is the contact person for WIEGO and StreetNet programmes within CNTS and current Tresurer of StreetNet International. Read Annie’s full biography here.

Angélique Kipulu Katani (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Member Auditor of the Executive Committee

Angélique Kipulu Katani is the leader of the Ligue pour les Droits de la Femme Congolaise -(LDFC) in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and a Member Auditor of the StreetNet Executive Committee and her. With a vast experience in the trade union movement, Angélique was responsible for the Women’s Department of the Trade Union Confederation of Congo (CS) in Kinshasa from 1994 to 2002. She was then elected Vice-President of the CSC, in charge of gender issues and finances. Angélique was also previously in the governing bodies of ITUC Africa.

During these 19 years in the trade union movement, Angélique participated in several trips, trainings, and conferences at the ILO, World Social Forum, United Nations Climate Change conference (COP), and meetings of the United Nations Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC). Since 2013, she has been fully devote to LDFC. Her main focus is violence against women and women informal economy workers. Angélique is divorced with three children, two girls and one boy. Read Angélique’s full biography here.

Chet (Kumar) Sapkota (Nepal)

Member Auditor of the Executive Committee

Chet Sapkota, also known as Kumar, was born in 1968 in the district of Kaver in Nepal. Unlike his sisters, he was given the chance to attend school, but spent most of his childhood in poverty. This led him to question the discrimination and different treatment for rich and poor people. When he was a teenager, he joined an organized that opposed the authoritarian monarchy in Nepal, going to underground activities with the goal to end the inequalities in the country. Eventually, he had to leave for the capital city of Kathmandu due to the repression of the State. He started working in a factory and became part of a trade union. He was later arrested and tortured by authorities and had to leave his job. After recovering from serious body injuries, Kumar started a street business and became an advocate for the rights of street vendors and other informal traders in Nepal, a struggle he has been leading for decades. Read Kumar’s full biography here.