WSM's approach to capacity building

Let me briefly explain something about the way WSM does capacity strengthening with our partners. As you may know, WSM offers support to our partners on three levels:
1. Offering or improving services: WSM supports the partners in initiatives for groups of vulnerable workers, who are the beneficiaries of this program.  Activities: education and training, legal advice, training and skills, awareness and campaigning, study and research, policy research with legislative proposals.
2. Joint Political action: WSM supports the partner organisation to develop joint political actions to improve access to social protection and decent work.
3. Capacity strengthening: A steering committee, composed out of one representative per country, guides the WSM program. Sharing of good practices and internationalisation is stimulated through south-south and north-south exchanges. But next to that, WSM also uses an innovative voluntary tool, developed with HIVA, a multidisciplinary Research Institute for Work and Society which is associated with the University from Leuven, the KUL. During a pilot project in 2011, it was tried out in India and Cambodia and strongly appreciated by the partners. It starts with a workshop in which some concepts and levels of capacity strengthening are shared and discussed with the partner. Then, participants self-evaluate their organisation on five standard areas (and we added external communication):

Nepali migrant workers stage protest in Qatar

Finally, the protest regarding migrant workers is starting in Qatar. Previously, international attention of trade unions, NGO and media had started rising, but little public protesting happened in Qatar itself, where it is so hard to organize and forbidden to unionize for migrant workers. Article in eKantipur, shared by GEFONT:

About 600 Nepali migrant workers in Qatar have taken to the streets, demanding that their employer should pay them not less than the minimum salary set by the government for Nepalis working in Qatar.

The migrants, working at Qatar Freelance Trading and Contracting and Qatar Middle East Company, complained that they had been paid only QR600 as against the minimum monthly salary of QR900 set by the Nepal government.

They have stopped working in protest since Saturday, demanded that they be provided the set salary or sent back home with all facilities and perks due to. About 100 other foreign migrants have also joined in the protest.   

Labour attaché at the Nepali embassy in Qatar, Lilanath Dahal, who visited the workers’ quarters recently to inquire about their problems, said the workers had complained about them being denied the previously agreed salary. Qatari officials had also visited the quarters and enquired about the conditions.

Dahal said the employers lamented their inability to increase salary of the protesting workers. “We cannot increase salary of the workers at this time. Rather we are ready to repatriate them,” Dahal quoted managers of the companies as saying. (Original article in eKantipur here)

Sign the Watchdog petition addressed to FIFA here to speak out against the atrocious labor abuses and needless deaths of migrant workers in Qatar, and call on the World Cup organizers there to improve conditions and compensate the victims' families as they move the Cup location elsewhere!

About SAARC and other tigers

It is high time I would explain a bit on the regional political structure in South Asia and our work here on social protection, especially since the SAARC summit took place in Kathmandu, Nepal this week.

The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation is to South Asia what the European Union is for Europe. It is the economic and geopolitical organisation of eight countries (Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan, and Sri Lanka) that are primarily located in South Asia.Their combined economy is the 3rd largest in the world in the terms of GDP(PPP) after the United States and China. Their territories cover 3% of the land in the world but inhabits 21% of the world population. India is clearly the heavyweight in this structure, as it accounts for nearly 80% of SAARC's economy. SAARC was created in 1985 and they meet around every 18 months, with the union officially based in Dhaka and their secretary based in Kathmandu.

Innovative project to track down missing Indian migrants through media

Got a moment to spare for the migrant workers in the Gulf states from India? Vote for a project proposal here which emerged as a result of people’s response to a successful current television programme called Pravasalokam broadcast by Kairali Channel in the south Indian state of Kerala.

Pravasalokam (‘Migrant’s World)’ started in August 2000. Produced by two independent television journalists, Rafeek Ravuther and Anasudhin Azeez, the programme was designed to help families, the majority of whom belongs to the underprivileged sections of society, to locate their missing relatives who had migrated from Kerala to various parts of the world, especially in the Gulf.


From the very first episode, the programme has become popular with Indian migrant workers and their families. The producers began to receive information about numerous cases and so tracked down 807 missing people in the Gulf (out of around 2000 Missing Cases) and provided legal, consular and travel assistance to them. The cases received by the producers’ illustrate the need for systematic intervention to assist migrant workers, especially from Kerala because of its high rate of migration, mostly of unskilled workers. At present, they have 187 pending cases and through this project, they propose to systematically follow up pending cases and provide assistance. This project was introduced by from CiMS Kerala (Centre for Indian Migrants Studies), a member of Migrant Forum Asia. Votes for the HIVOS Social Innovative Award can be cast here before the 23 November 2014.

Amin from NGWF talks about garment workers in Bangladesh and the Accord

Working towards universal health coverage system for Bangladesh garment workers

WSM's two Bangladesh partners, NGWF and GK are currently studying possibilities to set up a universal health coverage system for garment workers and how this could be achieved with involvement of state, employers and the trade unions.

However, it is very hard to bring the 46 different federations of the garment sector behind a common goal. Such a health coverage system would be complementary to the fight for an increase of the minimum wage, as garment workers would see their medical costs diminish through such coverage. In this video, Dr. Kadir from GK and Amin from NGWF speak about that possibility.


GK and NGWF are currently working together to offer health services at reduced costs to garment workers, medical aid to the victims of Rana Plaza and providing training to garment workers in Occupational Health and Safety and first aid.  

A Medical Camp for Rana Plaza victims

WSM's partners in Bangladesh, NGWF and GK, work together to provide medical care for the victims of the Rana Plaza tragedy. This interview was shot during the Rana Plaza Medical Camp on the 12th of November 2014 at BILS hospital.

In this video, Mr Reza, special consultant for GK for medical help to Rana Plaza victims, explained they had received 78 patients that morning, who were attended by five doctors (psychological help, gynecology, medication, physiotherapy). Since the Rana Plaza catastrophe, they have organized 16 camps like these, some with general care, others with specialized services. The main problems now would be psychological support, as many of the victims were traumatized and physiotherapy for loss of limbs. Another problem is the need for certain victims to receive surgery to remove stale implants, but for which there are often no funds or support to be performed.

Visit from Belgian government - DGD to WSM Bangladesh partners and projects

Since most of our funds come from the Belgian Development Cooperation, we are held accountable to them for this tax payers money. Though mostly through reports, we sometimes also have the pleasure of being able to show in the field what is happening and how the program is build up.

For five days, I accompanied two members from the DGD in and around Dhaka, exchange with our two partners there, NGWF and GK, and explaining our program through specific activities and field visits. Hence, here in 30 pictures, an overview of what we saw and did.


In the following posts, I will go more into detail on some of the activities and also illustrate them through videos.

Wij willen schone kleren: actievoeren werkt!

Met de campagne "Wij willen schone kleren" zette Wereldsolidariteit Belgische kledingbedrijven onder druk om concrete stappen te zetten naar "schone kleren": kleren die in menswaardige arbeidsomstandigheden gemaakt worden. En met resultaat! Want zowel JBC als Bel&Bo besloten zich aan te sluiten bij de Fair Wear Foundation, dé cruciale eis van onze campagne.



Meer info hier.

Meet two garment workers in Bangladesh

Nassim, a 25 year old male garment worker earned 6400BDT or 66€ per month. He started working as a helper at 19 years.

He got involved with WSM's partner, the National Garment Workers Federation (NGWF) after a visit of their organizer to his factory. They formed a committee with twelve of his colleagues, and raised several issues to the management:

- Irregular payment of salaries, which were sometimes months later
- Required to work up to 20 hours unpaid overtime
- No maternity leave

They founded a union in March 2014 and all 500 workers of the factory became members. In July 2014, Nassim was fired by phone. It turned out management had fired eight of the twelve members of the committee. They turned to NGWF for help, who first wrote a grievance letter and is now pursuing the case in Labour Court. Meanwhile, Nassim remains jobless.

 Moshumi, 22 years old, started working was she was ten years old, as a helper. Currently an operator (meaning she uses the sewing machines), she makes 6.600BDT (68€) per month, which is just below the minimum wage 6,805BDT). She works for a sweater factory that employs 5.000 workers in a six story building. In 2006 a manager misbehaved with her and she had to leave. She met with a union organizer of NGWF in 2006 and shared her experience. They wrote a grievance letter to the factory which, after some negotiating, reinstated her even provided her with the Ramadan bonus. However, she feels that because she turned to NGWF and has since followed training on labour rights, which she then shares with her colleagues, she has been branded a trouble maker by the management and is overburdened with workload, receiving no money for the overtime she has to do.

The 1st General Council for Domestic Workers Trade Union Federation

Another important step has been made by domestic workers: the first General Council for the federation of trade unions representing domestic workers took place in Mumbai on 4 to 6 November 2014. This national federation, initiated one year ago under the impulse of the National Domestic Workers Movement (NDWM, one of the WSM partners in India), aims to gather trade unions representing the voices and rights of domestic workers from all over India. It is the only trade union composed and led exclusively by domestic workers. Currently, they are present in seven of the 29 states in India, with three more coming, and counts nearly 13.000 members. 

JBC KRIJGT SCHONE KLEREN CADEAU - persbericht van WereldSolidariteit

copyright Sofie Hendrickx

Houthalen, 4 november. JBC kreeg vandaag een grote collectie ‘schone’ T-shirts van de ngo Wereldsolidariteit cadeau. Ter afronding van de campagne "Wij willen schone kleren", waarbij 13.278 consumenten Belgische kledingbedrijven om schone kleren (dwz gemaakt in goede arbeidsomstandigheden) vragen. De directie van JBC legde uit welke stappen zij al zetten. JBC zet zich  in voor veiligere fabrieken in Bangladesh, recent engageerde het bedrijf een speciale verantwoordelijke voor ‘duurzaam ondernemen’. Zij had vandaag al meteen een primeur in petto: JBC wordt lid van Fair Wear Foundation, een onafhankelijke controleorganisatie rond arbeidsomstandigheden. Dit was dé cruciale eis van de campagne.

Meer dan 13.000
Wereldsolidariteit verzamelde op 3 maanden tijd meer dan 13.000 handtekeningen en kledinglabels op 500 T-shirts en 12 megagrote T-shirts als steun aan de campagne. De kledingketen Bel&Bo kreeg eerder al bezoek van de campagnevoerders. Toen kondigde de directie van het West-Vlaamse  bedrijf aan dat ze in november lid zullen worden van de Fair Wear Foundation.

copyright Sofie Hendrickx

JBC kiest voor duurzaamheid
Griet Cattaert, de nieuwe CSR-manager van JBC: “Wij zijn al verschillenden jaren bezig met een duurzaamheidsverhaal. We hebben een gedragscode, laten al jaren onafhankelijke audits doen en hebben als enige Belgische retailer het Bangladesh Veiligheidsakkoord ondertekend.  Onze directie en medewerkers zijn rechtstreeks betrokken bij aankopen in China en Bangladesh, waar we duurzame relaties met onze leveranciers hebben: zo werken wij in China al 15 jaar met bepaalde bedrijven. We gaan nu verder op die weg door lid te worden van de Fair Wear Foundation."

Andre Kiekens van Wereldsolidariteit: “Wij zijn opgetogen dat de constructieve gesprekken die we de afgelopen maanden hebben gevoerd resulteren in dit goede nieuws. Want wij zijn medestanders.” Kiekens vervolgt: “Uiteindelijk willen we allemaal hetzelfde: een beter leven voor de mensen die onze kleren maken. Daarom dat we jullie een schone T-shirt cadeau doen, met het portret van een Bengaalse kledingarbeidster, naar een idee van theatermaakster Pascale Platel. Misschien een goed idee voor een toekomstige JBC-collectie?”