Cambodia's new social protection policy framework reviewed

In 2017, the Royal Government of Cambodia published a new Social Protection Policy Framework (SPPF), providing an ambitious vision for a social protection system in which a comprehensive set of policies and institutions operate in sync with each other to sustainably reduce poverty and vulnerability.The Social Protection System Review of Cambodia prompts and answers a series of questions that are crucial for the implementation ofthe framework : How will emerging trends affect the needs for social protection, now and into the future? To what extent are Cambodia’s social protection instruments able – or likely – to address current and future livelihood challenges? How does fiscal policy affect social protection objectives?

This OECD review provides a contribution to the ongoing policy dialogue on social protection, sustainable growth and poverty reduction. It includes four chapters. Chapter 1 is a forward-looking assessment of Cambodia’s social protection needs. Chapter 2 maps the social protection sector and examines its adequacy. An investigation of the distributive impact of social protection and tax policy is undertaken in Chapter 3. The last chapter concludes with recommendations for policy strategies that could support the establishment of an inclusive social protection system in Cambodia, as envisaged by the SPPF.

Why the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Safety will be here until 2021

The following is an op-ed by the witness signatories to the Accord published in the Bangladeshi paper, the Daily Star. 

c Daily Star

In reaction to recent statements concerning the future of the Bangladesh Accord, the Witness Signatories to the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh—Clean Clothes Campaign, International Labor Rights Forum, Maquila Solidarity Network, and the Worker Rights Consortium—wish to respond regarding the continuation of the Accord's inspection programme. Recent statements have led some to erroneously believe that the Accord is scheduled to end in 2018, and one should ask whether such an early departure is even desirable given the limited progress made in the development of a credible and functioning national safety regulatory body.

In the wake of the Rana Plaza building collapse—the deadliest disaster in the history of the global garment industry, in which 1,134 workers were killed—three initiatives were launched with the purpose of averting further industry tragedies in Bangladesh: the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh (Accord), the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety (Alliance), and the National Action Plan on Fire Safety and Structural Integrity (NAP).

The Accord is an agreement reached between over 200 apparel companies, eight Bangladeshi union federations, and two global unions. This unprecedented safety agreement is based on legally-binding commitments by apparel brands to ensure that hazards in their factories are identified and corrected. The Accord has overseen factory renovations—from installation of fire doors to strengthening of dangerously weak structural columns and beams—that have already improved safety for over two million garment workers. This success can be attributed to the Accord's distinct approach, which combines independent safety inspections with multi-brand leverage, financial support and legal accountability to ensure that problems are not only identified but are fixed.

In comparison, the Alliance and the NAP are smaller, less transparent, non-binding programmes that do not benefit from the same level of brands' commitment to change, especially when it comes to financial feasibility.

To ensure that the safety improvements achieved under the Accord are maintained and expanded, brand and union signatories of the Accord announced in June of 2017 that the Accord has been extended for three years, until May of 2021. To date, 48 companies, including H&M, Inditex (Zara), Primark, and PVH (Tommy Hilfiger, Calvin Klein), have signed the new Accord, with many more likely to follow in the months ahead. These signatories represent many of the largest brands and retailers in the world and most of the Bangladesh RMG sector's key customers. Their combined commitment means that the 2013 Accord successor agreement will cover at least 1,400 factories and a majority of all export garment production.

The purpose of the renewed Accord, which takes effect in May of 2018 when the current 2013 Accord expires, is to ensure that factories made safe under the Accord remain safe. At the same time, the new Accord will support improvements to Bangladesh's public regulatory regime, in order to strengthen and pass on this responsibility to the Bangladesh government at the end of those three years. As was agreed to in meetings on October 19 between brand and trade union signatories to the Accord, the BGMEA, and the Bangladesh Ministers of Commerce and Labour, the Accord will continue this work until the local regulatory bodies meet a set of rigorous readiness conditions.

It remains to be seen how long this transition will take; however, any objective assessment of the government's current state of readiness will conclude that there is a lot of work to do. In order for the Accord to conclude its operations, local mechanisms must be developed, put in place, and demonstrably running smoothly to ensure safe working conditions for the country's four million garment workers.

India: farmers make demands

The long preparation and efforts taken by Swaraj Abhiyan through various struggles and efforts to coordinate all the farmers movements and federations over two years has now come realise that a greater collective and coordinated move towards gaining their rights is necessary. Farmers from all over India have started their journey through various means to meet in Delhi on November 20th. It is expected that over 500.000 farmers from all over the country will join. The Tamil Nadu Land Rights Federation and RIEH Asia is part of this march.

They wrote this open letter to Modi, the Indian Prime Minister:

Dear Shri Narendra Modi,


We are farmers: women and men, landowner, sharecropper, tenant, forest gatherers and landless cultivators. We are primary producers: we grow crops, we collect forest produce, we rear animals and poultry and we fish. We use our labour to sustain life on this planet; yet we find it hard to sustain our own lives. We are told we are ‘annadatas’; yet we cannot feed our families. We are a majority in this democracy; yet our voice is not heard. More than half of us are women; yet we remain invisible. Our Constitution gives us Right to Life; yet we are forced to commit suicide.

Christy, farmers' rally preparation from Tamil Nadu to Delhi

Why? What is it that causes this tragedy?
It is not that we are lazy. We work very hard. We keep producing more and more. In the last ten years, we have raised the nation’s production of food one and half times. We have done our bit for the nation but why has the nation not done its bit for us?

It is not just the nature. Over the years, nature is more capricious. We suffer more droughts, more floods, more unpredictable climate than ever before. But why should we pay the price for changes in climate? Why don’t we get protection against natural calamities like farmers elsewhere do? And, why don’t we earn well even in a year when the nature is kind?

And it is not just the market. Everyone else seems to be doing well. Companies, businessmen, and salaried employees – everyone is earning better. Fertilizer, pesticide and seed companies are making big profits. Food industry and big retail are thriving. But a farmers’ family earns only Rs. 3,884 per month from farming, less than the minimum wages for unskilled workers! Why do we, who actually produce and feed others, lose out continuously?

After years and years of suffering, waiting and hoping, we realize that it’s about state policies, governmental action and political will. Governmental policies are driving the agrarian crisis and farmers’ suicides. Instead of helping us in this hour of need, we are still being made to subsidize other sectors of the economy. Successive central and state governments have withdrawn whatever little support we used to get and have left us at the mercy of market forces and vagaries of nature. What you call ‘development’ is nothing but our systematic loot.

Mr. Prime Minister, we trusted you in 2014. We believed your promises, but you reneged. We thought you would protect our land, but you tried to snatch it. We faced droughts, floods and other calamities, but adequate relief never arrived. We endured crash in crop price without the minimum support. This is when we needed your helping hand, but you cut down spending on agriculture. And we suffered demonetization without any gains. We feel abandoned and betrayed.

Hence this final appeal, this two-point Charter of Demands. We do not ask you for anything except that you make good your own promises. We do not claim more than what everyone else in this country can enjoy. We do not demand what we do not desperately need. And deserve. We, the annadatas, wish to start afresh on a clean slate. We wish to contribute to the making of future India.

We are,

Farmers of India

Find the Charter of Demands here.

A Trapeze Act: Women Balancing Paid Work and Unpaid Care Work in Nepal

Despite high rates of labour force participation by women in Nepal, there has been very little engagement by communities and the state on the issue of women’s ‘double burden’ of balancing unpaid care work with paid labour activities. The ‘Balancing paid work and unpaid care work – Nepal’ research study aims to create knowledge about how women’s economic empowerment (WEE) policy and programming can generate a ‘double boon’, i.e. paid work that empowers women and provides more support to their unpaid care work responsibilities. Research discussed in this report looks at two WEE programmes in Nepal: (1) a state programme, the Karnali Employment Programme; and (2) a non-state programme, Oxfam Nepal’s Enterprise Development Programme. One of the stark conclusions of the study is that women are currently unable to balance their paid and unpaid care work due to several factors: the lack of availability of decent employment opportunities in rural areas; a lack of quality public resources and services; migration of men; a lack of assets such as land; and prevailing gender norms, especially around women’s participation in unpaid care work and mobility. The report makes recommendations at state, non-state, market, community and family levels. Programmes aimed at women’s empowerment need to have a care perspective in their design and implementation, and grass-roots-level communication and advocacy needs to be encouraged and implemented, in order to reduce women’s ‘double burden’ and move towards a’ double boon’.

Download the study here.

Meer dan 25.000 voor #cleanekleren: Tussenstand na 7 maanden campagnevoeren

© Nelle Devisscher

Na de “shirtcontrole” op de Ronde van Vlaanderen voor amateurs op 1 april ontplofte de campagne #cleanekleren*. Boegbeeld Philippe Gilbert won de dag nadien op een magistrale manier de Ronde: een voorteken. Overal zag je daarna #cleanekleren teams opduiken: in bedrijven, op honderden sportactiviteiten en op grote wielerwedstrijden tot zelfs op de Ronde van Frankrijk. #cleanekleren kreeg veel media-aandacht:  met als topper een tv-spotcampagne, na het winnen van de Fair Time Award van Medialaan en een reportage op Kanaal Z. Er werd gelopen, gefietst, gevoetbald, gewandeld en massaal de petitie getekend. Ook door heel wat BV’s en topsporters- en clubs. Het resultaat: meer dan 25.000 mensen supporteren voor #cleanekleren.



Topsporters tekenen voor #cleanekleren
Heel wat topsporters volgen het voorbeeld van Philippe Gilbert en tekenen voor #cleanekleren. Zoals Fabian Cancellara, olympisch kampioen Tia Hellebaut, hordeloopster Eline Berings, de nationale volleybalploeg Yellow Tigers en handbalploeg Red Wolves, kapitein van KRC Genk Thomas Buffel, enz. Verschillende voetbalspelers en -clubs uit de eerste klasse volgen. Dit is meteen een goede opwarming voor 2018 wanneer #cleanekleren zich gaat focussen op voetbal met het oog op het WK-voetbal in Rusland. Goed gezien van ACV-Sporta, die vele topsporters de petitie #cleanekleren lieten tekenen.

© Dirk Pierloot

Politici bewegen
Ook een rits politici en overheden scharen zich achter #cleanekleren: minister van Werk en Consumentenzaken Kris Peeters, Groen-politici als Tine Heyse die meteen het stadbestuur van Gent mobiliseerde en minister van Ontwikkelingssamenwerking De Croo. De Croo heeft wel oog voor ‘kleding’: hij trapte de zestiende Week van de Fair Trade af met een bezoek aan JBC dat inzet op ethisch geproduceerde kleding. De campagne #cleanekleren ging met een aantal beleidsvoorstellen naar ministers De Croo en Peeters en hoopt na sympathie binnenkort beleidsdaden te zien. Want een wettelijk kader dat stimulansen geeft naar de sector is heel belangrijk.

En Belgische sportkledingbedrijven?

© Mine Dalemans

Het doel van de campagne #cleanekleren is Belgische sportkledingbedrijven overtuigen om stappen te zetten richting ‘schone kleren’. Zowel Bioracer als Vermarc, producenten van wielerkledij voor teams, kregen #cleanekleren op bezoek.  Bij Bioracer kregen we onlangs nog te horen dat zij vanuit hun klanten geen vraag krijgen naar ethisch geproduceerde kleding en ze er commercieel ook geen meerwaarde in zien. Daarom dat we onze campagne onverminderd en vastbesloten verderzetten. Verspreid mee de oproep om te tekenen op www.cleanekleren.be





“Buy the change you want to see in the world”

© Nelle Devisscher

 “De acties lopen inderdaad goed”, zegt Jessie Van Couwenberghe die het beleidswerk doet voor #cleanekleren. “Maar sportkledingbedrijven als Bioracer voelen onvoldoende de druk van de klant. Elke euro die je uitgeeft, ook als organisatie, is een stem. En je kiest aan welk soort bedrijf je die geeft: zij die het echt goed doen op milieu en sociaal vlak of laat je enkel de prijs meespelen? Dan weet je dat het milieu of de werknemers elders de prijs betalen. Wij gebruiken als organisatie veel te weinig onze koopkracht die een echt hefboom kan zijn voor verandering. Wij staan als campagnepartners voor waarden en die moeten we ook doortrekken in elke aankoop die we doen.”

Op zoek naar ‘schone’ promo- of sportkleding met bedrukking op maat van je organisatie of club? 
Contacteer:
o ACP, Fair Wear & Fair Trade ambassador, info@acpinfo.be, 03/889 02 16. 
o Amitex, info@amitex.be www.amitex.be, 050/70 71 42
o Andere schone (sport)kleren aankopen: neem een kijkje op www.fairwear.org

© Claudio Montesano Casillo

Elke dag een marathon
“Voor wie doen we dit eigenlijk?” Voor Tahra en miljoenen anderen. Tahra is één van de 650.000 Cambodjanen die sportkleding maakt voor de grote sportmerken als Nike en Adidas. Tahra is 34.  Op haar 17de ging ze aan de slag als naaister in een Cambodjaanse kledingfabriek. Tahra werkt 10 uur per dag, 6 dagen per week en verdient 0,88 euro per uur . Elke dag moet ze een target van 1300 stuks halen. Een undercover tv-ploeg volgde haar  op een normale werkdag, met fitness gadgets om haar prestaties te meten. Ze verbrandt 2.439 kcal voor jouw sportshirt… Alsof ze elke dag een marathon zou lopen. Het resultaat van de metingen werd vertaald in een tv-spot die meer dan 1,7 miljoen kijkers te zien kregen op VTM, Q2 en twee andere tv-zenders. Tahra is lid van de vakbond C.CAWDU, een partnerorganisatie van Wereldsolidariteit en ACV. Deze Cambodjaanse vakbond interpelleert al jarenlang de internationale merken bij schendingen van arbeidsrechten en voor het uitbetalen van een leefbaar loon.

Short video: why is India refusing to pay decent wages?

In the last three decades, the value added by a worker to the economy has grown by 210%. But the real wages paid to the worker has increased only by 14%. Is this what the workers deserve?
A wage that  keeps them hungry and half alive, that denies their children education, nutrition and decent future?

Workers Voices: Documentary on Bangladeshi Garment workers speaking up and organizing

Sramik Awaaz: Worker Voices is the first film to fully explore the lives, work, and organizing efforts of Bangladesh’s garment workers. Through interviews carried out in 2014 and 2015, and filming through 2016, the film chronicles the barriers faced by the mostly female workers at home, at work, and in life. These interviews reflect some clear policy prescriptives for improving the rights of workers not only in Bangladesh, but the issues raised echoes in workforces around the world even among low wage workers in US and Europe. The film was crowdfunded and produced by Chaumtoli Huq and directed by Mohammed Romel.


See the full movie (in Bangladeshi) here.