About WSM and its work in Asia

WSM believes strongly in the power of people together. Started in 1974, WSM is the NGO in charge of the international cooperation of the Christian Workers Movement in Belgium. With their support and funds from the Belgian Development Cooperation, WSM works with partner organisations in Africa, Latin America and Asia to create Decent Work worldwide in order to guarantee a better life. For the 2022-2026 programme, WSM and ACV International support 73 social movements and 21 networks in 23 countries, six of which are in Asia: Nepal, India, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia and Cambodia (Google map). WSM and its partners also created the International Network on Social Protection Rights (INSP!R).

Why does WSM work on social protection?

All around the world, people are working hard to provide a better life for themselves and their families. However, in many countries, those efforts are not rewarded in the same way as in others: workers are not paid decent wages, are often forced to work in very poor conditions, subsist in absolute poverty and do not have access to healthcare or social security.
Creating Decent Work worldwide in order to guarantee a better life is our ultimate goal. WSM’s mission is to structurally change injustice, by providing sustainable long-term solutions to people, by giving people the opportunity to organize themselves, so they can stand up for their rights. All these social movements strive in their own way for social protection, job creation and decent work, which are essential for sustainable and human development.

Support

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. Advocacy: WSM facilitates the partner organisations to advocate jointly to improve social protection rights. Networks from each county determine their priorities and relevant stakeholders: Nepal on contributory and non-contributory social security, India on social security for three sectors of the informal workers, Bangladesh on better access to Social Protection. 
3. Capacity strengthening: sharing of good practices and internationalisation are stimulated through look and learn exchanges. 

As crosscutting issues, partners and networks focus on young workers, gender equality and the environment, which has strong elements of climate justice, adaptive social protection and just transition.

Where

WSM also operates:

• In  Belgium:  WSM  expresses and transfers its knowledge of labour related themes  within  the  realm  of  development  cooperation into different national networks and the Christian Workers Movement.
• International Advocacy work: WSM supports the political work of our partners in their fight  for more social justice through research and formation of policy recommendations, capacity building of partners, networking and elaborating joint actions with related organisations and finally influencing policy and lobby towards policy makers or companies. WSM also denounces violations of labour rights at national and/or international level with urgent appeals.

Some key issues

• Informal to formal economy: several of WSM partners, often trade unions, lobby for legislation including the informal economy (agriculture, construction workers, home based workers…) and promote and assist vulnerable workers to enroll in social security schemes. This is particularly important because in the South Asian region, over 80% of the workforce works in the informal economy and only 6% of these workers are able to enjoy some rights to social protection. 
• Domestic workers: several Asia partners focus on the working conditions of domestic workers. They successfully contributed in the campaign for the adoption of the ILO convention 189 in 2011. An increase of minimum wage in several Indian states was obtained and they were also included in the sexual harassment legislation after a campaign by the partners. The Indian government was pressured into signing bilateral agreements with the Gulf States, with important minimum standards for migrating domestic workers.
• Garment workers: Much attention also goes to the textile industry in the region, especially after the Rana Plaza tragedy in Dhaka. In Bangladesh, the minimum wage went up 67% at the end of 2013, though it is still judged insufficient, and the 2006 Labour Law was adjusted on several points in July 2013. WSM and our partners were also actively involved in the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, a five-year legally binding agreement between international labor organizations, non-governmental organizations, and over 150 retailers to maintain minimum safety standards in the Bangladesh textile industry. This is also closely linked to the Clean Clothes Campaign, raising awareness among consumers and companies.