My first glimpse of Nepal: the workers union congress

After Bangladesh, I was very excited to discover my home for the next two years: Kathmandu, capital of Nepal. We were invited for a Congress of one of our two Nepali partners, GEFONT (facebook). For those who don't know about them, they're a bit the Parliament for workers unions. They're often once every two years, huge events where workers unions invite all their members, elect new leadership, discuss strategic choices and documents etc. They also invite other workers unions to witness the event and show their solidarity.


It started off with a solidarity march, gathering over 3.000 people I would estimate. We then headed over to the city halls, where in a big aula, the opening ceremony took place. It was all very impressive, with speeches from the general secretary, a video conference with Sharan Burrow, the General Secretary of ITUC, who was speaking from their headquarters in Brussels, a previous Prime Minister, M Prachanda, a spoke person for the employers union etc. All very well organised, with live streaming, timely, and with supporting documents and videos. Even the visitors badge we received was a USB key with the key documents!

Previous Prime Minister Prachanda making a speech during the opening ceremony

The afternoon, when the members and delegates discuss their internal affairs, there was a side-event regarding the work they do concerning Nepal migrants going to work in the Middle east, and Quatar specifically. Here, every delegate was also thanked by the President, M Bishnu Rimal, and honored with a present.

Tribute to my predecessor, Jef Van Hecken

Of course, this program doesn't start from scratch, and it is only fitting I would pay a tribute to my predecessor, Jef Van Hecken, who spend two years in Dhaka and will now be retiring after a long carreer in the movement.

This launch workshop wals also the opportunity for the partners to say goodbye to him during a solidarity evening, which was organized by one of the Bangladesh organisation, GK, with which he had closely worked.

Hereby below a personal tribute, which I entitled: the 12 works of Jef in Asia.


Not only in Asia did he leave a big footprint, but he also managed to direct a lot of the attention after the Rana Plaza tragedy to the working conditions of garment workers and to our causes (Koppen uitzending).

He also had a blog which you can check out here. He'll leave some might big shoes to fill...

The launch workshop: what happened?

This Workshop gathered all WSM partners from Asia (each represented by two people) in Dhaka, Bangladesh, with the members of the WSM Asia team to launch the 2014-2016 programme. The first day focused on the concept of Social Protection, the central theme for this programme, examined the current context per country, in the region and internationally. Next, the outlines of the 2014-2016 programme were shared and then a tool to create a mapping to advocate change on the national level.

The next day focused mostly on technical aspects of the programme, like financial management, the operational planning for 2014, as well as M&E, structure and responsibilities of the WSM Asia team and an introduction on the tools for capacity building.

Third and last day of the workshop, opportunities for south-south and north-south exchanges were listed in a participatory manner, followed by an analysis of opportunities for international political actions.  After a training session on gender, the workshop was closed. 

Every day, a moment was also taken to highlight events that had drastic impacts on the partners and the countries, such as the Cambodia protests and the typhoons in the Philippines and to share good practices from the partners. The fourth day, members attended a human chain organized by the Bangladesh partner NGWF to support their demands for compensation of the Rana Plaza and Tazreen tragedies. In the afternoon they took part in a medical camp organised by GK for these victims.

Visit to garment factories in Bangladesh

During our stay in Dhaka, our delegation had scheduled one day for each of the two partners we have there, one workers union of the garment industry (NGWF) and one in health (GK).  This post is about that first day, with the National Garment Workers Federation and the garment industry.

Working conditions are deplorable, and ays are minimal, so that Bangladesh can attract companies to produce clothing there. Check your sweater, bet you it'll say it was amde in Bangaldesh. Accidents have been frequents and the death toll has been immense. First gruesome stop for our visit: the Tazreen factory, where over a hundred people died in a fire on the 24th of November 2012.

Through the workers union, we also had the opportunity to visit two functioning garment factories in Dhaka.

 

Industrial police, present in every factory.

Below the small video I made, which gives an idea of what we witnessed. Of course, management knew we were coming, so one can wonder to which extent is it representative of the working conditions?

We closed off the day with a touching meeting with victims of Rana Plaza. NGWF had gathered around 80 victims, direct (were injured in the building when it collapsed), or indirect (orphaned children). Very touching, and Jef tried to empahsize the importance of going from victim to actor now, to demand change and compensation.

Impressions from Bangladesh

Here I am, freshly arrived in Dhaka, Bangladesh. It is a hectic city, with 15 million people, large and spread out, with where it takes hours to get from one point to another. Airwise, it is also the most polluted city in the world.  Half the workforce is employed in household and unorganised labour, while about 800,000 work in the textile industry. Even so, unemployment remains high at 19%.The annual per capita income of Dhaka is estimated at $1,350(USD), with 34% of households living below the poverty line, including a large segment of the population coming from rural areas in search of employment, with most surviving on less than $5 a day.

A little bit about Bangladesh: Bangladesh is a developing nation. However, the poverty rate has declined by 25% since 1990, and per-capita GDP has doubled from 1975 levels. More than three-quarters of Bangladesh’s export earnings come from the garment industry in 2005. The industry began attracting foreign investors in the 1980s because of cheap labour and low conversion cost. In 2011–12 fiscal year the industry exported US$18 billion worth of products. Bangladesh has been ranked as the 4th largest clothing exporter by the WTO whereas, according to The Economist, Bangladesh is the world’s third-largest clothes-export industry. The industry now employs more than 3 million workers, 90% of whom are women.
The population of Bangladesh is 142.3 million (census 2011 result),[106] much less than recent (2007–2010) estimates of Bangladesh's population ranging from 150 to 170 million and it is the 8th most populous nation in the world. In 1951, the population was 44 million. It is also the most densely populated large country in the world. Islam is the state religion even though Bangladesh is secular. Islam is the largest religion of Bangladesh, making up 90.4% of population. Hinduism makes up 8.2% of the population, Buddhism 0.7%, Christianity 0.6%.

Dhaka is known as the rickshaw capital of the world.

Brick factories

The city adds more than 300,000 people a year; those people need homes; demand grows for brick, the predominant construction material; and the air gets more polluted. Each year, the kilns north of Dhaka produce more than 2 billion bricks.

The beginning

This blog tells my stories and reflections as the Asia Coordinator for World Solidarity (WSM), a Belgian NGO working on Social Protection (see previous post).
I am based in Kathmandu, Nepal until end 2016 but work with all Asia partners, though particularly the ones in South Asia (Nepal, Bangladesh and India- map).

I started beginning of March 2014, but after an initial visit to Bangladesh and Nepal, am back in Brussels, Belgium where WSM has their headquarters, for the hand over with my predecessor and a meeting with the other international staff WSM has beginning of May.
Hence, departure date is 19th of May and very much looking forward to sharing my impressions here. 

Who is WSM and why work on Social Protection?

So, a bit more on my organisation, World Solidarity and why we focus on social protection.

WSM (a contraction of Wereld Solidariteit - Solidarité Mondiale) is the NGO of the Belgian Christian Labour Movement, better known as the ACW-MOC. Within this movement and in close co-operation with its constituent organisations, WSM is responsible for international cooperation and solidarity with social movements in the South, namely in Africa, Latin America and Asia.

It is clear that in the process of building societies, several possible paths can be followed. For WSM, our path is towards a society with greater social justice and solidarity (and thus reduced poverty, social exclusion, inequality, and vulnerability). Development cooperation is only a manner of contributing to building societies.

-          This development must be inclusive: The main powers (political, economic and social powers) must act together while acknowledging their respective roles. Together they must define how they build society and where their responsibilities lie in this process.

-       This development must also be sustainable: social, economic and environmental development must go hand in hand.

WSM and its network can contribute to this inclusive and sustainable development on condition that social movements constitute a genuine social power able to interact efficiently with political and economic powers. Social movements are indeed a force of change, a force of social change for the community, for society. A force which starts from and builds on the roots (bottom-up).

To successfully achieve such a development, we firmly believe that decent work strategies must be implemented. The concept of decent work was launched and is actively promoted by the oldest UN agency, the International Labour Organisation (ILO), and is based on 4 pillars: a productive and freely chosen employment (1) for which international labour rights (including fundamental labour standards) are respected (2), which provides access to social protection (3) and where the workers' voices are heard through social dialogue (4).

Because at the end of the day, work represents an important part of a person's daily life, both for earning a living and for fulfilling one's potential. Decent work is the best guarantee against poverty and deprivation both at material and immaterial (physical, intellectual, spiritual, etc.) levels.