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Making Decent Work a Reality for Domestic Workers - Final evaluation

eval_number:

2320

eval_url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/2320

lessons_learned:

themes:

theme:

Domestic work

category:

Sector

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comments:

Government staff and ILO staff and ultimately domestic workers themselves

challenges:

Cross-governmental collaboration and cross departmental ILO collaboration is always a challenge. Beyond the ministry of labour, working with other ministries is important for ILO. However the challenge is to get others to consider domestic workers as a relevant and important category of workers. For example in the Philippines it is proving important to also work with the Department of Interior and Local Government the Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD), Philippine National Police (PNP), Social Security System (SSS), Philippine Health Insurance Corporation (PhilHealth) and Home Development Mutual Fund (HDMF) which are all government institutions. In Zambia at the very least engaging with the Ministry of Justice is necessary. Tripartite legal reform discussions may go ahead leaving a particular ministry out of policy dialogue process. Enacting reforms may be delayed because a particular rule or procedure may have been overlooked. Implementation requires planning processes across government ministries to ensure that all are on board from the start. For example an implementation strategy could contain set tasks for different ministries (such as Justice, education, finance, labour, agriculture etc.).

success:

A table should be set up with a broad range of relevant government ministries & ILO units (and their ‘stake’ in a focus on domestic workers) to serve as a monitoring mechanism. For example training of judges and lawyers may also be important for the implementation of laws; Central Statistics Offices or the Ministry of Labour Survey must be encouraged to include adequate questions on domestic work in any forthcoming labour surveys.

context:

Apart from working with many sectors of government, ILO in Geneva reported that the expertise of many levels of ILO is required to implement the DWDW strategy. Although tripartite processes are extremely important, workers unions do not always represent domestic workers as a category of workers. Ways of working with organisations that actually provide voice to domestic workers is essential. Rather than try to work alone on domestic workers, the Sida CTA and team carefully brought others working on related issues to the table, to discuss solutions to the particular issues faced by these informal workers. For example those working on minimum wages, occupational safety and health, and those who are providing technical advice on labour inspection.

description:

A strategy on domestic workers cannot be steered unless ownership is given to others beyond ILO staff and tripartite partners. When developing national plans of action, include a focus also on ministerial departments beyond the ministry of labour. A strategy on domestic workers must be steered with those in these specialised areas taking ownership of domestic workers as an important category of workers, but with someone taking the lead and overall steering the process. Having ILO staff at hand at all times to provide quick answers to many legal labour questions is essential whilst national legislation is being formulated, particularly when a category of workers (domestic workers) is a new area of focus.

administrative_issues:

To address the plight of domestic workers, a form of mainstreaming is required, with facilitators and promoters of this category of workers in other sections of government and ILO. This requires training all staff on how to integrate this category of workers into other programmes and allowing for a focus on domestic workers in the administration of other programmes.

url:

https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/lessons/190843

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location:

country:

Inter-Regional

region:

Inter-Regional

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eval_title:

Making Decent Work a Reality for Domestic Workers - Final evaluation