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Better Work Global – Phase IV - Final cluster evaluation
- eval_number:
- 3191
- eval_url:
- https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/eval/3191
- location:
- country:
- Inter-Regional
- region:
- Inter-Regional
- eval_title:
- Better Work Global – Phase IV - Final cluster evaluation
- recommendations:
- date:
- 2023-01-16 00:00:00.0
- themes:
- theme:
- Organizational issues
- category:
- Planning and programme design
- action_plan:
- "Both gender and environmental sustainability are priority themes of Better Work's new strategy. Better Work has developed a strategy to tackle the social impacts of climate change and the transition to circular economy on the workers focusing of the intersection of environmental and social sustainability for example in the area of OSH or employment. Various country programmes have included a focus on environmental sustainability in their 5-year strategies mostly focusing on the development of partnerships with existing initiatives. Better Work is not planning to offer environmental assessments per se, but will consider including additional areas in its existing compliance assessment tool that could shed light on the environmental challenges of a factory to be addressed through advisory and learning services.
In the area of gender equality, non-discrimination, and inclusion, Better Work will collaborate with the relevant ILO technical units to reduce discrimination, including violence and harassment; foster women’s economic empowerment by tackling the gender wage gap and promoting career development through skills upgrading and accelerating the transition to digital wages. Better Work will support women in leadership and decision-making roles within employers’ and workers’ organizations, factories, and the public sector. The programme will also ensure that sound knowledge and data arising from this work inform national policy debates and seek partnerships to challenge discriminatory gender norms in the broader ecosystem. The programme will also build on its efforts to date to address discrimination based on disability, ethnicity, migration or refugee status, and HIV status."
- management_response:
- Partially Completed
- progress:
- Partially achieved
- admin_units:
- BETTERWORK
- title:
- Recommendation 6: Explore the further integration of cross-cutting concerns in the design, implementation and monitoring of BW. Although the evidence is small, various interviewees highlighted that environmental sustainability is a growing interest of BW stakeholders. As BW assessments do not currently include this dimension, buyers still conduct their own audits in this regard. The growing attention to environmental sustainability of ILO as a whole, the technical capacity present in ILO already (e.g., GREENJOBS) and the interest from stakeholders shows that there may be an opportunity to expand BW to include the environmental consideration more prominently.
The efforts made by BW to mainstream gender equality in the programme have been admirable and the impact is clearly visible. However, stereotypes and lack of awareness persist at all levels (factory, sectoral, national). Continued and enhanced efforts are needed to continue pushing for gender equality in national-level policies and factory-level processes.
In selected countries, examples exist of how BW was able to address persons with disabilities within the scope of the programme. BW should explore further how the programme can be more inclusive and how workers with disabilities can be supported through BW.
Several actions can be taken to implement this recommendation:
- Organise workshops with buyers who already implement environmental audits. Explore their assessments and determine whether this could be in the scope of the BW programme (keeping in mind that national stakeholders will need to build capacity in this field as well).
- Explore with national constituents the environmental policies and how they affect working conditions and factory practices. Based on that, agreements can be made with constituents on what a roll-out of environmental sustainability practices could look like. National stakeholders who should become responsible for assessment in the future should be involved in all discussions
- project_symbols:
- GLO/17/55/MUL
- url:
- https://webapps.ilo.org/ievaldiscovery/recommendations/16573
- information_source:
- Country Office
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