Support the proposed new ILO Convention: Businesses could also join forces in advocating at thenational and global level for clear and strong regulation on preventing and responding to GBV at work. It is in everyoneâs interest to have a level playing field, where the same high standards apply to all businesses, wherever they operate. Here the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the UN body that sets global labour standards, has a critical role to play. A new binding ILO Convention to end violence and harassment in the world of work has been proposed, and final negotiations on the Convention will take place this June at the International Labour Conference in Geneva. This Convention will establish a new global standard that will help protect all workers from violence and harassment, including GBV, wherever they work. If successfully adopted, the Convention will make it compulsory for any government that ratifies it, to create or strengthen their local laws to at least meet the standard set out in the Convention. There are three parties to the negotiations: governments, workers and employers. Business therefore has a powerful voice in this negotiation and can make a huge contribution to making workplaces safe, everywhere, through supporting a strong and inclusive Convention. Companies could contact their representative bodies and urge them to work hard to reach agreement and get theConvention adopted this year. It is a unique opportunity, not to be missed!
CARE and Diageoâs collaborative work in response to the proposed ILO Convention:
Through our partnership with Diageo, we wanted to trial a diagnostic to help business know where to look for issues relating to GBV and how to tackle, report, and address them. We developed a framework of best practice based on the ILO Convention recommendations, CAREâs own recommendations and existing examples of good practice globally, and used this framework to benchmark every relevant Diageo policy to identify the bright-spots and the gaps in its protection and response policies. Best practice such as broad definitions of harassment within supplier standards and community programming initiatives focused on the sales environment were highlighted and recommendations created for Diageo to replicate and scale up these initiatives at a global scale.
But we all know that strong policies are just part of the solution. We took the time therefore to validate our assumptions and recommendations with the Diageo global team, across multiple low and high-risk countries and in business functions ranging from sales to HR and sustainability. The result was a strengthening of our recommendations, an acknowledgement of the need to respond to diverse cultural contexts and social norms and a series of actions for the Diageo Executive Committee to roll-out theemerging pockets of best practice at a global scale. (More information is available in this recent blog on Business Fights Poverty).
Diageo have taken a bold step in deciding to dig deep and assess what the proposed new ILO standards might mean and this has been a positive experience for them. We hope that others will follow their lead. Currently we are only aware of a handful of companies that have publicly supported global action in the form of the ILO convention. To mark International Womenâs Day this year, Avon, Marks and Spencer and Diageo signed a letter of support for the Convention. In the lead-up to the final round of negotiations on the Convention at this yearâs International Labour Conference CARE will be working with our corporate partners to secure more signatures for this letter. Let us know if you are interested!
Using community forums as a platform for addressing GBV: CAREâs partnership with Twinings. TheCommunity Development Forum (CDF) is a CARE-developed platform for inclusive community development and participatory decision-making, aimed at providing a voice for smallholders and workers with a focus on womenâs voice and leadership. Through a combination of community mobilisation and life-skills training, smallholders and workers are engaged in CDFs to create a mutually beneficial environment of community and business planning. CDFs provide an excellent platform for providing gender training. As a community leadership forum, CDFs have a significant role to play in addressing GBV and promoting gender equality. Twinings and CARE have been partnering in Sri Lanka since May 2017 to successfully establish Community Development Forums. The partners have now identified an innovative leadership opportunity to adapt this approach for tea-growing communities in Malawi. More information is available here.