Workplace Harassment
Enhancing Women’s Voice to STOP Sexual Harassment Final Evaluation – Myanmar
The Enhancing Women’s Voice to Stop Sexual Harassment project (STOP), an initiative of CARE Australia, has been working since 2017 to prevent and address the under-reported problem of sexual harassment (SH) in mainland Southeast Asia’s garment sector.
At the time of writing, STOP is the only initiative that addresses this issue on a multi-country scale within the sub-region. Operating across a pool of garment factories in four Mekong countries—Cambodia, Lao PDR1, Myanmar and Vietnam—STOP aims to enhance women’s voice and economic rights at both the national and factory levels. Based on a socio-ecological model of violence prevention, CARE Country Offices (COs) are working with participating factories to create workplaces where female workers feel safe and experience less SH through the implementation of standardised SH reporting mechanisms and rigorous training programs. Supported by CARE Regional staff, each CARE CO engages with relevant country, regional and international stakeholders to strengthen the national regulatory environment to promote laws, policies and mechanisms to address SH in the workplace.
In 2018, CARE Australia commissioned a consortium of researchers from UNSW Sydney and UNSW Canberra to undertake an independent evaluation the STOP project and provide a separate Social Impact Assessment (SIA) focused on Cambodia STOP as the particular case study. It is important to note that the SIA is intended to complement the findings of the Final Evaluation (FE) of the STOP, as implemented in the other three project sites. In this way, the SIA and the Final Evaluation should be read as two parts of a single whole.
The STOP project is evidence-based. This strength of evidence is reflected in the rapid review of evidence first published by CARE (Campbell and Chinnery 2018) in November 2018, which provides a comprehensive discussion of how to prevent and respond to SH in the workplace. The continued inclusion of evidence into the project cycle ensures that the STOP project is built on current best practice.
This report provides an overview of Final Evaluation findings of the full STOP project and evaluation findings relating to the STOP project in Myanmar. Read More...
At the time of writing, STOP is the only initiative that addresses this issue on a multi-country scale within the sub-region. Operating across a pool of garment factories in four Mekong countries—Cambodia, Lao PDR1, Myanmar and Vietnam—STOP aims to enhance women’s voice and economic rights at both the national and factory levels. Based on a socio-ecological model of violence prevention, CARE Country Offices (COs) are working with participating factories to create workplaces where female workers feel safe and experience less SH through the implementation of standardised SH reporting mechanisms and rigorous training programs. Supported by CARE Regional staff, each CARE CO engages with relevant country, regional and international stakeholders to strengthen the national regulatory environment to promote laws, policies and mechanisms to address SH in the workplace.
In 2018, CARE Australia commissioned a consortium of researchers from UNSW Sydney and UNSW Canberra to undertake an independent evaluation the STOP project and provide a separate Social Impact Assessment (SIA) focused on Cambodia STOP as the particular case study. It is important to note that the SIA is intended to complement the findings of the Final Evaluation (FE) of the STOP, as implemented in the other three project sites. In this way, the SIA and the Final Evaluation should be read as two parts of a single whole.
The STOP project is evidence-based. This strength of evidence is reflected in the rapid review of evidence first published by CARE (Campbell and Chinnery 2018) in November 2018, which provides a comprehensive discussion of how to prevent and respond to SH in the workplace. The continued inclusion of evidence into the project cycle ensures that the STOP project is built on current best practice.
This report provides an overview of Final Evaluation findings of the full STOP project and evaluation findings relating to the STOP project in Myanmar. Read More...
Dignified and Violence-Free World of Work: A Study on Women Working in Informal Sectors in Nepal
A significant percentage (66.5%)1 of women in Nepal work in informal sectors and are vulnerable to all forms of violence and exploitation. The violence experienced by women in informal sectors ranges from physical, sexual, and verbal harassment to labor and economic exploitation by employers, co-workers and family members. Existing legal provisions such as Sexual Harassment (Elimination) at Workplace Act, 2015 do not have specific provisions for informal sectors whereas other mechanisms to address violence against women, in general, remain ineffective in implementation. In addition, socio-cultural norms and structures limit women’s access to justice-seeking mechanisms. Despite pervasive instances of violence and harassment experienced by women in informal sectors, there is a dearth of comprehensive documentation and evidence building on this issue. In this light, the paper examines the existing status, nature and experiences of violence faced by women working in diverse areas of the informal economy. It also critically analyses key gaps in existing legal provisions/policies and barriers to implementation from the perspective of informal sector workers.
The paper is based on the findings from 36 case studies of women working in 15 different informal sectors, Gendered Political Economy Analysis (GPEA) with community and policy stakeholders and desk review of relevant policies/legal provisions. The paper shows that women’s gendered social roles, lack of collectivisation and representation in decision-making bodies puts them in a weaker bargaining position to voice against instances of violence or to make it a priority agenda of advocacy for policymakers. Similarly, the findings of the paper indicate that lack of adequate and effective polices/provisions on safe working conditions and their implementation leads to invisiblisation of violence at the workplace, enabling powerholders to continue cycles of violence and exploitation without accountability. The paper contributes towards mainstreaming discourses around dignified work for women in the informal economy. It also serves as an evidence-based advocacy document to influence governments to ratify ILO Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190, which is a binding international treaty that protects all workers in formal and informal economy. Read More...
The paper is based on the findings from 36 case studies of women working in 15 different informal sectors, Gendered Political Economy Analysis (GPEA) with community and policy stakeholders and desk review of relevant policies/legal provisions. The paper shows that women’s gendered social roles, lack of collectivisation and representation in decision-making bodies puts them in a weaker bargaining position to voice against instances of violence or to make it a priority agenda of advocacy for policymakers. Similarly, the findings of the paper indicate that lack of adequate and effective polices/provisions on safe working conditions and their implementation leads to invisiblisation of violence at the workplace, enabling powerholders to continue cycles of violence and exploitation without accountability. The paper contributes towards mainstreaming discourses around dignified work for women in the informal economy. It also serves as an evidence-based advocacy document to influence governments to ratify ILO Violence and Harassment Convention No. 190, which is a binding international treaty that protects all workers in formal and informal economy. Read More...
Addressing Gender-Based Sexual Harassment in the Workplace in Vietnam and Cambodia
Purpose: This final evaluation aims to build an impact assessment of the sexual harassment prevention (SHP) package in the targeted suppliers of Primark in Vietnam. In particular, the final evaluation aims to assess the appropriateness and the effectiveness of interventions of the SHP package and review the possibility and lesson learnt to scale up the SHP intervention to other suppliers of Primark in Vietnam.
Methods: The study employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Regarding qualitative methods, the study organised and collected information from 2 focus group discussions (FGD) with the Sexual Harassment Committee (SHPC) members, 6 in-depth-Interview with leaders and workers, the four most significant change stories and a program reflection workshop. The quantitative method was a survey with a sample of 196 employees working in the targeted factories. [76 pages]
Main findings: The intervention package of the project had 3 major domains of activities which included training and advocacy to leaders and managers of the factories participating in the project on SHP, supporting the factories to develop and implement SHP mechanisms, and awareness-raising and behaviour change campaigns. The project’s activities that focus on training and advocacy for the targeted factories’ leaders and managers had promoted them to proactively participate in address sexual harassment in their factories. The factory management board had publicly shown their commitment to implement the established SH prevention policies and actively participating in implementing all the project activities and creating role models at the forefront of good practice performance. Also, the findings of this evaluation show significant improvements in behaviours and the capacities of SHPC members and resource persons regarding implementing SHP activities and SH case handling. Read More...
Methods: The study employed a mix of qualitative and quantitative methods. Regarding qualitative methods, the study organised and collected information from 2 focus group discussions (FGD) with the Sexual Harassment Committee (SHPC) members, 6 in-depth-Interview with leaders and workers, the four most significant change stories and a program reflection workshop. The quantitative method was a survey with a sample of 196 employees working in the targeted factories. [76 pages]
Main findings: The intervention package of the project had 3 major domains of activities which included training and advocacy to leaders and managers of the factories participating in the project on SHP, supporting the factories to develop and implement SHP mechanisms, and awareness-raising and behaviour change campaigns. The project’s activities that focus on training and advocacy for the targeted factories’ leaders and managers had promoted them to proactively participate in address sexual harassment in their factories. The factory management board had publicly shown their commitment to implement the established SH prevention policies and actively participating in implementing all the project activities and creating role models at the forefront of good practice performance. Also, the findings of this evaluation show significant improvements in behaviours and the capacities of SHPC members and resource persons regarding implementing SHP activities and SH case handling. Read More...
Gendered Violence Research Network: Enhancing Women’s Voice to STOP Sexual Harassment Final Evaluation – Vietnam
CARE Australia, through its partner CARE Country Offices (COs), has been working to prevent and address the issue of sexual harassment in mainland Southeast Asia’s garment sector since 2017. STOP is funded by CARE Australia and the Australian Government through the Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade’s Australian NGO Cooperation Program (ANCP) and the Gender Action Platform (GAP).
STOP is aligned with CARE International’s organisational remit of working in gender transformative ways to cultivate gender equality and justice and uses an adapted version of the World Health Organisation’s ‘socio-ecological model of violence prevention.
STOP’s key objectives can be summarised as follows:
1. To support garment factories in developing effective workplace mechanisms to respond to sexual harassment.
2. To make female garment factory workers feel safe enough to report sexual harassment, and through engagement with garment factories, enable them to do so without negative consequences.
3. To strengthen the national regulatory environment to promote laws, policies and mechanisms to address sexual harassment in the workplace. STOP works with participating factories to implement STOP’s Workplace Sexual Harassment Prevention Package (WSHPP) to create workplaces where female workers feel safe and experience less sexual harassment. This is achieved using a ‘social norms approach’ at the individual, factory, and societal levels. [32 pages] Read More...
STOP is aligned with CARE International’s organisational remit of working in gender transformative ways to cultivate gender equality and justice and uses an adapted version of the World Health Organisation’s ‘socio-ecological model of violence prevention.
STOP’s key objectives can be summarised as follows:
1. To support garment factories in developing effective workplace mechanisms to respond to sexual harassment.
2. To make female garment factory workers feel safe enough to report sexual harassment, and through engagement with garment factories, enable them to do so without negative consequences.
3. To strengthen the national regulatory environment to promote laws, policies and mechanisms to address sexual harassment in the workplace. STOP works with participating factories to implement STOP’s Workplace Sexual Harassment Prevention Package (WSHPP) to create workplaces where female workers feel safe and experience less sexual harassment. This is achieved using a ‘social norms approach’ at the individual, factory, and societal levels. [32 pages] Read More...