Gender equality is critical to achieving the ILO vision of decent work for all and lies at the heart of the organization’s mandate. Building on the blueprint established by historical equality Conventions – C. 111 on Discrimination in Employment and Occupation, C. 100 on Equal Remuneration. C156 on Workers with Family Responsibilities, C. 183 on Maternity Protection and C. 190 on Violence and Harassment – and answering the call for action of the 2019 Centenary Declaration for the Future of Work, in 2022 the ILO also developed a Theory of Change towards a transformative agenda on gender equality touching on the same world-of-work issues and related equality barriers.
Aligned with this broader direction and strategic approach and recognizing how gender equality and women economic empowerment ae also key drivers to a healthy, fair and sustainable garment sector, Better Work applies a gender lens throughout its operations and at different levels of program implementation. With a view to guiding such work and harmonizing it across country programmes towards a clear and shared vision, Better Work is launching a Global Framework on gender Equality and Diversity Inclusion, focusing on 5 thematic priorities – discrimination, safety and health through a gender lens, voice and representation, care and family, leadership and growth.
Under the thematic priority of Safety and Health through a gender lens, in 2024 Better Work’s Global secretariat has begun building the capacities of Country Programmes and their staff towards leveraging on factories’ Occupational Safety and Health management systems to strengthen and systematize prevention of Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH). This workstream aims to respond the call of ILO Convention No. 190 on Violence and Harassment in the World of Work, adopted in 2019, to mainstream Violence and Harassment, including on the basis of gender and other discrimination grounds, in mechanisms for OSH prevention.
Starting from seed activities designed and tested in a small pilot in 2023, a training package was developed by BW’s Global secretariat targeting factories’ middle managers and aiming to shift their perception about GBVH not only as an issue relating to equality of treatment (often siloed into the “women’s issues” bucket in the factory’s perception), but also as something that causes serious harm, violates workers’ sense of physical and psychological safety and is otherwise tightly correlated with a other occupational hazards. By reframing GBVH in this way and relocating it within the perimeter of the employer’s duty of care, the ultimate objective of this journey within the factory would be to effectively see (GB)VH mainstreamed in existing mechanisms for the management of Occupational Safety and Health – e.g. frameworks for risk assessment, root cause analysis and problem-solving, TORs of OSH committees, OSH-related data collection and monitoring, risk management and prevention plans etc. – thus strengthening accountability and developing a anchoring the issue to a strong regulatory framework that could effectively nudge behaviours towards a safe and respectful organizational culture and environment, free from violence and harassment.
The training package was transferred to selected staff in Better Work Country Programmes through a virtual TOT Programme in May-June of 2024, and a number of questions were raised around the HOW-TOs of this new approach, eg. how to assess risks relating to (GB)VH, how to advise factories around that, how to build their capacities to do that in practice and self-sustain the mechanism, how to reconcile such activities with the limited scope and time of our current model for factory engagement etc. The need for practical tools – guidance material, templates, frameworks, training curricula – emerged very strongly. From Better Work’s global point of view, it also became apparent that there are country-specific needs and also potential for follow-up, based on current practices, internal technical capacity and varying level of maturity, and that these need to be mapped and assessed towards developing a roll-out plan.
Under supervision of Better Work’s Technical Officer on Gender Equality and Diversity Inclusion, the consultant will further explore both specific needs and roll-out opportunities/potential for the new approach in the 10 Better Work’s Country Programmes who participated in the TOT, and lay the groundwork for a pilot experience in selected country contexts, with the ultimate goal of developing a toolkit for mainstreaming (GB)VH in OSH management in BW factories. In particular, the assignment will consist of:
A detailed description of tasks and deliverables in the next page.
| Objective | Tasks | Deliverables | Timeline | Work Days |
| 1. Mapping country-specific needs in relation to facilitating mainstreaming (GB)VH in OSH management in BW factories and scoping opportunities for roll-out; | Systematize outcomes of action-planning exercise by country teams during TOT; conduct short 1-1 interviews TOT participants getting their views on specific challenges, opportunities and needs towards taking the new programme into factories; identify 1-2 country programmes with potential to pilot the new programme in selected factories; draft short report and develop recommendations on ways forward; participate in debriefing and planning calls within and organized by global team on the topic. | Interview guideline and matrix for information collection; 1-2 pager synthetic report of findings and recommendations. | 14 September | 6 |
| 2. Taking stock of existing resources and tools in the ILO’s and BW’s body of knowledge and practices when it comes to the OSH management cycle; | Collect and review existing material and capacity-building tools on OSH management for garment factories (from Better Work or other sources if relevant). This should include training material, tools and frameworks for risk assessment, root cause analysis, guides and manuals relating to the OSH PDCA cycle; identify entry points for making such tools responsive and inclusive of (GB)VH as an issue of safety and health (both GBVH as an OSH hazard and GBVH as depending on other risk factors including work-related stress and psychosocial hazards); | Inventory of collected and reviewed material; selection of material with potential for adaptation and further development; margin annotations / comments on selected material, marking entry points for improvements. | 28 September | 8 |
| 3. Assisting in the design of a pilot intervention in selected country contexts and develop a workplan towards that for BW Global. | Produce a first rough-draft and co-author a concept note / flyer for the intervention. This will be based on the outcomes of both exercises as per points 1 and 2, and keeping in mind that its main objectives will be around: Delivering the awareness raising programme for middle-management TOTed to staff in May-June 2024 in selected factories; Facilitating analysis and revision of their tools, policies and practices in a participatory manner with factory staff, co-designing additional tools and frameworks and developing a plan of action for implementation of change in the factory; Sketching out draft materials, templates and models to further build upon towards a toolkit for factory advisories. Develop an internal workplan for BW leading up to intervention roll-out. Exchange and liaise with Global Team and ILO Technical Working Group, receive and consolidate feedback. | Draft concept note for pilot intervention; draft internal work plan. | 16 October | 4 |
| Total number of days: 18 |
The consultant will report to Francesca Biasiato, Technical Officer Gender, Diversity, Inclusion.
Payment will be made upon satisfactory completion of the deliverables and submission of invoice for days worked as follows:
14 September: Deliverables item 1
28 September: Deliverables item 2
16 October: Deliverables item
The consultant is expected to apply a gender lens when preparing reports, analyses, or any written outputs. For instance, the consultant will:
All data and information received for the purpose of this assignment are to be treated confidentially and are only to be used in connection with the execution of these Terms of Reference. All intellectual property rights arising from the execution of these Terms of Reference are assigned to IFC and ILO. The contents of written materials obtained and used in this assignment may not be disclosed to any third parties without the express advance written authorization of the IFC and ILO.
Interested candidates wishing to apply to this assignment must send an email to biasiato@ilo.org with the subject “GBVH-OSH management toolkit preparatory work”
The email shall include the following:
1- Technical Offer
2- Financial Offer
The deadline for receiving applications is 15 August 2024.
Only short-listed applicants will be contacted.