Browse by Theme: Dignified Work

In 2011, the International Labour Conference voted to adopt Convention 189 which, for the first time, mandates state supported protection to ensure decent work for domestic workers. Yet to date, only 12 countries have ratified and submitted the convention.

As an organisation dedicated to helping women and girls overcome poverty and injustice, CARE International is working to ensure that more follow suit.

Coinciding with the March 2014 Commission on the Status of Women taking place in New York, which is focussing on gender in the Millennium Development Goals, this policy brief provides suggestions on how to best enable progress on gender equality in the areas that have seen least progress since 2000.

Is there a business case for worker empowerment? New evidence suggests the answer is yes. Twenty-three tea estates partnering with CARE International Sri Lanka have successfully implemented Community Development Forums, which are ‘mini-parliaments’ that facilitate dialogue between workers, management and the broader community. The model opens up new channels of communication between stakeholders across the plantation region, serving as a forum where collective decisions about community development priorities and labour conditions are negotiated and decided in a transparent way.

An independent assessment by the New Economics Foundation showed that that there was a 1:26 return on investment for estates, plus additional gains for workers and the community.

How can inclusive business contribute to building new markets and stronger supply chains? This publication highlights examples from Bangladesh.

First grown by the British, in Sri Lanka in the 1800’s, tea remains one of the country’s primary export earners and employers. World renowned, ‘Ceylon Tea’
accounts for the third of the tea produced globally while it remains one of the largest exporters of tea in the world. Nationally tea is one of the primary export earners, while the industry employs 10% of the country’s labour force, mostly consisting of women. Despite its pivotal role in the country’s economy for two centuries, those who live and work on the tea plantations are some of the poorest and most marginalized in the country. This brief looks at how multi-faceted worker engagement can improve the development of the tea sector.

This case study looks at the Community Development Forum model developed by CARE Sri Lanka to build worker engagement on the tea estate communities of Sri Lanka.