Browse by Theme: Dignified Work

How much does the average high street shopper pay attention to where their clothes come from? If asked, most people wouldn’t think of Laos – but according to a 2012 World Bank report, even though Laos’ production of garments is still modest compared to some of its more competitive neighbours (China, Cambodia, Thailand and Vietnam), garment production is the largest manufacturing sector in the country, with an annual turnover of $200 million. The sector employs more than 20,000 people in over 100 factories, and as with other low-cost garment-producing countries, most of the garment workers in Laos are young (17-25 years old), female (85%) and have migrated from the country’s rural areas. But do the pull factors of rural-urban migration translate into a better life?

Post-war Sri Lanka (since 2009) has much to offer tourists, and the country is relying on the hospitality and tourism sector to drive up economic gains and create a positive ripple effect on related social factors – such as meeting the employment needs of several million young Sri Lankans on the look-out to secure a job. But why is it that so many women in the sector are not being supported in their careers – and why, in some cases, is it so hard for women to even enter the workforce?

Migration is a critical, yet underexplored, dimension of the post-2015 development agenda. On 17-18 July, CARE and ODI are hosting the Women, migration and development conference. We want to know what you think on some of the key issues the conference will be debating.

Earlier this year, I spent a few months in a village in Accham district in far-west Nepal in an effort to understand what motivates people to leave their homes and migrate to the towns and cities of India, writes Tahseen Alam from the EMPHASIS project. Documenting the lives and experiences of migrants as they made their way from Nepal to India was an eye-opening journey for me as well.

Campaigning on workers' rights in one sector can bring important gains – but in doing so, we must not ignore the needs of vulnerable workers in other sectors

Privately, everyone working in development talks about domestic workers' rights. Publicly, no-one does. Why not?

CARE International and the Overseas Development Institute are organizing the international conference "Women, Migration and Development: Investing in the future". This event will highlight the need to acknowledge migration as a key factor for sustainable development and the need to better protect the human rights of migrants.

If you would like to invest in your future in the development sector, here are 5 reasons why you should send apply for an internship working on this conference: