Five years after CARE first launched a regional strategy championing the rights of women working in the garment industry, Made by Women reflects on what has changed for workers and looks at how a coordinated focus across our programs has led to a strong push for systemic change.
The latest Impact Report highlights what we’ve achieved so far, what challenges we still face and where the strategy is focusing for the future. It shows the benefits of scaling out best practice from strong programs at country level and leading a coordinated push towards common goals. The result? A slow but tangible shift, particularly within industry, with a positive impact on workers.
Made by Women is CARE’s Impact Growth Strategy aiming to economically empower women garment workers through dignified work. Primarily focused on Asia, it links work in 11 priority countries with opportunities for regional and global influence. Overall, Made by Women’s work has led to tangible improvements in the lives of more than 167,000 women workers and indirectly reached nearly 1 million people.
What has changed?
- Women garment workers have accessed rights which they were previously being denied: More than 167,000 women experienced positive changes including accessing entitlements like the minimum wage and bonuses or benefiting from new policies and management systems in factories which protect them. When COVID-19 hit, women leaders and community action groups took action against unjust industry responses themselves, holding managers accountable for reducing the risks of COVID-19 transmission in factories and ensuring wages were paid to laid-off workers.
- Better legal protections exist for women: 4.1 million women garment workers across three countries stand to benefit from more progressive and inclusive public policies and national action plans as a result of CARE’s advocacy. In Vietnam, a stronger Labor Code means 28 million people are protected by stronger laws against sexual harassment.
- More factories are taking action to promote gender equality: 77 factories have worked with CARE change their policies, systems and workplace cultures in order to be more responsive to the rights of women workers, resulting in more than 154,000 workers gaining more dignified working conditions.
- Global brands are strengthening how they address sexual harassment: Five leading garment brands have been influenced to strengthen their supply chain policies, procedures and investments to prevent gender-based violence and harassment. More importantly, there’s now standardized guidance for how the industry can address violence and harassment across the whole supply chain.
How did it happen?
- Long-term, coordinated engagement with industry partners: Coordinated engagement at regional level, which linked with global relationships while drawing on successes from projects in individual countries, built support for CARE’s priorities over time. Central coordination made it easier to maintain a sustained focus, build evidence and have credible influence with the sector. This enabled honest conversations around issues and potential solutions.
- Elevating the voices of women: At all levels Made by Women worked to raise awareness of the issues facing women workers by supporting their collective voices—whether by bringing individual issues to the attention of factory management through EKATA groups; raising awareness of the challenges faced by homeworkers through a national partnership with a membership-based organization; or supporting trade union leaders to attend the International Labour Conference.
- Better coordination within countries and across the region to influence policy decisions: A coordinated focus on ILO Convention 190 with the global #ThisIsNotWorking campaign, supported by flexible funding for advocacy, meant more country offices were able to engage in the campaign
What did we learn?
- An increased focus on partnerships and movement-building contributed to positive change: While factory-level support is still a key part of CARE’s work with the garment sector, Made by Women increasingly focused on supporting union actors and grassroots women’s organizations with shared goals. Community action groups and local partners contributed to women-led improvements at factory, local and national level.
- A coordinated focus increases CARE’s profile and influence: CARE is now recognized as a thought leader in the garment sector and on issues related to violence and harassment in the workplace. Made by Women has shared best practice across many regional and global platforms, provided expert input to key research and joined a global collaborative with the potential to further influence the sector.
- A targeted focus has helped to increase funding: Clear goals backed by solid program experience helped make CARE an attractive partner for potential funders. CARE has raised $11.3 million in new restricted funds under the Made by Women portfolio and had significant input into another $4.5 million in additional funds.
Where do we go next?
COVID-19 has had a massive impact on the garment industry and disproportionately impacted women workers. Moving forward Made by Women will continue to build upon our achievements and adapt to address the new realities they face. We will strongly advocate on the importance of industry-wide action for a just recovery from the COVID-19 crisis. Learn more in the full Impact Report.
Want to learn more?
Read the full Impact Report
Read the Impact Overview summary
Learn more about Made by Women at care.org/madebywomen.