Aside from organizing
and strengthening homeworkers’ networks at the national and
regional level, HomeNet Southeast Asia has been preoccupied with
the following areas of work: planning and coordinating, mapping
and other forms of research, leadership training, social protection,
and policy advocacy. In these endeavors it has been supported by
a number of international organizations, including CIDA-SEAGEP,
UNIFEM, Ford Foundation, and the Dutch trade union FNV.
Planning
and Coordinating
To provide an opportunity for Homenet Southeast
Asia members to review and plan their activities at the national
and regional levels, the Southeast Asia workshop was organized during
September 20-21,2000 ,in Bangkok under the auspices of CIDA-SEAGEP.
Forty-eight participants and observers put their heads together
in charting the path for the national and regional networks in the
first years of the new millennium.
To oversee the implementation of the regional and
national plans, regional and national coordinators have been designated
and are being supported by UNIFEM and FNV.
In July 2003, members of the Asian Regional Coordinating
Committee (ARCC) created under the UNIFEM-FNV Project entitled "Strengthening
the Network of Homebased Workers in Asia" met at the UNIFEM
Regional Office in Bangkok, Thailand, 28-29 July to review and assess
the progress made covering the period September 2002 to June 2003,
as well as to identify requirements for future actions. (See related
story on the ARCC meeting in the section on SUBREGIONAL AND REGIONAL
MEETINGS).
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Mapping and Other Forms of Research
Where are the homeworkers? What work do they do?
For whom and with whom do they work? What resources do they have?
What are their working and living conditions. their problems and
needs? These are some of the questions that could be answered through
mapping as a research methodology.
Homenet Southeast Asia conducted a mapping workshop
on March 15-16 ,2001 with the support of UNIFEM and ILO /EASMAT
in Bangkok . There were about fifteen participants at the workshop
,including the delegates from Indonesia ,Thailand and Philippines.
The workshop enabled the participants to understand the meaning
of home-based work, the forms it takes, and the methods of data
collection and analysis. involved in mapping..
Soon after the workshop, HomeNet Thailand, with
the support of HomeNet International, launched its mapping exercise
in May 2001,after the finalization of the survey form for all their
members.The training of the homeworker leaders to collect the information
was held in four regions and they completed the data collection
at the end of July 2001. (For a summary of this, see HomeNet Thailand
website).
HomeNet Indonesia focused its UNIFEM-supported
mapping exercise on women homeworkers in the putting out system
in Surabaya and Bali. The project, envisioned to form part of its
membership expansion efforts in the target research areas, commenced
with a planning meeting in September 2001 and ended March 2002 with
the finalization of the report. (This report appears in summary
form in the HomeNet Indonesia website).
In the Philippines, PATAMABA (with UNIFEM support)
commenced their mapping efforts in November 2001, targeting 500
of its homeworker members in four areas: Bulacan, Rizal, Iloilo,
and the National Capital Region. In addition to a survey, PATAMABA
area leaders conducted focus group discussions with their members
and documented best practices. An important component of the mapping
project is the built-in training for PATAMABA leaders and staff
in computer-based data encoding, processing, and analysis, a step
forward in their own empowerment in the area of research. (For a
summary of the mapping report, please see the PATAMABA website).
All three HomeNets came together in a subregional
workshop in Crown Peak Hotel, Subic, Zambales, Philippines on 19-20
October 2002 to present and learn from the results of all their
mapping efforts. (See related article on the subregional workshop
on sharing mapping results in section on SUBREGIONAL AND REGIONAL
MEETINGS).
The HomeNets in the region have also been involved
in a number of other multi-country researches. PATAMABA and HomeNet
Indonesia conducted studies on the impact of the Asian financial
crisis on selected homeworkers in the garments, food and other affected
industries with the support of the World Bank. HomeNet Thailand
did a similar project with ILO support, and recently came out with
a book on the research. All three national HomeNets were also involved
in a recent UNICEF study on subcontracted women and children in
various manufacturing industries. In 2002, HomeNet Southeast Asia
(Thailand and the Philippines) embarked on a research on social
protection for informal workers in the garments industry with the
support of the ILO. (See subsequent section on social protection).
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Leadership
Training
HomeNet Southeast Asia, with support from CIDA-SEAGEP,
initiated its Leadership Training Program in 2001 to strengthen
the capacity of homeworker leaders in Thailand, Philippines and
Indonesia. The Program was designed together by a planning committee
in which the three countries were represented The committee agreed
on the component modules of the Program, and it was implemented
in the three countries from October 2000 to April 2001 .
Each national HomeNet had its own customized modules
for the Leadership Training Program, covering the following areas:
(1) Economic Empowerment ( business management,
product development, marketing , and finance),
(2) Social Protection (including social welfare and social insurance),
(3) Policy Advocacy , and
(4) Organizing and Networking.
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Social
Protection
HomeNet SEA led a CIDA-SEAGEP-supported project
on the documentation of social protection schemes in Indonesia,
Philippines and Thailand.. The project aimed to collect information
on existing programs of social welfare, social insurance, and social
assistance among workers in the informal economy in the three countries.
The project has helped the three national HomeNets to review and
compare the existing social protection schemes and enabled them
to draw lessons and analyze the gaps in the schemes. The project
was completed in book form by the three researcher-writers: Doanoi
Srikajorn (Thailand), Hesti Wijaya (Indonesia) and Lucita Lazo (Philippines)
who also served as the editor.
HomeNet Thailand, in 2001, initiated a pilot social
protection scheme in Chiangmai. The homeworkers in the area began
their health insurance scheme, with 110 members contributing their
own fees.The financial support from UNIFEM for the pilot project
was used for administration, as well as for the preparation and
training of the leaders. Prior to setting up the scheme, a working
group did a feasibility study covering eight private insurance companies
and three hospitals.
In the Philippines, PATAMABA has been supporting
alternative and indigenous social protection schemes - Paluwagan
and Damayan. In Damayan, each member contributes a certain amount
when a member dies. In Paluwagan (pooled money), each member pays
a certain amount, agreed upon by all the members. The pooled money
is then taken alternately by the members, who draw lots to determine
the first beneficiary.
In the year 2002, it was the Philippines’
turn to initiate a pilot social protection scheme with UNIFEM support.
This would require actions at several levels including technical
studies to outline different options for providing social protection
to homebased workers; policy support to address the overall policy
framework that would affect homebased workers ability to sustain
such schemes; and brokering of strategic alliances between homebased
workers organizations and cooperatives, government agencies and
the private sector including insurance companies and business people.
In the area of research towards policy advocacy,
HomeNet Thailand and PATAMABA (HomeNet Philippines) conducted a
case study on the garments industry in the two countries, focusing
on social protection for workers in the informal economy. The results
of the case study were presented in a technical consultative workshop
in April 2002 convened by the ILO-STEP, WIEGO, and the World Bank
in Chamonix, France. The two Homenet SEA coordinators served as
presentors and discussants in the workshop.
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Policy
Advocacy and Networking
HomeNet SEA sees the need for the development of
national policies on homework that "promote equality of treatment
between homeworkers and other wage earners" in such areas as
the right to organize, protection against discrimination, remuneration,
occupational safety and health, social security protection, and
training. This is mandated by the ILO Convention on Home Work, adopted
in 1996 after a coordinated campaign by homebased workers' networks,
but which up to now has been ratified by only two countries - Ireland
and Finland. The adoption of this Convention is significant, because
it means that ratifying countries will be obligated to convert its
provisions into national laws. The Convention would oblige any ratifying
member State to "adopt, implement and periodically review a
national policy on home work aimed at improving the situation of
homeworkers." The challenge for HomeNet SEA is now on ratification
and implementation of the Convention in order to translate the Convention
into reality . The advocacy initiatives in the region are focused
on developing the national policies in line with the ILO Convention.
In South East Asia, the financial and economic
crisis of 1997 has led to growing informalisation since those who
have lost employment in the formal sector have moved into informal
employment thereby increasing the competition for paid work and
scarce resources (i.e. Thailand, the Philippines and Indonesia).
As women predominate in the
informal sector, the development of appropriate informal sector
policies is critical for women's economic and social empowerment.
The development of a strong information base complemented by research
studies will serve as the back bone for advocacy and lobbying efforts
at all levels for homebased workers to understand their own situation
and for the government and the private sector to evolve appropriate
policies and programmes. HomeNet SEA is also actively fostering
links between relevant research institutions and experts in the
region (such as Women in Informal Employment Globalizing and Organizing
-- WIEGO) in the hope of establishing a network of experts or fluid
think tank which has as its focus, the researching and monitoring
of the impact of global, regional and national economic trends on
homebased workers and on women's economic rights as a complement
to the grassroots organizational work. HomeNet SEA Coordinator Rakawin
Lee sits on the WIEGO Board, and is active in its Organizing and
Representation Committee. Representatives of the three national
HomeNets attended the WIEGO Annual Meeting in Ahmedabad, India,
in January 2002.
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