DRT-F 2015 Six months report

DRT-F 2015

Strengthening policy and legislative environment for home-based workers 6 month - Progress Report

UNIDO Global Cleantech Innovation Programme (GCIP) for SMEs and Startups in Pakistan

1) Introduction According to the National Policy on Home Based Workers (draft), the Government of Pakistan recognizes that there are 8.52 million home based workers in the country. The proportion of women workers in the home-based sector is 65% in contrast to only 4% of all male home-based workers. These workers significantly contribute to the country’s economic growth e.g. Pakistan accounts 80% of the world’s match-grade footballs and earns nearly $50 million in foreign exchange from this industry alone.

Most of these women home-based workers, who represent 60% of the total women workforce in the country, are piece rate workers involved in manufacturing and post-manufacturing tasks such as embroidery, carpet weaving and handlooms, wood work and other handicrafts, bangle making, dates cleaning and packing prawn peeling and packing and many other similar tasks.

The women home-based workers usually come from the poor, lower or lower middle income background and from various age groups and possess very little or no education at all. Young girls of age 6 to 14 are working and helping their mothers in making and finishing the tasks assigned to them by the middlemen against extremely low remuneration while working 12-16 hours daily under conditions that are frequently harsh, unhealthy, and hazardous.

The Government of Pakistan in general and international organizations like UN, in particular, realizes that currently the workers in the informal economy as well as in the home-based sector are not covered by any labour rights /labour standard legislation nor the definition of the “home-based worker” is part of any statute. Therefore, terms of working conditions of the home-based workers are not regulated by any law or regulation. Labour protection, social security coverage and provision of safety and health services and benefits are not extended to the informal sector, including the home-based sector. Therefore, they are unable to access the services, facilities, rights and benefits, including a fair remuneration under national laws.

1.1. Definition The Government of Pakistan has defined Home-based Workers as a special category of workers as follows: a) a person who works within the home boundaries, or in any other premises of his/her choice, but excluding the premises of the employer’s or contractor’s workplace;

b) a person who works at home for remuneration or monetary returns; c) a person who is self-employed or does piece-rate, own-account, or contract work, which results in a product or services as specified by the employer/contractor.

1.2. Explanation i)

The above-said definition of Home-based Worker does not include: a) a person with employee status who occasionally performs his/her employee work athome, rather than at his/her usual workplace; b) a home-based worker who has the degree of autonomy and of the economicindependence necessary to be considered an independent self-employed worker undernational laws, regulations or court decisions; c) a domestic worker, since he/she does not work in his/her own home;

d) a person working, outside his/her home boundaries, in the rural or non-formal sectors of agriculture, livestock, forestry, fisheries, etc., since he/she is still termed as“unpaid agricultural family helper”.

ii) The Government shall enact and notify the following term of the ‘employer’ in the specific context of home-based work in relevant laws and regulations; and that the employer in this context is: a) a person, natural or legal, who either directly or through an intermediary/ies or“middleperson/s” – whether or not intermediaries are provided for in national legislation, gives out home-based work in pursuance of her/his business activity; b) a person who can be an owner, sub-contractor, agent or middleperson, irrespective of who provides the materials, equipment or other inputs used by a home-based worker.

2)

Progress

The progress on UNIDO activities is as follows: Out put 3

Gender responsive policy draft developed for women entrepreneurs for economic empowerment especially of the excluded groups

Activity 3.1

Policy draft developed for women entrepreneurs specifically in the areas of clean technologies

S. No 1

Tasks  Review existing policies with partners

2



Identify policy issues and gaps

3



Conduct policy gap analysis

Progress  Relevant existing policies related to HBWs were identified and reviewed with partners of GCIP Pakistan 

Critical analysis undertaken to identify issues and Gaps, in the existing policies

Ongoing

Output 4

Business Growth Centre (BGC) strengthened to enable women’s access to higher incomes

Activity 4.1

Strengthening national institutions to create enabling environment for supporting women entrepreneurs.

S no

Tasks

1

 Identify public and private sector partner institutions

2

 Conduct awareness sessions for partner institutions

3

 Identify appropriate host organization for BGCs

Progress 

BGC - Federal (Annex 1) for HBWs established within the premises of Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry. The BGC is supposed to act as a coordinating hub for two more BGCs for HBWs in Lahore and Karachi.



Apart from existing partners, new partners institutions for strengthening BGC identified



A series of sessions organized with partners and Islamabad Chamber and the women entrepreneurs including Home Based Workers to assess their needs and expectations from the BGC



Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry (ICCI) in federal and Pakistan Institute of Management (PIM) for Punjab and Sindh

have been identified as host institutions for establishing and strengthening BGCs

Activity 4.2

Mentor Program launched

S no

Tasks



Federal BGC will act as a coordinating body for strengthening two more BGCs in Lahore and Karachi



Activity plan for strengthening all BGCs is underway

Progress

 100+ mentors identified  165 mentors identified at national level and trained regionally and  Mentor guideline prepared online  Mentors trained as per guideline  Design mentors programme A comprehensive mentor program designed for:  Business mentors  Technical mentors

1

2

and organized in the form of:  Individual Mentor  Local Mentor Chair  Regional Mentor Chair  Provincial Mentor Chair With a proper mechanism to resolve mentorship related issues and assess mentor's performance at all levels.

3)

Challenges

Some of the challenges faced so far:    

Lack of any comprehensive study of HBWs in Pakistan Lack of availability of sector specific database of home based women workers Cultural barriers to access women HBWs No single representative body exists

4)

Next steps

The activities planned for the 3rd Quarter are as follows: Activity

Main Activities under output 3 & 4

3.1

Policy draft developed for women entrepreneurs specifically in the areas of clean technologies (For remaining tasks) Regional stakeholder meetings/consultations held to review and agree upon the draft policy

3.2 4.1.

Strengthening national institutions to create enabling environment for supporting women entrepreneurs

4.3

Extensive advocacy and outreach activities including training programme, seminars, corporate and PPP Forums held regionally and online

Annex:1 Framework of strengthening Business Growth Center for HBWs

BGC – Federal Islamabad

BGC – Sind Karachi

 

 

Coordinating with the BGC Federal for the operations All other tasks as of BGC Federal

  







Main coordinating body for provincial BGCs Strengthening linkage with chambers at provincial level Linkage with relevant government bodies Linkage with incubators and display centre To act as hub of innovative entrepreneurship development To act as a model for provincial chapters to be replicated To work for development of entrepreneurial mindset of HBWs To conduct regular policy dialogue

Video Report of the Launching of Business Growth Centre Link: https://www.facebook.com/GCIPPakistan/videos/1118005661551092/

BGC – Punjab Lahore

 

Coordinating with the BGC Federal for the operations All other tasks as of BGC Federal