Reducing vulnerability in Lao PDR: Advancing social protection and labour rights and entitlements in the coffee and tea sectors of Lao PDR
Project properties
LAO/21/01/EUR Asia and the Pacific Lao PDR European Union In progress This project is part of the Global Flagship Programme on Building Social Protection Floors for All
Description
Workers and households engaged in the coffee and tea sectors in Lao PDR’s Bolaven Plateau are mostly found in informal and vulnerable employment. It is often unpaid––in the form of contributing family work––and seasonal––to fill up vacant times and earn extra incomes. Workers are usually without proper employment contracts and social security coverage. They can be subject to labour rights violations, work with hazardous materials, unsafe conditions, violence and sexual harassment. The project “Reducing vulnerability in Lao PDR: Advancing social protection and labour rights and entitlements in the coffee and tea sectors of Lao PDR (SOLAR)” aims to ensure that such workers, especially informal workers and women in the coffee and tea sectors in three contiguous districts of the Bolaven Plateau, have better access to social protection and occupational safety and health (OSH) measures. It does so by raising awareness among workers and their representative individuals and organisations, and building capacities of civil society and other grassroot level stakeholders. It also aims to strengthen collective mechanisms for workers to share their problems and concerns, especially women workers, and equip them to better realise their labour rights. The SOLAR projects runs under the European Instrument for Democracy and Human Rights and responds to its specific objective to promote decent work and labour rights, including on OSH and access to social protection, particularly for informal workers in agriculture. It builds on the actions of the previous ILO/EU Vision Zero Fund project. A participatory approach is at the core of the project’s activities. SOLAR works with tripartite constituents; the government (Lao Social Security Organisation and the Ministry of Labour and Social Welfare), workers (Lao Federation of Trade Unions, Lao Women’s Union, organisations of informal workers and smallholder farmers), and employers (Lao National Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Lao Coffee Association, and the newly-formed Tea Association). It is jointly implemented by ILO and Oxfam together with civil society organisations working at the grassroot level. The grassroot organisations are supported through training, dialogue and technical assistance in areas such as women workers’ rights, social protection, OSH and labour rights so as to develop their capacities and provide opportunities for engagement in rights-based actions so as to ultimately promote labour rights in Lao PDR.SDG
Goals
- End poverty in all its forms everywhere
- Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
Time
27.10.2021 - 14.08.2024
Budget
667,984 / 1,129,841
Development Cooperation