Looking for guidance on how to address gender-based violence and harassment in the garment and textile sector?
CARE and Better Factories Cambodia have developed standardized guidance for all businesses in garment supply chains to address gender-based violence and harassment. These guidelines are designed to support businesses to take meaningful and effective action to ensure women workers are safe and respected at all levels of the supply chain.
Gender-based violence and harassment in the workplace has come out of the shadows to become a prominent global issue, with increasing social and legal pressure for companies to ensure this does not occur within their supply chains. However, tackling such a complex issue is challenging and minimal guidance has previously existed for companies to address this across the breadth of their operations. To address this gap, CARE and Better Factories Cambodia worked in collaboration with brands and manufacturers to produce concrete guidance for supply chain actors to proactively address and respond to gender-based violence and harassment.
The guidelines were designed to guide a diverse group of supply chain stakeholders including brands, retailers, licensors, licensees, agents, manufacturing groups and factories, as well as governments, employer and industry associations, trade unions and non-profit organizations.
The core guidance includes five procedures relating to different areas of the supply chain:
- Human resource management
- Procurement, purchasing, & sourcing
- Supply chain management
- Client & customer management
- Subsidiary management
Each procedure is broken down into essential areas for action which cover five aspects of the workplace:
- Organizational leadership
- Workplace policies
- Workplace systems
- Workplace norms & practices
- Workplace training
The guidance is supported by eight guidelines, which provide more detail for businesses in the supply chain on how to implement the procedures.
The Guidelines for Addressing Gender-Based Violence and Harassment in the Textile, Clothing and Footwear Manufacturing Industry were developed by CARE and Better Factories Cambodia. They draw on learning from the Enhancing Women’s Voice to STOP Sexual Harassment (STOP) project, which was funded by the Australian Government, and build upon CARE and BFC’s joint event on the Business of Women at Work, which was also funded by the Australian Government.