active· Livelihoods

Towards fair and sustainable global supply chains: Promoting formalization and decent work for invisible workers in South Asia

The ILO/Japan project “Towards fair and sustainable global supply chains: Promoting formalization and decent work for invisible workers in South Asia” aims to contribute to the development of ethical and sustainable global supply chains. The project is geared towards promoting decent work in global supply chains – specifically for those workers who are engaged at the lower tiers. They are typically home-based workers, subcontractors, and workers in medium and small enterprises in the informal economy in South Asia. Towards the upper-tiers of global supply chains see, larger and more formal enterprise have linkages with large, medium-sized and small enterprises engaged in the production of goods in both the formal and informal economies. Due to competitive markets and demands for speedy delivery, these enterprises often adopt highly flexible production and work patterns. This results in informal working arrangements, piece-rate production, home-based work and non-standard forms of employment. This is the second phase of the project titled “Way out of Informality in South Asia” which has been implemented in Bangladesh, India and Nepal during 2012-2016. In close cooperation with government, employers’ and workers’ organizations, international brand companies, and other key stakeholders such as NGOs and networks working to promote decent work in global supply chains, the project works at the policy, institutional and community levels and implement key interventions in the areas of research, awareness raising and capacity building, knowledge sharing, social dialogue, and policy advocacy to contribute to the development of ethical and sustainable global supply chains. The project is implemented mainly in India and Nepal, and good practices and lessons from the project are shared with other South Asian countries such as Bangladesh, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.