2010-2014

We still cry!

"Sister, we tell our stories to so many journalists, so many people like you, but then nothing changes. We still cry. Our employers continue to harass us; still there are young ones in sex work. There are so many people working on this - the rescuers, the HIV people, people like you-and so much money going into this problem. But why doesn't anything change?"

- a woman migrant worker who was trafficked; in a conversation to a visitor.

Goal and objectives

Goal: Empowerment of women migrant workers from India at both source and countries of employment

Objectives:1. To promote sustained policy dialogue and advocate for legal

reform and policy formulation as appropriate

2. To promote and strengthen socio-economic security and rights of women migrant workers in collaboration with bilateral and multilateral partners in countries of origin and employment

3. To contribute to the knowledge base on gender, migration and development by engaging in quality research / studies on policy and programmatic issues

Strategic Approaches

1. Pilot project : Developing a model of good practice

2. Policy advocacy for engendering the programmes and policies

3. Communication strategy for awareness raising on safe migration

4. Capacity-building of key stakeholders on safe migration related issues

5. Knowledge Management and Research

6. Monitoring mechanisms

Strategic approaches

1. Pilot project : Develop a model of good practice at source ( select district in Andhra Pradesh) and destination countries – engage stakeholders, gender sensitive reintegration programmes, focus on economic literacy, base line and EPO evaluation component

2. Policy advocacy: on engendering the programmes, policies, budgets – Consultative meetings with government and civil society partners for policy harmonization, on protection issues; National Advisory body meeting; follow up of GFMD; implementing CEDAW GR 26 and other relevant national, regional and international instruments related to WMW

3. Develop Communication strategy for awareness raising on safe migration

Strategic Approaches

4. Capacity-building Women migrant workers: on safe migration, improved access of

services, pre departure skills training, Develop training curriculum and guidelines, economic literacy, protection schemes, reintegration initiatives; selection of new skills and development

Media Training: Policy dialogue/orientation on right based journalism, issues of wmw

Recruiting agent and their network: Policy dialogue /orientation for implementation of the code of conduct

National Coalition of civil society actors on issues of women migrant workers is established

Peer learning visits and activities to country of employment and origin, like UAE and others

Strategic approaches5. Knowledge Management and Research:

1. Information exchange: analytical reports, technical publications and guidelines, best practices and successful models, Research findings

2. Dialogue forum on Safe migration on a social networking platform like Ning to facilitate regular evidence based policy dialogue with different stakeholders

3. Documentation of the good practices: On initiatives for protecting the rights of WMW, Up-scaling the good practices, financial schemes and reintegration

4. Support policy review and analysis, development of fact sheets and dissemination of census data on wmw

ResearchBase line survey:

a) Estimates of numbers: WMW population, Highest density source area, Interstate and

Internal, favoured Destination countries

b) Women migrant workers: Profile; main issues they face (Pre-departure, transit, Destination,

Returnee migrants Existing knowledge on safe channels, HIV, sexual violence Behaviour, Attitudinal and Practice studies at Source and

Destination Empowerment status

c) Existing relevant laws and policies: implementation and effectiveness, CEDAW implementation

levels, Code of Conduct for Recruiting Agents

d) Stake holder analysis; ● Logical Framework analysis, which will strengthen and realign the project

logic

Research2. Remittances study : WMW percentage contribution to

the GDP

3. Study on developing a ‘business model project’

4. Regional studies: on overseas market and selection of new trade, projection of migration trends and the favored destination sites

5. Research on fraudulent marriages in Punjab

6. Support a technical working group : technical inputs to the research studies, meets at 6 monthly intervals

Strategic approaches

6. Monitoring mechanisms:Develop mechanisms to monitor the

effectiveness of implementing CEDAW GR 26 and other relevant national, regional and international instruments related to WMW

Monitoring and Evaluation activities

At Countries of Employment

Stakeholder analysis especially looking at the legal process involved in immigration

Stakeholder’s attitudes Situation analysis of the Domestic WorkersRedressal SystemsIndian EmbassyRemittance processCEDAW GR 26 implementation

TWG Functions: Research, Baseline, EOP, surveysKM, CB tools,Ethical Comm

UNIFEM Focal Point for ICOE

UNIFEM Mgmt & Secretariat function

OMCAP &other trainingInstitutes

NGOs contracted for Pilots in AP

WMW Communities in AP

Advisory Board Members:ICOE,UNIFEMV V G NLTIILO/ IOMCivil SocietyPWN+,WMWothers

ICOE-UNIFEM PROGRAMME

TWG Members:VVGNLIICOEUNIFEMILO, IOMTech ExpEthics Comm

Women Migrant Workers Community of Practice

NGO and staff

State and district stakeholders teams

UNIFEM / ICOESouth Asia Secretariat

Program ManagerResearch ManagerFinance Manager

Consultants, Community Members, Recruiting agents,

UN, IOM, CARAM,NACO, INTL NGO,Other NGO

5 Lakh pop8000-10,000 WMW

Yellandu Madhira Khammam Burgapadu Paloncha

SMS to Web to SMS Voice 2 Web 2 Voice Community Radio

Recruiting Agents Panwala/Brokers Money lenders

AP’s Khammam District – 5 Taluks 25 lakhs, ~50,000 wmw

Post Office

Sustainability by Community Life Competence Process

PO/PE/IT-Kiosk Community Mobilization Capacity Building

Community Radio

Mobile Post Office

E-forum discussion

Blogs

Chat, Tele, Video Conf

SMS, Audio, Video

Discussion summary

Discussion Transcripts

Consolidated Replies

Final Blog

Group work Collaborative Document

Reports, Guidelines, budgetsFGD, Field or Immersion Visit

Transliteration Translated docs

KM Process in Ning

Knowledge Assetsor Resourcesconsisting of RecommendedDocuments, Websites, Contacts, Organizations…

Archives

NACP–IV RECOMMENDATIONS • All kinds of restrictions on female migration should be removed immediately: men and women should be given equal rights to choose to migrate or not.• To ensure decent work conditions for both men and women, 1990 UN Convention and relevant ILO conventions should be ratified by all sending countries• Civil societies of sending countries should create pressure on their governments to put migration on the agenda for different regional fora and also to convince the receiving countries to ratify.• Upcoming global forum should push for recognition of domestic work as wage labour and attempt to bring it under the labour laws of receiving countries• Social identity of women migrants should be respected. Social space of the migrant workers both men and women should be protected through ensuring strict working hours, better access to communicate with family, family reunification, holidays and recreation. All these should be placed in the negotiating table in bilateral and multilateral fora.

NACP–IV RECOMMENDATIONS •Female labour migration is complex. Pre-departure training for female migrant workers should be made mandatory in all labour sending countries.• Philippines and Sri Lanka developed institutions to better govern femalemigration. Institutional mechanisms for experience sharing and learning from each other should be in place. SAARC, ASEAN, etc. could be such forum..•To lift women up from low end care giving to professional workers, other sending countries can learn from the Philippines, Sri Lanka and India about how to lift the standards of their training centers for health care workers.• Women migrants send home larger portion of their income than men. Women migrants deserve to be rewarded both nationally and internationally for their contributions.• To sustain women’s economic empowerment, gender segregated investment tools are required.

No one has ever done this before!

"Sir, no one has ever come and talked before like this, No NGO, No Government, No one from UN, No funder, ever! Today we saw our own dreams, recognized our own strengths, and will see how we can tackle our own issues."

- a returnee woman migrant worker to a male facilitator, after she had a “taste” of the Community Life Competence Process