Women and Work Conference November 2007

Progress for Women Is Progress for All

Women and Work Conference - November 2007

In November UNIFEM UK organised its second annual fundraising conference in London, this time entitled Women and Work. The guest speakers were Lord William Brett from the International Labour Organization, Silla Maizey from British Airways and Deborah Foy from Opportunity International. A common theme that emerged during the evening was the importance of work in empowering women to achieve a better life for themselves and their families.

Lord Brett spoke about the International Labour Organization's work in the era of globalisation and in particular about the question of gender equality. The ILO is a specialist agency of the UN which promotes a 'decent work' agenda of labour rights, employment and income opportunities, social protection and social dialogue between governments, employers and workers. The aim is to look for examples of best practice and how they can be applied in the circumstances of a particular country. The ILO Declaration of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work covers freedom of association and the recognition of collective bargaining, abolition of forced labour and child labour, and elimination of discrimination in respect of employment. Lord Brett suggested that discrimination was the most difficult aspect to tackle. At one time the ILO had a separate department dealing with gender issues but in practice this meant they were too often sidelined. The Gender Equality Bureau is now part of the Director General's Secretariat and it raises the profile of gender issues across the organisation.

Lord Brett said that one of the greatest challenges now is to tackle the problems of unemployment and the informal economy which affect many women. As an organisation the ILO is set up to deal with the structures of the 'formal' economy of governments and employers, but it needs to reach out beyond this. One approach is to liaise with agencies such as UNIFEM. Examples include joint projects on working conditions for migrant domestic workers and microfinance programmes to accelerate social change for women.

The second speaker was Silla Maizey who has recently been appointed Head of Corporate Social Responsibility at British Airways, a post which reports directly to the Chief Executive. The CSR strategy covers six key areas: BA's carbon footprint, noise and air quality, work practices, customer wellbeing and community. Silla explained more about the company's commitment to helping local communities both in the UK and in countries to which BA flies. In 2006/7 BA contributed £6.3 million to over 130 community and conservation projects around the world. A number of the projects involve educational opportunities for women such as a 10-week programme for unemployed women at a community leaning centre, and computer training classes for girls to raise awareness of new technology. Silla emphasised the importance of education and training in making women self-sufficient. The community activities funded by BA are run by regional community investment teams and supported by BA staff volunteers who visit projects while they are overseas.

Deborah Foy, programme development manager for Africa at Opportunity International, brought the issue microfinance to life with her stories of the charity's successful clients. She reminded the conference of the constraints on women in many poor communities – lack of time because of childcare commitments, no access to resources because of discrimination in property and employment rights, a lack of skills because they have not been educated, and no access to financial services. Opportunity International is the UK's largest microfinance charity, providing short-term micro loans and access to savings and insurance services, mainly to clients in informal business sectors such as agriculture, crafts and street vending. Employees are often family members and many women take loans for home-based businesses so that they can balance their work and family commitments. Projects involving training and education are encouraged as these open up opportunities beyond the traditional areas. Innovative approaches are taken to overcome local constraints for women clients; for example mobile banks have been introduced to facilitate access to services and group guarantees or character references have been used rather than collateral assets which many women do not have. Micro loans to women have proved to be low risk because repayment rates are very high.

Positive outcomes of microfinance services for women are increased assets and income (leading to improvements in education and healthcare of children), greater involvement and responsibility in the local community, more independence and a greater role in decision making in the household. On the negative side there can be problems if a woman loses control of the loan to her husband or another family member, or if her success leads to tension in the household. Deborah's conclusion was that microfinance is definitely an important tool in giving women an opportunity to lift themselves out of poverty.

Dame Marion Roe, a patron of UNIFEM UK, chaired the conference and the evening was rounded off by Zarin Hainsworth, President of UNIFEM UK, who thanked all of the speakers and those who had helped to organise the event.

UNIFEM UK is very grateful to Janet Cooper, Head of Global Employee Incentives at Linklaters, who hosted the event and provided refreshments. Over £500 was raised for the UNIFEM Trust Fund to End Violence Against Women through ticket sales and a collection on the night.

See www.ilo.org for more information about the ILO 'decent work' agenda

See www.opportunity.org.uk for more information about the work of Opportunity International

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The projects undertaken by UNIFEM make a difference to the everyday lives of women around and their families around the world. UNIFEM UK needs your support to help fund this work and to raise awareness of the issues affecting women's rights and security.