Vision

We wish to see a world in which women are free to work, to be rewarded equitably, to organise themselves and represent their own needs, to work free from harassment and oppression, to attain a balance between work and family life, and to achieve positions of responsibility and leadership in a non-patriarchal system. These rights must be fully recognised by government and employers.

Mission

In partnership with grassroots organisations, we support and encourage women workers in international production chains supplying European markets to claim their rights, improve their conditions, seek solutions to women’s issues and be rewarded equitably for their work. We strengthen the capacity of grassroots organisations to listen to and represent women’s voices and strive for improvements in their working lives.

Objectives

We are working to:

1. Improve wages and working conditions for formal and informal women workers;
2. Promote and strengthen women's leadership, both as a goal in itself and to ensure that women's concerns are prioritised in negotiations with stakeholders;
3. Encourage the development of policies and practices which contribute to the ending of discrimination against women;
4. Organise conferences, seminars, research and other educational activities on the subject of women’s work;
5. Improve our capacity to achieve/deliver our organisational objectives.

Guiding principles

In whatever we do we are committed to:

• Be led by the needs of women workers and our partner organisations;
• Work in partnership, equality and mutual respect with Southern partner organisations;
• Build the capacity of women workers and partner organisations in order to ensure the sustainability of our project work;
• Constructively work with and support trade unions and other workers’ representatives;
• Ensure flexibility and cost-effectiveness by remaining a small, pioneering headquarters organisation;
• Challenge policies and practices that cause hardship for women workers;
• Address emerging issues as well as those commonly neglected by other labour rights organisations;
• Promote connections between organisations to maximise the impact of knowledge and the power of networks.