At the GSC, we have heard our community’s and readers’ opinion that issues pertaining to women’s empowerment deserve our heightened consideration and the exchange of informed and varied perspectives. This is why our Board has formed the GSC Women’s Empowerment Committee and devotes this issue to describing several important initiatives that empower and improve the conditions of women around the world.
What can an XY chromosome buy?
Well, it depends. A gene on the Y chromosome is a fluctuating currency. It depends where the lottery of gender is played out alongside the lottery of birthplace. Purchasing power may also be a question of whom. And it depends when, in times of economic strife or worse, violent conflict, the vulnerability of one gender is exacerbated. In 2014, nonetheless, chromosomes still buy boys a better chance. In the extreme, it’s the chance of life over death. Along the spectrum, it might be the chance of education, the greater odds of being safe and well, of enjoying independence and self-determination, of making it, in the current vernacular, to the C Suite.
Gender is not always the sole determinant of these things but we cannot say it is never so because too, too often it simply is.
is not distributed equitably by gender, not even close.
We ask how is this socially tolerable? Expressed as the narrative of individual women’s and girls’ experiences, the impact is visceral. We ask our conscience how is this morally tolerable?
Is this immediately relevant to global sourcing? By numbers alone, gender equity concerns half our world; our connected, interdependent world, so it’s irrefutably relevant to us all.
At the GSC, our council’s concern with sustainable, socially-conscious practices in sourcing inexorably directs our conversation towards themes such as education, access to economic participation and individual, institutional and commercial accountability. This conversation cannot and should not be dislocated from the sustainable future of one in two human beings on this earth and their human rights.
Our sourcing-oriented conversations, if we are to be purposeful, must be inclusive of a heterogeneous even heterodox mix of philosophies and perspectives. At the GSC, diversity is how we roll.
Our GSC members exchange vibrant and varied views on the politics and policy of sourcing; whatever our respective positions, our joint discourse weaves through a complex fabric of related themes: economics, politics, society and sustainability, equity and accountability, access and inclusion. When someone says the GSC is concerned with technology, they are right; if you ask of our interest in the evolution of how, where and by whom work gets accomplished, you cleave to our intent. Do we care about what human creativity, competition fairly practiced, innovation and creativity can cause? Yes, you joined the right conversation – a conversation that cannot claim legitimacy if it does not voice the rights and needs of women.
The Girl Effect: A program supported by the Nike Foundation in collaboration with other organizations that targets vulnerable adolescent girls in the developing world by using funding, awareness and volunteer work to address and uproot the stem of poverty and inequality.
Women on Wings: A Dutch organization co-founded in by Ellen Tacoma and Maria van der Heijden with the mission of creating one million jobs for the women in rural India.
The Tata Consulting Services – General Electric BPO Center in Saudi Arabia: The establishment of the world’s first business processing outsourcing center staffed entirely by and creating jobs for 3,000 women in Riyadh.
SEED: Founded by UNEP, UNDP and IUCN at the 2002 World Summit on Sustainable Development which supports grassroots social and environmental entrepreneurship, in developing countries, so far predominantly in Africa, by means of its award scheme.
We invite all interested GSC members to lend their voice and vision to the critical theme of women’s empowerment and its social – economic – political interplay with global sourcing. Please contact me with your comments at: karen.morris@gscouncil.org.
March is a momentous month during which women are celebrated around the world in various ways. Many countries observe “Women’s History Month”, “Women’s Empowerment Month” or “International Women’s Day” (recognized on March 8th by 27 countries). Rallies are held, seminars, symposia and special events attended, and men are asked to honor their mothers, wives, sisters, extended family members, girlfriends and colleagues.
This recognition is important. In one way, it reminds those who have “awareness” of the common human elements shared by the sexes. It also underscores that these days of celebration and activism should not be viewed similarly to “Mother’s Day”; that critical gaps in gender equity around the world still necessitates a calendar event to spur us to continue working towards removing barriers to equality. For those that are unaware or in opposition, it serves to bring to their consciousness that many within the global community continue to fight for the irrefutable rights of humane, fair and equal treatment of women.
Self-determination, and by extension gender equality and gender equity, is a basic human right. The Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UNDH) http://www.un.org/en/documents/udhr/ adopted by the United Nations General Assembly in December 1948 represents the first global expression of the inherently entitled rights of all human beings. This declaration and sister declarations and covenants led to the 1966 passage of the International Bill of Human Rights which is now part of international law. Yet, here we are in 2014 with much work still to be done.
Empowerment for all mankind is essential to our survival. Sustainability demands it. Women’s potential and continued contributions are as vital a component to the achievement of this as lifeblood.
In this issue we refer often to the United Nations Global Compact. Its vision of a sustainable and inclusive global economy is supported by defined, accountable ways to achieve lasting benefits for people, communities and markets. http://www.unglobalcompact.org/.
Women on Wings is a social enterprise, founded in The Netherlands, that advises Indian social entrepreneurs that employ women in rural India and have opportunities for growth. Women on Wings’ core objective: creating 1 million jobs for women in rural India by 2018.
The idea for Women on Wings arose in 2007. Following several trips to India by Maria van der Heijden and Ellen Tacoma, self-employed entrepreneurs in management and marketing communication, the two women wanted to make a personal contribution to sustainable entrepreneurship in India.
Driven by compassion, they chose to focus on ways to develop businesses in rural India and to source more employment for women. The Indian underclass – around 700 to 800 million people – still lives on barely two dollars a day. There is very little work, especially in rural areas. Families lack their own income and depend on others for their survival. By the end of 2013 the number of jobs created by Women on Wings totaled 101,250. “With an annual doubling of the number of women, we will realise over 1 million jobs for Indian women by 2018” say Van der Heijden and Tacoma.
We are achieving this goal by making knowledge available to existing Indian social businesses to accelerate their growth (pro-bono business consultancy) and by developing new businesses in partnerships. This creates employment for women in rural areas. A job means income for these women, economic autonomy and an escape from the cycle of poverty. Their children can go to school and thereby increase their chances of a better future.
More often than not there are ample business opportunities, but the area lacks expertise. Women on Wings provides focused expertise – Dutch experts attach themselves temporarily to an Indian social enterprise and work together to find fitting and realistic business models. These experts provide their time – in the Netherlands and in India – on a voluntary basis. The overall effort is supported by a team of more than fifty experts. The expertise ranges from: retail and logistics, management and organization, HR and finance. This gives Women on Wings a large pool of human capital that we can link up to social enterprises in India.
Our work includes active partnerships with large companies such as AkzoNobel and Rabobank.
All three components of People, Planet and Profit can be seen in the work carried out by Women on Wings, with an emphasis on people and profit in the form of an income for enterprising women in rural India.
Women on Wings follow the international OECD Guidelines for responsible business practices. We also ensure that the women are selected for their specific skills; the women’s background and religion are not of interest. Some customers focus specifically on disadvantaged groups.
Payment: We work with organizations that pay a fair price for the work.
Working hours: The majority of women who work for Women on Wings’ customers are not paid a salary, but are paid per item or assignment. Women often combine the paid work with their housework and looking after children. Working hours are not fixed, but are determined by the women themselves.
Child labor: Women on Wings works with organizations that hire women aged 16 years and older.
Footprint: An important component of our philosophy is the footprint left by Women on Wings – how sustainable is our business management? Do we make responsible purchasing decisions? And how do we, for example, compensate the many air miles we clock up in our trips to India and The Netherlands?
Accountability and monitoring: The process related to the detailed accountability and monitoring of the working conditions and environmental impact of activities is a work in progress. For example: this could be done through case descriptions and stories from our customers and our experts, and using organized accountability tools tailored to companies similar in size to Women on Wings (examples include the “social evaluator” and the BSCI methods).
Women on Wings is now able to respond much faster from its Indian office. Closer and more frequent contact enables us to expand our current partner base more rapidly, build on existing relationships and also add new partners and relationships more quickly.
Our team of 3 Indian consultants creates new business leads for Women on Wings and maintains contacts with relevant stakeholders.
Before we start working with a new business partner we need to get a clear picture of its culture and way of working, ensuring that they fit the mission and vision of Women on Wings. We then analyze the organization’s product portfolio, structure, as well as the management and operating style. Once we choose to work with this organization we then form a strategy together with them to ensure the success of the cooperation. In the next phase, we support the organization based on the defined strategy in order to link our knowledge and to create an impact that is sustainable. We have long-lasting and successful partnerships with Indian social enterprises such as Fabric Plus, Rangsutra, Jaipur Rugs and Jharcraft.
Our funding partners are companies and/or corporate or private funds/financiers who commit themselves to Women on Wings for at least three years. Together we develop business programs that aim at the sustainable development of jobs for women in rural India combined with the objectives of the funding partner.
Sanitary Pads: In partnership with Aakar, SSP/SURE and Foundation Charity Fund Rijsholt we work on a sanitary pads program. This program focuses on raising awareness about the health issues associated with menstrual hygiene and the startup of sustainable enterprises in the production and sales of sanitary pads by women in rural India. Aakar provides the necessary machinery and raw materials and trains women to operate the machines. SSP/SURE is responsible for production, marketing and sales and draws on its network of 1,000 female entrepreneurs in the districts of Latur and Osmanabad. Stichting Charity Fund Rijsholt is the program’s financial backer.
A team of Women on Wings experts worked with the team members of SSP/SURE and Aakar Innovations to improve the production set up, develop an awareness and marketing plan, and create a picture book and training manual on menstrual hygiene and the use of pads.
Menstruation is stigmatized and contributes to gender inequalities in rural Indian society. In rural India, roughly one in two girls believes menstruation is a disease. The majority of adolescent girls know very little about menstruation and how to deal with it. During their period, girls stay at home instead of going to school and often drop out permanently. Sanitary pads are largely unavailable. Instead, women and girls are forced to use unhygienic cloths that can lead to disease and even death.
Since November 2013, Shanta Gevali, one of the entrepreneurs of SSP/SURE, manages the business unit in Tuljapur. She runs her business with 10 women and currently they produce 1,500 pads per day. Shanta has tremendous faith in the capacity of women to run successful businesses: “It’s not important how high you can fly in the sky, but what matters is with how many others can you fly”. Shanta believes that a woman can prove that she can play the roles of creator, feeder and survivor on this earth, if only she gets the freedom to think.
It makes me very happy that Women on Wings plays not only a role in hands-on support for social enterprises to create growth but also actively introduces organizations to each other. That could vary from buying Eri yarn for weaving, Tasar silk for embroidery, natural dyes for an environmental friendly dying process, capacity in knotting rugs or linking producer groups to those who have good access to the market. Simple connections within our network of business partners in which trust plays an important role.
We work in different states in India which has allowed us to build a great network of partners. All these connections support growth of the business and work for women in rural India!
About the Author: Ronald van het Hof has broad retail experience in design, sourcing, sales, supply chain management, multi-channel management and change management. He has worked as CEO for different leading retail chains in The Netherlands and has received several retail awards. He has been working for Women on Wings as an expert-volunteer for 5 years and has supported many Indian social enterprises in their growth. Ronald is a Dutch national and currently lives in Gurgaon, India.