Department

The Better Work programme was established in 2009 by an Agreement of Cooperation concluded between the ILO and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group. The programme draws on both organizations’ respective strengths in labour standards and private sector development. Its objective is to improve working conditions and support inclusive economic growth, primarily in the garment sector. It engages a broad range of stakeholders including factory managers and workers; governments and employers’ and workers’ organizations; development partners; and buyers. Better Work is an ILO flagship programme currently operating in 13 countries.

It primarily promotes factory-level engagement, including through assessments of compliance with national labour laws and subsequent advice and training to support improvements. Better Work shares its factory approaches and evidence with constituents and industry stakeholders to identify and address decent work deficits, promote fundamental principles and rights at work and scale up good practices beyond its direct footprint.

The Better Work Phase V Strategy (2022–27) builds on the programme’s proven models of local and national impact and strong partnerships across the supply chain. The strategy emphasizes the importance of addressing fundamental challenges that constrain sustainable change. It has four strategic goals:

• Employers, workers and their representatives uphold and are protected by national labour laws and fundamental principles and rights at work, and enterprises are more sustainable, resilient and inclusive.
• Better Work’s impact is sustained by national institutions that leverage its approaches, data and evidence.
• Participating enterprises adopt policies and practices on responsible business conduct that support the realization of decent work.
• Better Work’s learnings and methods create positive social and environmental impacts in other countries and sectors.

Better Work recognises the value of its role as a data provider and knowledge broker for the garment industry. Actionable, reliable and timely data and research can be transformative for policymakers, regulators, businesses, and employer and worker organisations. Research findings can inform the programme’s work at the enterprise level, its engagement with the business community and the ILO’s capacity-building activities to strengthen institutions in the world of work.

You can learn more about Better Work here: https://betterwork.org/.

Learning area

As an intern at BETTER WORK, you will support the Better Work Global Research & Impact team’s continuous effort to improve and analyse data to generate insights for operational decisions and inform policy discussions. You will be exposed to a whole range of areas such as decent work and compliance in supply chains, industrial relations and the promotion of social dialogue, gender equality and inclusion, occupational safety and health, human rights due diligence and business performance during the internship.

You would be gaining experience in working with the Research & Impact team who are involved with the following:

• Designing and operationalising Better Work’s programme monitoring and measurement plans globally and across country programmes.
• Regularly reviewing and analysing factory-level data collected through operations to inform the different teams within Better Work.
• Supporting country programmes and other Better Work teams to develop evaluation and research tools (e.g., surveys, interview guides), and experimenting with new data collection and analysis methods to generate insights.
• Collaborating with other ILO projects and independent academics and researchers to generate knowledge and evidence on decent work in supply chains.

You will be based in Bangkok, Thailand, and work under the supervision of Better Work’s Technical Officer – Data Analytics and M&E. You will also work closely with the Technical Officer – Research and Impact based in Geneva, Switzerland. You will be expected to work on the following during the internship:

• Reviewing, coding and analysing a set of qualitative data collected vis-à-vis Better Work’s operations;
• Collaborating with the Better Work Operations team to support internal-focused organisational learning exercises;
• Collaborating with Better Work’s Industrial Relations and Gender specialists to help develop tools and methodologies for monitoring and measuring the promotion of freedom of association and gender equality;
• Facilitating knowledge exchange within Better Work (e.g., preparing research summaries, helping organise internal learning sessions);
• Undertaking supplementary tasks related to data, monitoring and research as requested.

Interns should expect to devote 10% to 20% of their time to administrative tasks.

Education

Economics, Public Policy, International Development, Social Policy, Anthropology, or any other relevant social science background with a focus on data analytics and social research methods. The candidate should be enrolled in their final year of a graduate degree program or should have completed such a program no longer than one year ago.

Experience

Demonstrated experience in data analysis and research is essential.

Languages

Strong command of the English language.

Competencies

• • Effective written and verbal communication skills.
  • Willingness to acquire new knowledge and skills.
  • Ability to work independently and collaboratively within a team.
  • Adaptability to a multicultural and multilingual environment.