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) 5 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.

Learning areas

As an intern in BETTER WORK, 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 gender mainstreaming in programmatic interventions, occupational safety and health, human rights due diligence, business performance and productivity and monitoring and evaluation practices. This internship primarily focuses on the intersection of two of BW’s priority themes: social dialogue and gender equality, diversity and inclusion. As such you will support the programme to strengthen the tools and interventions that promote these areas and identify key ways to ensure integration and consistency between these two areas of focus.

You would be gaining experience in working with specialists who are involved in the following tasks:

• Developing tools and training materials for BW enterprise advisors in order to strengthen social dialogue, grievance mechanisms and freedom of association in garment factories across various countries.
• Ensuring considerations of gender and inclusion are mainstreamed throughout all BW materials, trainings and interventions globally and in country programmes.
• Developing indicators and monitoring impact of programme interventions, specifically on improved industrial relations and gender equality and inclusion
• Working with international buyers to promote strong business practices which support decent work in supply chains, particularly focusing on the promotion of strong social dialogue and gender equality

You will be based in Bangkok, Thailand and work under the supervision of Better Work’s Technical Officer on Industrial Relation, working closely with the Technical Officer on Gender Equality, Diversity and Inclusion. Specific projects that you would contribute to include:

• Collection and writing of session plans and materials for BW enterprise advisors to use when delivering advisory sessions to factories;
• Research on including and promoting gender equality in collective bargaining agreements;
• Research on existing tools and methods around diagnostic/assessment of industrial relations and social dialogue practices through a gender lens;
• Facilitation of information and knowledge flows within both networks of Focal Points on Industrial Relations and Gender Equality respectively.

Education

International Development, Industrial Relations, Gender Studies, International Politics, International Economics, Human Rights or Labour Law, Social Policy.

The candidate should be enrolled in their final year of graduate degree programme or should have completed such a programme no longer than 1 years ago.

Experience

Any relevant work experience in supply chains, with trade unions or employers’ associations, on gender, diversity and inclusion would be an advantage

Languages

Strong command of the English language.

Competencies

Adaptable to an international, multicultural and multilingual environment, good communication skills and be able to work in a team.