Over the past decades, Indonesia has progressed towards gender equality. In fact, gender gaps in the access to education narrowed and more women benefit from university education than men do. Indonesia has also strengthened the regulatory framework on gender equality and ratified the Discrimination (Employment and Occupation) Convention, 1958 (No. 111). However, the gender parity in education and strengthened anti-discrimination regulations have not yet resulted in gender equality and inclusiveness in the labour market. In fact, gender pay gaps and a thick glass ceiling persist. Further, disadvantaged groups of people such as workers with disabilities and people living with HIV continue to face difficulties in finding suitable employment.
The COVID-19 pandemic has negatively affected the Indonesian economy, labour market and livelihood of people. Unfortunately, some of the past gains in socio-economic improvement have been compromised due to the pandemic. Indeed, inequalities, discrimination and exclusion in the labour market appear to have worsened. While the government swiftly responded to the pandemic, consequences of the economic downturn are felt disproportionally by disadvantaged groups of people as they have limited means of coping with difficulties.
Employers and workers can play a critical role in making Indonesian workplaces gender equal and inclusive. In this light, a new UN project “Employment and Livelihood: An Inclusive Approach to Economic Empowerment of Women & Vulnerable Populations in Indonesia” intends to organize a series of webinars to raise awareness of human resource managers and conduct awareness raising campaigns of workers in collaboration with tripartite constituents of the ILO. The project is funded by with the UN Multi-Partner Trust Funds (UN MPTF). Four UN agencies, International Labour Organization (ILO), UN Development Programme (UNDP), Joint United Nations Programme on HIV/AIDS (UNAIDS), and UN Refugee Agency (UNHCR) implement the project.
Against this backdrop, the project proposes awareness raising campaigns for gender equality, non-discrimination and inclusiveness in collaboration with like-minded workers’ organizations. The campaign informs workers on these issues so they can voice against malpractices and safeguard a fair workplace.
In the campaign, the organisations:
Under this Agreement, the ILO transferred to each organization: training allowance, campaign allowance, and coordination, administration, and management fee.