We’re excited to announce the launch of a new project to engage with local communities in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam to advance labor rights – as we know that many of the most persistent labor risks are rooted in systemic issues that extend beyond factory walls. For example, child labor, low wages, excessive hours, and precarious employment are deeply tied to poverty, limited access to education, gender inequality, and inadequate public infrastructure. By involving local governments, schools, health providers, parents, community leaders, and civil society organizations, responsibility for ensuring labor rights is broadened, enabling more sustainable, systemic change.
This project, made possible with funding from The Walt Disney Company, will engage with local communities to offer safe and trusted venues for awareness raising and worker voice, close information gaps, build worker confidence, enable proactive risk identification, and protect rights. To do so, we will implement the formation of Community Circles – spaces for dialogue where community members (such as workers, families, and local leaders) can come together to identify problems and issues in their communities and implement their own solutions to address them. Throughout the project, Community Circles will be supported in raising awareness, capacity building, engaging with local companies, and developing sustainable action plans.
Building on SAI’s Community Engagement Model
This project builds upon past projects Palma Futuro and Sustentar, in which SAI developed and tested this model for addressing labor risks through community engagement. In Mexico, this led to the formation of 11 Community Circles in worker communities and 222 community members trained on social compliance and remediation. Members also participated in Photovoice, a tool that enabled them to document and reflect on local issues through photography.
In Colombia and Ecuador, 65 Community Circles were formed, trained on labor rights, and supported in designing and implementing locally driven solutions. Collectively, these Community Circles designed and implemented 66 community actions to reduce labor risks, leading to results such as:
- Increased awareness of child and forced labor risks, and how to prevent them
- Reduced incidence of child and forced labor in participating communities
- Strengthened relationships and collaboration between workers, communities, and companies
- Establishment of community-based grievance and reporting mechanisms
- Safer, more resilient, and better-informed communities
- Creation of new livelihood and employment opportunities
- Enhanced communication, trust, and social cohesion within communities
- Empowered local leaders with the skills to access funding and improve community infrastructure (such as renovating a local school)
- Increased connections between communities and supportive resources (such as government services and local NGOs)
We’re thrilled to draw on these successful experiences while expanding this model to new regions to address root causes of labor risks both inside and outside of the workplace.
We’re Hiring
Interested in joining the team? We’re hiring Community Engagement Coordinators in Bangladesh, Cambodia, Indonesia, and Vietnam. Learn more.
