Gender-Responsive Health Protection - News

Group picture with all project staff in January '23. Rear left: FEMNET project manager Lisa Carl. © FEMNET

Update on the multi-stakeholder partnership on gender-responsive health and safety at work

Our multi-stakeholder partnership, which we carry out together with the NGOs TURC (Indonesia), Cividep (India) and the SÜDWIND Institute (Germany), has reached its half-time and we look back on an eventful time. Here are some insights into this year's project activities.

Dialogue trip to Jakarta, Indonesia

In January 2023, our project manager Lisa Carl travelled to Indonesia together with Jiska Gojowczyk from the SÜDWIND Institute to meet with colleagues from the partner organisations Cividep and TURC. The aim of the trip was to strengthen the dialogue between all those involved and to gain an insight into the situation on the ground. In addition to insightful discussions with trade unionists, workers and the management of a shoe factory, the project team was able to get to know each other personally and work intensively together on improving the project strategies.

Project support

From March to May 2023, the project team received support from our intern Lisa Platzmann, a student at Maastricht University, who intensively accompanied the multi-stakeholder partnership in organising events, research activities and public relations on the project. During her internship, she also took a closer look at the results of a company survey of clothing and footwear brands conducted by FEMNET and SÜDWIND. The aim was to find out how companies implement gender and health-related corporate policies in their supply chain. In an article she summarized her impressions (PDF).

“During my internship in the FEMNET project abroad, I was able to gain exciting insights into the international cooperation of different actors. The project also showed me how important it is to look at occupational health and safety from a gender-sensitive perspective and how companies can influence it.”
Lisa Platzmann

Gender data working group

In April 2023, the International Working Group on Gender data, which was established as part of the multi-stakeholder partnership, met for the first time. Participants are representatives of companies, standards-setting organisations and other multi-stakeholder initiatives. The founding of the working group was driven by survey results that showed that the lack of gender-sensitive data and/or knowledge around their analysis poses a major challenge in the implementation of gender-responsive health and safety at work. Without a solid data base, it is difficult to identify and raise awareness of gender-specific OSH risks and hazards. SÜDWIND and FEMNET have therefore set themselves the goal of creating a space for clarifying questions regarding necessary data for gender-transformative health and safety at work and to develop concrete ways of making them available. The next meeting of the working group is scheduled for May. If you are interested, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. or This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

First International Dialogue Forum

The first Multi-Actor Partnership International Dialogue Forum took place on 16 May 2023. The dialogue forum focused on deepening everyone's understanding of gender-specific risks in the apparel and footwear industry. A special focus was placed on the study results of our partner organisations TURC and Cividep, which were carried out in Banten and West Java in Indonesia and in Bangalore, India. The results were discussed by Dr. Deepak Nikarthil (project coordinator Cividep) and Nitya Swastika (scientific assistant TURC) on a panel with Rukmini V P (President of the Garment Labour Union (GLU)), Lusiani Julia (Programme Manager, International Labour Organisation (ILO)) and Dr. H S Anupama (doctor, gender activist, author).

Further steps

The results of the studies from India and Indonesia will be published shortly. We will inform you about the exact date of publication here or via our social media channels. In addition, the next issue of our newsletter will be published, to which you can register here. Furthermore, all four partner organisations are preparing for the drafting and subsequent implementation of the guidelines in close dialogue with all stakeholders involved.

If you are interested in further project information or a collaboration, please feel free to contact Lisa Carl at any time.