Client & Partner: Yayasan Care Peduli Jakarta,
Yayasan Care Peduli – YCP) with the support of UNWomen implements a pilot project on Gender responsive value Chain and Entrepreneurship Development Program to Promote Livelihood. The partnership targets the EKATA member and marginalised women living in the project areas. EKATA is a collective women’s solidarity and self-help groups of women factory workers, and small number of female non-garment workers, formed in the communities where the women live. The groups are associated with CARE’s Workers’ Dignity Health and Leadership (WDHL) project in Sukabumi and Purwakarta. As the garment sector was hit severely by the pandemic, in the beginning of the outbreak, almost 50% of EKATA member was laid off and their contract discontinued. Currently, although the majority have returned to their factory, their job security is still highly risky since they’re given contract worker’s status with contract periods no longer than 3 months. Most of them are becoming the main bread winner because their husbands had also lost their jobs and income. For those aged above 35 years, the chance of returning to the factory is small, because the factory prefers to employ workers below 35 years old.
The pilot project was designed to provide cash for work, and cash transfer which helps the women garment workers to create and obtain other source of income. The objective of cash for work program is to train the beneficiaries to use their existing skills to produce masks. The women are organized in groups to produce the mask (Sewing groups). Up to the assignment period, YCP intervention has formed 25 sewing groups in Sukabumi and Purwakarta districts, and would add 15 more sewing groups in Sukabumi districts. Further interventions is designed to bring the products able to compete in the market. Therefore, the program also address marketing aspect for a long-term sustainability of income sources for women in the area of Sukabumi were to materialize.
The REDI team conducted surveys with respondents of the CARE program’s beneficiaries and key informant interviews with district officials and program beneficiaries. The data collection activities were carried out using phone-call interviews as the activities were carried out during the COVID-19 pandemic.