Our Work
Program Information
Program Donor: The U.S. Department of State
Implementing Partners: Partners for Democratic Change, The Tunisian Association for Management and Social Stability
Facts from the TILI National Survey on Informal Workers
The Challenge
Despite having one of the highest per capita GDPs in the region and 5% growth over the past decade, Tunisia still suffers from high unemployment and an informal sector that represents 40% of the country’s workforce. In prolonged periods of unemployment, countries risk increased numbers of informal workers, stagnation, and long-term depression. Without tackling the problems inherent in informality, Tunisia cannot make long-lasting improvements to its economic situation.
Although employment programs through the Ministry of Vocational Training and Employment (MFPE) are providing skills training, internships, job placements, help in setting up small businesses, and allowances for voluntary public service, unemployment remains particularly problematic for women and young university graduates. In order to attract the businesses that will provide decent jobs for its skilled workforce and to create market opportunities for its less skilled workers to improve their livelihoods, Tunisia needs to establish a transparent system that expands registration and extends rights and protections to its entire workforce.
The Opportunity
The TILI program is rooted in the goals of the US government to help Tunisia increase stability and meet the most pressing social and economic challenges facing the country. By improving informal workers’ access to decent work and government protections, Tunisia can create a more inclusive legal and economic framework. Program objectives are to improve government’s ability to measure Tunisia’s informal sector in order to raise awareness of its contributions and conditions, including informal workers’ needs and incentives; to increase the capacity of informal workers and their representative organizations to advocate for their rights; and to increase government’s capacity to create mechanisms and policies that encourage formalization and improve services to informal workers. To achieve these objectives TILI engages stakeholders, managing delicate social and political environments to build trust and consensus, within a framework of activities and deliverables.
Program Accomplishments
Click here to review the TILI program's accomplishments.
Recent Activities
TILI Holds Kickoff Workshop on Informality to Begin Second Phase of Program
TILI Holds Conference in Tunis on Integrating the Informal Sector into the Formal Economy
GFI TILI Program Making Progress in Tunisia (Video)
GFI Holds Conference in Tunis on Integrating Informal Sector into the Formal Economy
In Review: Tunisia Inclusive Labor Initiative Accomplishments
GFI Releases Roadmap for Tunisian Leadership: Integrating the Informal Economy
GFI Leadership meet with Tunisian Labor Leaders
GFI Founder Karen Tramontano's article on Informality for the Council on Foreign Relations
GFI conducts TILI National Survey on Informal Workers
GFI Releases Report: Addressing Informality and Decent Work
GFI Founder, Karen Tramontano, and Board Chair, Dr. Danilo Turk, meet with Union Générale Tunisienne du Travail President Hassine Abbasi
Connect with the TILI Local Team
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Country Director, Tunisia
Feedback
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The Annual Fairness Award Ceremony is held each Fall at the Howard Theater in Washington, DC. The award ceremony honors exceptional leaders whose work and life have opened opportunity and access for the working poor throughout the world. By honoring these outstanding individuals, GFI looks to inspire a new generation of leaders to dedicate themselves to economic justice, fairness, and equality.
2014 Fairness Award
To learn about the 2014 Fairness Award and to view the full photograph slideshow visit the 2014 Fairness Award Website at www.fairnessaward.org
2013 Fairness Award
2012 Fairness Award
2011 Fairness Award
2010 Fairness Award
Program Information
For poor nations highly dependent on textile and garment exports, the expiration of the textile quota system (the Multi-Fiber Agreement or MFA) had the potential to be devastating to their national economies. In Cambodia, the garment industry contributed to more than 80% of Cambodia's exports before the expiration of the MFA in December 2004. However, thanks to a successful multi-stakeholder agreement lead by GFI, Cambodia was able to develop a unique advantage in the post-quota environment: a labor rights verification system administered by the International Labor Organization that provides rights protection to Cambodians and brand security to buyers.
The Challenge
Can Cambodia’s success story be sustained as its preferential access to lucrative markets is eliminated? Can its approach to promoting business and labor interests be reproduced in other countries? With support from the World Bank Group and the US-ASEAN Business Council, in 2004 GFI designed and implemented an engagement process to explore ways to use this uniquely just, innovative advantage to protect and expand Cambodia's textile exports. Joined by the European Commission, Australia AID, and the United Nations Development Program, in February 2005 we organized a 2-day conference of leading CEOs, government officials, and other trade and development experts to discuss Cambodia’s unique opportunities in the global marketplace. Hosted by the Royal Government of Cambodia, the conference highlighted Cambodia’s leadership potential in defining new best practices in global trade and investment, and the many reforms aimed at making Cambodia a premier destination for business.
The Opportunity
In July 2005, GFI collaborated with the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Oxfam America to bring the discussion to American policymakers. More than 200 experts from government, industry, and civil society joined us for a wide-ranging discussion of the fate of textile workers and industries in the 21st century.
In 2006, GFI began to extend its work on textiles to other regions of the world, focusing first on the countries participating in the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Our efforts to make the global economy work for poor producers is helping bridge the gap between Central American industry, labor, and government, thereby increasing the prospects of better lives for workers and healthier profits for industry (see our hand-out on the Central America Work Program).
In 2006, GFI began to extend its work on textiles to other regions of the world, focusing first on the countries participating in the US-Central America Free Trade Agreement. Our efforts to make the global economy work for poor producers is helping bridge the gap between Central American industry, labor, and government, thereby increasing the prospects of better lives for workers and healthier profits for industry.
For more information about this project, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
| URL | Description | File size |
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  Cambodia%20Description.pdf | 624 kB |
Implementing Partner Self-Employed Women's Association
Program Information
For nearly a decade the Global Fairness Initiative (GFI) has been a leader in providing solutions that open economic access and opportunity for working poor communities around the globe. Women represent the greatest potential for putting an end to the cycle of poverty; because of this GFI programs focus on improving business practices for peri-urban and rural women-run businesses so that they can increase profits.
The WFGP program is a collaborative project of GFI, the Self Employed Women’s Association (SEWA), and the Brookings Insitution. It is designed to open doors to education, environmental innovations, and market access for women farmers in India. By giving women farmers the information and tools needed to run their businesses, GFI and its partners are helping to raise women and their families out of poverty.
The Challenge
Agriculture makes up to 60% of India’s economy. Although it comprises the vast majority of the economy, it only accounts for 19% of India’s GDP. To add to the pressures of rural workers, agricultural productivity has stagnated in recent years, resulting in a decline of farmer’s incomes. Concurrently, costs for fertilizer, seeds, land leases, and diesel continue to rise, trapping farmers in a vicious cycle of hard work with no security due to the instability of the agricultural markets.
The majority of agricultural production is handled by women and adolescent girls. Farm work is even more demanding for women as women’s work is not traditionally recognized in policy making because, for the most part, their work remains within the informal sector, isn’t measured in real wages, and falls outside of market activity. Land rights also pose a problem for women; traditionally, land rights in India pass through a woman’s husband or to the eldest son. This also impedes their access to credit and collateral, leaving women marginalized from their local economy.
How GFI Addressed the Challenge
How GFI is Addressing the Challenge: Since 2008, GFI and its partners have worked hard to address the major issues facing women farmers where we are best to lend our expertise. In 2009, over 2,000 farmers received training in organic certification, business plan development, and precautionary measures to better face abrupt climate change. These trainings allow farmers to swiftly access information and address their most pressing concerns.
The most notable achievement has been the creation of women-run Trade Facilitation Centers and later, thanks to its success, their extension to village level Trade Centers. Trade Facilitation Centers have allowed thousands of women to have a safe space to develop business plans, learn more about finance options, and discuss policy change. Of equal importance, it has given women a space to showcase their products to potential buyers and access higher paying markets.
For more information about this project, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
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| WFGP Description.pdf | 577 kB |
Implementing Partner Self-Employed Women's Association
Program Information
The Salt Workers Economic Empowerment Program (SWEEP) is a collaborative project of GFI and the Self Employed Workers Economic Women’s Association (SEWA) designed to improve economic opportunity and empowerment for women salt farmers and introduce environmentally sustainable energy solutions to lower production costs so that the poor too can benefit from “green technology.” Capitalizing on sustainable technology and production methods, improved links to high-value markets and greater local control of energy costs, SWEEP gives women salt producers tools, access and voice to better realize profits and maximize their personal and community livelihood goals.
The Challenge
India is currently one of the largest producer of salt products in the world, employing close to a million salt workers across 9 states. The majority of salt farming in India is carried out in the Surendranager District, an area spanning 900 square miles which is completely flooded during the August/September Monsoon. From October to May, salt is “manufactured” from the natural brine deposited in wells of soft gravel, sand, clay, and mud and is “harvested” in a process that has changed very little over the centuries. “Agarias” are the small-producer family farmers that work the salt flats during the dry months and harvest salt for use in manufacturing and commercial processes or in a refined form as table salt.
As with most harvesting and related agricultural work throughout the world, the majority of the production is handled by women and adolescent girls. More than even traditional agricultural labor, the process of “farming” salt is physically intensive and the working conditions on the sun baked and isolated salt pans is severe. Yet, out of tradition, circumstance or simply the lack of any other opportunity, women salt farmers toil in some of most marginalized conditions known on the globe.
Since 1992 SEWA has been working with women salt farmers in the State of Gujarat; focused in the Surendranager District, they provide services including child care, literacy, nutrition, and health care classes. Over the years women in the salt farm communities have increasingly expressed to SEWA a desire to take greater ownership of the salt production process and to get out of the “middlemen” trap where control of the product value chain and profits are controlled by predatory transporters, sellers and processors. In response, SEWA has partnered with GFI to offer technical training to improve product value and production and SEWA has also organized women into savings groups so that investments could be made into direct ownership of production and distribution mechanisms. Additionally, partnerships have been created with research institutes to introduce processes such as reducing calcium sulphate from the sub soil brine to create higher value salt.
While many of these steps offered needed progress and greater solidarity amongst the women salt farmers, breaking the underlying poverty and empowerment cycle remains a major barrier. Salt farmers continue to see potential profits poured into middleman services and despite improved product values, available markets have remained limited. Most significantly, however, women salt famers were held back by the exorbitant cost of diesel fuel. This is due to the unique process of producing salt which requires thousands of gallons of briny water to be pumped into salt pans by means of large diesel powered pumps. The cost of running these pumps represents nearly two-thirds of the total input cost of farming salt in the Surendranager pans and is the major economic barrier for women salt farmers in India. Remove this barrier and add improved market access and greater control of product value chains, and the result is meaningful livelihood development and economic empowerment for women salt farmers. With this goal in mind, the Global Fairness Initiative and SEWA are proposing the launch of a comprehensive Salt Farmers Economic Empowerment Program (SWEEP) in Gujarat.
How GFI Addressed the Challenge
Drawing on SEWA’s successful work with the Surendranagar’s women salt farmers, the SWEEP Project takes an important step forward by introducing environmentally sustainable energy technology to replace the existing diesel system and to create additional market opportunities and greater ownership of the production value-chain. The key underlying goal is to improve livelihoods and empower 30,000 woman farmers to own both the product and the production process of their salt businesses. Through SWEEP, salt farmers retain profits and increase livelihood opportunities by replacing expensive diesel fuel costs with renewable, locally owner power alternatives built around environmentally sustainable energy solutions deployed at a large. Introducing a local ownership model also allows salt communities to leverage surplus power production and realize additional profits from distribution of power through community based or modular utilities. Specifically, the excess energy obtained through a sustainable grid design creates an enabling environment for the development of sideline industries and enterprises.
Additionally, SWEEP advances local ownership of production inputs (pumps, pans, etc.) and processes (refining, packaging, distribution, etc) to help women salt farmers avoid the costly and demeaning experience of working through predatory middlemen. This ownership is developed through a combination of realized profits and debt financing for targeted infrastructure and supply chain investments. In conjunction with the energy and infrastructure upgrades, a multi-stakeholder engagement process will be undertaken to open linkages to a larger set of end buyers and energy suppliers. This engagement process puts women farmers in direct contact with market players and in lead roles of addressing regulatory and financing barriers. Through this process, and the introduction of new technology, SWEEP taps the livelihood potential of more than 80,000 salt producers in the larger Surendranagar community and creates a diverse and sustainable foundation of economic opportunity and empowerment for women producers.
For more information about this project, please contact This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
| URL | Description | File size |
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| SWEEP%20Description%202010.pdf | 926 kB |
