Organising Women Workers, Striving Women’s Labour Rights in the Era of Digitalisation

CALL FOR PROPOSALS
Deadline: Sunday, 17 September 2023


APWLD invites non-governmental, non-profit, local and national trade unions, feminists and women’s rights organisations across Asia and the Pacific region to apply for the Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) of the Women organising Workers programme on Labour Digitalisation FPAR, 2023-2024. 

The aim of this FPAR is to increase the capacity of feminist and grassroots women’s organisations and movements in Asia and the Pacific to document their lived realities and expose the impacts of digital surveillance, digitalisation including automation on women’s work. Six to eight partner organisations in Asia and the Pacific will be selected to conduct Feminist Participatory Action Research (FPAR) together with communities on the issue of Organising Women Workers, Striving Women’s Labour Rights in the Era of Digitalisation particularly in these following three streams:

  1. The impact of digitalisation on women’s labour rights, including gender-based violence at workplace at local or national level, specifically in these following streams:
  2. Algorithms, digital surveillance and datafication.  The toxic masculinity and patriarchal mindsets can be made worse by algorithms and datafication. It isn’t impartial. Artificial Intelligence (AI) and algorithm management (AM) are biased towards women. Outdated prejudices may be perpetuated by the terms used in the data filtration. Workers who conduct business in person increased surveillance as well by implementing work quotas and more precise worker location tracking.
  3. Automation. Automation is the process by which machines replace tasks previously done by humans. It brings devastating impacts to women workers such as job loss, job displacement and income inequality across differents sectors. 
  4.   Labour organising and collective action in the digitalised world of work –  All over Asia and the Pacific, labour and feminist movements start to mobilise and organise collective power in addressing labour rights and rights to decent work to challenge neoliberal policies, manifested in the form of  the precariousness and labour rights violation against women workers.


JOIN OUR FEMINIST PARTICIPATORY ACTION RESEARCH! 

APWLD will provide each partner organisation with a sub-grant not more than 13,000 USD throughout the FPAR journey. The small sub-grant should cover salary costs of a dedicated young woman researcher and activities to conduct FPAR. Another flow of sub-grant, following the completion of the FPAR, will be provided to the partner organisations to conduct advocacy activities at local and national levels to support their FPAR journey. This sub-grant supports mobilisation, capacity building, research activities of the selected partners, however, does not include any other costs related to institutional sustainability or maintenance.

APWLD will also support the young women researchers and mentors to participate in regional capacity building workshops, provide advocacy and networking opportunities. FPAR partners will be able to gain knowledge in International Human Rights standards and Labour rights in digitalisation related to their area of research. Through a combination of face-to-face and online modules, they will share the frameworks within their communities, learn practical research skills, and develop a community-based research plan. The main language used during the FPAR journey will be English.

 

Selection Criteria of the Research Partners

APWLD will select six to eight trade unions/local organisations who will lead the FPAR on labour rights in Asia Pacific. Unions and feminist organisations based in the Pacific and other sub-regions as East Asia are strongly encouraged to apply. We are seeking non-governmental, non-profit, local or national trade unions. APWLD will consider the following when selecting the organisations for this process: 

  • Sub-regional representation;
  • Recommendations/ references from  APWLD members;
  • Diversity of Trade Unions, Workers’ Groups and Migrants Workers Organisations in Asia and the Pacific; 
  • Theme of the FPAR: (priority will be given to the FPAR that focuses on women labour rights in digitalisation, particularly three sub themes being mentioned); 
  • Able to communicate in English or to provide a dedicated translator/interpreter to support the research team throughout the FPAR journey.


Application

Interested organisations shall submit:

  • Completed application form
  • Budget proposal
  • Expression of interest
  • Recommendation / reference letter from at least two other women’s or grassroots organisations (preferably from an APWLD member). 

Please send completed forms by Sunday, 17 September 2023 to andi@apwld.org.