ILO is calling out for Proposals.
More details below :
Call for Proposals (International Labour Organization)
Qualitative assessment of returned migrant domestic workers in Indonesia
April – July 2015
1. Background and Justification
Around the world, millions of women leave their communities to seek financial gain working as domestic workers abroad. Upon
departure, these women are often unaware of the rules and laws of
recruitment, how to migrate safely, and what their rights are in
countries of destination. As a result, they face a number of risks
throughout the recruitment process that expose them to abuse,
exploitation, and in the worst cases forced labour and trafficking.
Labour
migration is often a consequence of poverty and unemployment and, at
the same time, a key-strategy to cope with it, to support families, and
to bring in income to the family and country. Yet, upon
arrival in the country of destination, domestic workers have little to
no power to realize what rights they have, and are therefore vulnerable
to very poor working conditions. The risk of trafficking in this context
has also been highlighted by some qualitative studies.
The
governments of countries of origin are challenged to ensure decent
working conditions for their nationals working abroad. In some cases, a
memorandum of understanding is signed between the governments of the
country of origin and that of destination, establishing basic working
conditions to be respected. However, compliance with these MOU is
difficult to implement and enforce. As a result, migrant workers are
sometimes exposed to poor working and living conditions such as long
hours, very low pay, no day of rest, withholding of wages, and in the
more extreme cases, emotional and physical abuse. Depending on the
specific situation, some of these instances are considered situations of
forced labour.
In
Indonesia, many women and men leave to work abroad. Some 200,000
Indonesian migrants travel to work in Malaysia, the vast majority of
which are domestic workers (about 180,000). The high flow of migrant
domestic workers drove the two governments concerned to establish an MOU
delineating the terms of recruitment and some basic working conditions.
Due to a high number of complaints of abuse in the domestic work sector
in Malaysia, the Indonesian government temporarily banned women from
migrating to Malaysia to work as domestic workers. The MOU was recently
renegotiated, strengthened to include a weekly day of rest, among other
basic rights. It is still unknown whether employers are complying with
the new provisions, but some typical employment practices in Malaysia
would indicate that Indonesian migrant domestic workers continue to face
risks of trafficking and forced labour, among other poor working
conditions.
Over
the last few years, forced labour and the forced labour outcomes of
human trafficking have received increased international attention. In
June 2012, the ILO published a new estimate of 20.9 million people being
victims of forced labour globally, trapped in jobs into which they were
coerced or deceived and which they cannot leave. This figure represents
a conservative estimate, given the strict methodology employed to
measure this largely hidden crime. Human trafficking can also be
regarded as forced labour, and so this estimate captures the full realm
of human trafficking for labour and sexual exploitation or what some
call “modern-day slavery”. The figure means that around three out of
every 1,000 persons worldwide are in forced labour at any given point in
time.
Women and girls represent the greater share of the total – 11.4 million (55%), as compared to 9.5 million (45%) men and boys. Of the total number of 20.9 million forced labourers, 18.7 million (90%) are exploited in the private economy, by individuals or enterprises. Out of these, 4.5 million (22%) are victims of forced sexual exploitation, and 14.2 million (68%) are victims of forced labour exploitation in economic activities, such as agriculture, construction, domestic work or manufacturing. The remaining 2.2 million (10%) are in state-imposed forms of forced labour, for example in prisons, or in work imposed by the state military or by rebel armed forces.
Turning to the regional distribution, the Asia-Pacific region (AP) accounts for by far the largest number of forced labourers – 11.7 million or 56% of the global total. The second highest number is found in Africa (AFR) at 3.7 million (18%), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (LA) with 1.8 million victims (9%). The Developed Economies and European Union (DE&EU) account for 1.5 million (7%) forced labourers, whilst countries of Central, Southeast and Eastern Europe (non EU) and the Commonwealth of Independent States (CSEE) have 1.6 million (7%). There are an estimated 600,000 (3%) victims in the Middle East (ME).
Trafficking
is defined by the Palermo Protocol as “the recruitment, transportation,
transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or
use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of
deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of
the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent
of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of
exploitation.” Forced labour is one such form of exploitation, which the
ILO has defined as "all work or service which is exacted from any
person under the menace of any penalty and for which the said person has
not offered himself voluntarily." Under
these definitions, workers can find themselves in situations of
trafficking or forced labour as a result of a range of factors,
including removal of passports, extremely low pay, and other poor
working conditions.
Since its establishment, the ILO has been concerned with the protection of migrant workers’ rights. In 1998, with the adoption of the Declaration on Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work and its follow-up Recommendations, the ILO stressed once again the need to protect migrant workers from violations of their basic labour rights. In 2011, the ILO Convention (No.189) on decent work for domestic workers, 2011, was adopted, recognizing the rights of domestic workers for the first time at the international level. Since then, the ILO has made a priority of making decent work a reality for domestic workers through an office-wide programme that provides country-level assistance, as well as developing knowledge and tools designed to help constituents improve the working conditions of domestic workers in their home countries. In 2013, the ILO launched the EC funded Global Action Programme on Migrant Domestic Workers and their Families, to address the specific situation of migrant domestic workers, including their exposure to poor working conditions, forced labour and trafficking. Now, in 2014, the International Labour Conference will discuss the adoption of a new instrument to strengthen ILO Trafficking Convention, 1929 (No. 28).
The
following research falls within the EC-funded Global Action Programme
on Migrant Domestic Workers and their Families, a global project
covering 10 countries in 5 migration corridors. Each corridor was
selected according to the incidence of migrant domestic work, and
intended to capture various forms of labour migration governance. In
Asia, Indonesia-Malaysia was selected due to the presence of a high
number of migrant domestic workers, and the existence of the MOU as a
means to regulate the labour migration flows. The
GAP-MDW includes a research component for each country and corridor,
which will serve to document the situation of migrant domestic workers
in country of origin and of destination.
In Indonesia-Malaysia, the
research will consist of a baseline study in Malaysia on the needs and
behaviours of employers of domestic workers, to gauge their knowledge,
interest and ability to provide decent working conditions in compliance
with the MOU, Malaysian law and policy, and international working
conditions and trafficking/forced labour standards. In
Indonesia, the research will focus on the recruitment and working
conditions of migrant domestic workers who have returned from Malaysia,
to better understand their real working conditions, whether employers
are complying with the MOU, and what risks they face of trafficking and
forced labour throughout the recruitment process. Once accomplished, the
research will be shared among national stakeholders first, and then in a
bi-national meeting of stakeholders from Indonesia and Malaysia. The
hope is that the research will stimulate policy dialogue and reform to
improve the situation of migrant domestic workers.
2. Objectives
In
the above context, this research will consist of a qualitative
assessment of the recruitment and working conditions of migrant domestic
workers who have returned from Malaysia.
The main objective of the research is:
(1)
to document through a qualitative survey the working conditions and
trafficking/forced labour risks faced by Indonesian domestic workers in
Malaysia. In particular, the research aims to document, inter alia:
whether Indonesian domestic workers benefit from a day of rest, salary
in line with MOU, if wages are withheld by the employers, any breaches
in contractual agreements or breaches with MOU, fees paid for
recruitment from beginning to end of the trajectory, and, lastly, any
other indicators of FL/trafficking.
The
research will provide recommendations for the improvement of working
conditions in the country of destination, and prevention of trafficking.
In particular, the study aims at understanding the various patterns of
migration, the mechanisms of recruitment, the means of deception, the
means of coercion, the risks of trafficking and forced labour faced by
domestic workers throughout the recruitment process, and more generally
the working conditions of migrants in the domestic work sector in the
country of destination. A national sex-disaggregated estimate of the
number of victims of trafficking in Malaysia in the domestic work sector
should be presented, if available.
The study findings and recommendations will be presented during a national workshop
3. The assignment
The contractor will develop and implement, in coordination with ILO –
INWORK and CO-Jakarta, a qualitative survey to better understand the
working conditions and situations of forced labour of Indonesian
returned migrant domestic from Malaysia. The research should include a sample size of 120 domestic workers who have worked in Malaysia and returned to Indonesia in the 24 months prior to the survey.
This
survey will offer a qualitative assessment of the migration
trajectories of domestic workers, their conditions of recruitment and
work. From this assessment, the research should then reveal the
incidence of common indicators of trafficking and forced labour in the
domestic work sector. In particular, it will include some questions
specifically designed to capture information on working conditions and
forced labour. The ILO will provide technical support for the analysis
of the data related to forced labour and working conditions. The
contractor will be responsible for the design and implementation of the
survey instrument, analytical framework, and reporting the results. The
assignment with the contractor will take place between April and June
2015, and the final report should be delivered by July 2015.
Research questions
The following are broad questions that will drive the proposed research:
- What is the socio-economic profile of returned migrant workers?
- What sort of recruitment channels do Indonesian migrant workers use and why? What are the costs of recruitment? Are some of them victims of deceptive practices?
- What are the working and living conditions of Indonesian migrant workers while working in Malaysia? (including working time, social protection, wages)
- Can the Indonesian migrant workers change employers once in Malaysia? If yes, at what cost? If no, why?
- What aspects of the recruitment system and of work in Malaysia limit the domestic workers’ working conditions and freedom of movement?
- What is the financial situation of Indonesian migrant workers while in Indonesia and once they are back? What is the amount of remittances?
Methodology
The
qualitative survey aims at collecting information through in-depth
interviews and focus groups with Indonesian returned migrant workers and
recruitment agencies. The qualitative survey must capture interviews
with at least 120 domestic workers who have worked in Malaysia and
returned to Indonesia in the 24 months prior to the survey.
Field work
The contractor will describe:
- The timing and expected duration of field work
- Team composition, including the number and profile of persons
- Plans for monitoring data collection and field work supervision, as well as plans for handling questionnaires for data entry
- Fieldwork logistics
4. Supervision
The contractor will work under the supervision of ILO INWORK in Geneva. It will report on a twice monthly basis to CO-Jakarta.
5. Expected results
The
Contractor will be responsible for hiring, supervising and coordinating
national staff who will carry out the following tasks:
- Design and implement a qualitative survey regarding the working conditions and trafficking/forced labour risks faced by Indonesian domestic workers in Malaysia.
- Design the sample taking into account the main communities of origin of Indonesian migrant domestic workers in Malaysia
- Draft the questionnaire taking into account the national list of indicators of forced labour, in consultation with ILO and key stakeholders
- Train the interviewers
- Run a pilot test with 10 returned migrant domestic workers and share the result with ILO/INWORK and CO-Jakarta, and make changes in the questionnaire and sampling if necessary.
- Collect the data
- Enter, clean, and analyse the data according to the definitions of working conditions and forced labour as agreed by ILO.
- Work jointly with the ILO national consultant to analyse the data and write an analytical report to present the results of the research.
Outputs
The contractor will deliver the following, in English:
- A detailed work plan
- Draft and then final instruments for the qualitative survey
- A copy of the full raw research results containing the data collected (without the full identity of the respondents if necessary);
- A first draft of the qualitative report presenting an analysis of the working conditions and FL/trafficking risks faced by MDWs
- A final report for the qualitative survey incorporating any suggestions and modifications suggested by the ILO and the steering committee.
The Contractor may ask for technical support from the ILO in Geneva or Jakarta.
6. Application procedure
The ILO invites non-profit research institutes to submit a 4 (four) page concept note detailing:
- A research methodology and sample size of domestic workers
- A research methodology to be used for key informants including members of government, trade unions, employers’ associations, recruitment agencies, and other civil society organizations.
- Sections of a possible research instrument to be used with employers’ of domestic workers.
- Sections of a possible research instrument to be used with key informants.
- A proposed strategy to reach respondents.
- Proposed workplan in weeks, accompanied by a budget and staffing proposal.
The
concept note should make clear the organization’s capacity to manage
qualitative research and focus group discussions, and analysis of
qualitative research results.
In addition to the concept note, please submit CVs for each of the proposed lead investigators.
Submitted
proposals will be evaluated by the ILO, which reserves the right of
recourse to external experts for assistance in its evaluation of the
proposals. The ILO may accept or reject any proposal without any
obligation of justification, bearing in mind the interest of the ILO.
Submitted proposals will be evaluated against the following criteria:
- Demonstrated experience in effective coordination and implementation of qualitative studies (at least 3 past studies in general and at least 1 related to relevant subject matters);
- Expertise and experience (at least 5 years) in designing qualitative research questionnaires, running focus group discussions, and collecting and analysing qualitative data;
- Overall quality of the application including strategic approach, workplan, budget as well as plausibility of schedule, comprehensiveness, writing style and analytical ability
- Proposed team structure, size, and composition;
- Total proposed budget (not to exceed USD 30,000).
Applications should be submitted electronically by 1 April, 2015 at the latest to Sinthia Harkrisnowo, National Project Coordinator based at ILO Jakarta at sinthia@ilo.org,
and to Claire Hobden, Technical Officer on Working Conditions, Labour
Market Institutions, Labour Relations and Working Conditions Branch,
based in ILO Headquarters in Geneva, Switzerland, at hobden@ilo.org
7. Terms and Conditions
- The research will start no later than 15 April, 2015 and should be completed no later than 30 June, 2015.
- The estimated budget for this study is USD 25,000.
- Payments will be made in accordance with ILO rules and regulations, including a first payment of 20% upon receipt of the finalized research instrument and sampling methodology; a second payment of 30% upon receipt of the raw research results; and a third and final payment of 50% against receipt of the final report to the satisfaction of the ILO.
