Better Cotton, the biggest cotton sustainability project in the world, has unveiled a new roadmap for its decent work initiatives that will lead to millions of people having dignified livelihoods.
In order to further reduce vulnerabilities, strengthen workers’ voices, and achieve better working conditions by 2030, Better Cotton will collaborate with its field-level partners and build on years of learning through the ambitious and all-encompassing framework provided by the roadmap. Better Cotton’s decent work strategy is entering a new phase, with an emphasis on three key and related areas: multistakeholder engagement, programs and partnerships, and farm-level.
Better Cotton’s Senior Manager for Decent Work, Leyla Shamchiyeva, stated that a more equitable and resilient cotton industry in which farmers and workers are not subjected to child exploitation, forced labour, workplace harassment, discrimination, or violence of any type may be established by collective action.
Following the release of its 2020–2025 Decent Work Strategy Progress Report earlier this month, Better Cotton has released a new roadmap. It goes beyond the organization’s “learn, strengthen, and monitor” strategy, which has been crucial in setting the groundwork for advancement in this field.
The roadmap states that in order to establish baseline data and promote quantifiable improvements, farm-level actions will involve increased labour monitoring and remediation, efforts to increase wage transparency, and additional guidance for field-level partners on decent work indicators of Better Cotton’s Principles & Criteria.
Regarding programs and partnerships, the focus will be on enhancing the capabilities of Program Partners, establishing win-win partnerships with experts and organisations that share similar values to share best practices and lessons learnt, and raising essential funds to expedite this crucial work.
Finally, multistakeholder engagement will help drive the systemic change necessary to address underlying structural issues by ensuring that Better Cotton’s efforts to promote decent work are reinforced through advocacy and collective action with the organization’s partners, including members, other multistakeholder initiatives, and governments.
