Gender-sensitive risks and options assessment for decision-making to support WiF2

Evaluating complex interventions

Claudia Ringler

International Food Policy Research Institute

Lincoln University
Australian National University
American University Beirut
University of Dhaka

February 2020 to April 2022 (TBC)

Evaluation

Bangladesh, Nepal, Jordan and Lebanon

This evaluation will support the Department for International Development programme, Work in Freedom Phase 2 (WiF2) in assessing the effectiveness of interventions to reduce forced labour and trafficking along migration pathways from Bangladesh and Nepal to Jordan and Lebanon.

The study will:

1. Update the gender-sensitive Risks and Options Assessment for Decision- making (ROAD) process by incorporating a gendered focus;
2. Implement a quantitative complex survey with female migrants and their spouses to assess the risk of forced labour and trafficking along the migration pathway and the impact of WiF interventions to date;
3. Assess the determinants of wage differentials of female migrants in Nepal, reanalysing existing quantitative data; and
4. Conduct a qualitative evaluation of WiF’s impact on women’s empowerment in forced labour and trafficking situations in Bangladesh and Nepal.

Data will be collected on:

1. Migrants in Nepal; and
2. Employers in Lebanon.

In addition, qualitative work will be carried out on freedom of association in Lebanon and Jordan and on women’s empowerment in the countries of origin.

The study will provide evidence on the effectiveness of interventions that reduce vulnerability to trafficking and forced labour of women and girls from Bangladesh and Nepal to Middle Eastern countries. The evidence will be useful for organisations working on migrant rights and the scientific community.

Journal papers

• ElDidi, H., C. van Biljon, M. Alvi, C. Ringler, N. Ratna, S. Abdulrahim, P. Kilby, J. Wu and Z.A. Choudhury. (2022). Reducing vulnerability to forced labour and trafficking of women migrant workers from South- to West-Asia. Development in Practice. Special issue on Modern Slavery and Exploitative Work Regimes. DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2022.2059448
• Joyce Wu & Patrick Kilby (2022): The precarity of gender, migration, and locations: case studies from Bangladesh and Nepal, Development in Practice. DOI: 10.1080/09614524.2022.2057441
• The role of social identity in improving access to water, sanitation and hygiene (WASH) and health services: Evidence from Nepal – Research paper, September 19, 2021, Development Policy Review. https://doi.org/10.1111/dpr.12588
• ElDidi, H., C. van Biljon, M.F. Alvi, C. Ringler, N. Ratna, S. Abdulrahim, P. Kilby, J. Wu and Z. Choudhury. 2021. Reducing vulnerability to forced labor and trafficking of short-term, low-skilled women migrant workers in the South Asia to Middle East corridor. IFPRI Discussion Paper 2049. Washington, DC: International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI).
• Kilby, P., & Wu, J. (2021). ‘Migration and the Gender Impacts of COVID-19 on Nepalese Women’; Pakistan Journal of Women’s Studies, special issue on gender and COVID-19 (December). Migration-and-the-Gender-Impact-of-Covid-19-on-Nepalese-Women.pdf (researchgate.net)

Papers and policy briefs

• CEDIL Design Paper: Gender-Sensitive Risks and Options Assessment for Decision Making (ROAD) to Support WiF2, Design paper 4
• Reducing Vulnerability and Precarity of Low-Skilled Women in Short-Term Migration from the Global South: Key Policy Recommendations for the G-20 – Policy note on key risks along the migration pathway, on the role of women’s empowerment and on impact of WiF interventions, September 2021
• CEDIL Evidence Brief: Beyond Kafala: Employer roles in growing vulnerabilities of women migrant domestic workers
• CEDIL Evidence Brief: Development and validation of a Women’s Empowerment in Migration Index (WEMI)
• IFPRI Discussion Paper: Elder care in Lebanon: An analysis of care workers and care recipients in the face of crisis

Blog posts

• When ties that bind Increase migrants’ vulnerability: Insights from the south to west Asia migration corridor
• Women’s labour migration: A journey fraught with violence
• From helping to collective organizing: Insights from women migrant domestic workers in Lebanon

Media coverage

• “কাজ করতে হয় ১৪ ঘণ্টা, সাপ্তাহিক ছুটি পান না ৭৬ শতাংশ (You have to work 14 hours, you don’t get 7 percent weekly leave)” – Prothom Alo (in Bangla, with English option), 12 May 2022
• “Provide them with language skills training” – Daily Star, 13 May 2022
• “Study: 79% of women migrants jobless since return to Bangladesh” – Dhaka Tribune, 12 May 2022
• ভাগ্য বদলের আশায় মধ্যপ্রাচ্যে গিয়েও বেতনভাতা পাননি ৩৭ শতাংশ নারী (37 percent women did not get salary even after going to the Middle East in the hope of changing their destiny) – Sara Bangla, 12 May 2022
• ‘নারী অভিবাসীদের ভোগান্তি নিরসনে প্রয়োজন নীতি গ্রহণ’। (‘Adoption of necessary policies to alleviate the suffering of women migrants’.) – DBC, 12 May 2022
• G20 called on to reduce exploitation of women migrants in garment, domestic work | Arts, Design & Architecture – UNSW Sydney

Webinars

• CEDIL Webinar – 25 January 2023

Videos

• Gender-Sensitive Risks and Options Assessment for Decision Making (ROAD) to Support Work in Freedom Phase 2 (WiF-2) – Early findings and lessons learned