Belgian solidarity support organisations and their partner trade unions identify key priorities for strengthening their alliance on gender equality and climate

Following the approval of a new five-year cooperation programme on the promotion of the Decent Work Agenda with the Belgian Ministry of Development Cooperation, the three Belgian Trade Union Solidarity Support Organisations (BIS/MSI, ACV/CSCi, and IFSI/ISVI) aim to establish with their partner organisations a joint trade union learning trajectory focused on gender and climate issues.

As the Belgian SSOs recognise gender equality and climate as thematic priorities for the development community, including trade unions, they welcome the clear path for trade unions to focus their future work outlined in the ITUC 2022 Congress Statement.

On 21 November 2022, the Belgian organisations held a working session with the many partners organisations that were attending the ITUC’s 5th World Congress to present their vision for a joint learning trajectory and to start identifying priorities and needs, sharing lessons learned, and best practices.

Partners highly valued the initiative and identified a series of work areas for the coming years. On gender equality, suggestions included improving access to data, establishing mechanisms to monitor gender-based violence, and conducting studies to support the ratification of the ILO Convention 190 on violence and harassment in the workplace. Regarding climate, participants emphasised the importance of creating tools to integrate climate-related elements into trade union policies and activities, such as collective bargaining agreements, organisational health and safety measures, and social dialogue, among other suggestions.

The project will result in the joint production of a series of publications during the 2022-2026 period.

For more information contact
maresa.le.roux<@>aclvb.be (BIS/MIS)
laurent.atsou<@>ifsi-isvi.be (IFSI/ISVI)
Frederic.Triest<@>acv-csc.be (ACV/CSC)