

DSW Ethiopia links policy intervention to the elimination of SGBV in the workplace
A half-day policy advocacy workshop held at the Jupiter International Hotel in Addis Ababa on 24 December 2024, has linked a tailored intervention to undo the sexual and gender-based violence (SGBV) affecting working youth. Hosting a consultative plenary during the workshop, DSW Ethiopia invited policy implementers from the Ethiopian Investment Commission (EIC), senior experts at industrial parks, youth leaders, representatives from the Ministry of Youth & Social Affairs (MoYSA), the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS) and other officials representing relevant sector offices from Amhara and Oromia regions.
The growing challenges of preventing SGBV cases and addressing the sexual and reproductive health (SRH) needs of young people in workplaces previously unreached by interventions were weighed up in the discussion whether the root cause of the problems lay in the formulation of the investment policy or whether the issue got stuck in the process of implementation.

While the prevalence of SGBV in the workplace has increased significantly, preventive measures to address it remain marginal, beyond filling in report checklists. Although policy advocacy and public campaigns have continued to engage stakeholders through various interventions to create an enabling environment to address the prevalence of SGBV in the workplace, there are so many reports of such cases that go unattended.

“Over the past seven years, DSW Ethiopia has tailored the modality of its workplace interventions to target both the flourishing flower farms located on the outskirts of Addis Ababa and a handful of industrial parks near major cities. In these workplaces, young female employees make up a large majority of the workforce. By creating demand and linking access to the youth-friendly services for the sexual and reproductive health needs of working youth, DSW has integrated the preventive strategies to intervene against SGBV in the flower farms and industrial parks,” Feyera Assefa, Country Director of DSW Ethiopia, put into context how and why DSW became involved in addressing the SRH needs of working youth and the SGBV challenges they face in the workplace.

“Before the workplace intervention, it was believed that the high turnover of young female workers in various flower farms and at the industrial parks was mainly due to SRH issues and cases of SGBV. These issues would not have been partially addressed as they are now in some of the workplaces already reached by the intervention. As a result, the specific workplaces where the retention of young female workers looked quite stable and the turnovers stood at 5 percent, down from 23 percent in the past,” an industry insider revealed during the plenary session. “Where do the loopholes linger,” one participant asked, echoed by others who went on to highlight whether the gaps in addressing SGBV issues in workplaces stem from the formulation the investment policies or from weak implementation strategies.

Teketel Yohannes (Ph.D), Executive Director of the Ethiopian Academy of Sciences (EAS), took note of the important policy research material from the problematic gaps that challenge both policy makers and implementers. “This consultative meeting focusing on policy advocacy provided the EAS team with strong inputs on the subject matter to explore ways of conducting a study by involving the stakeholders,” underlined the EAS’s Executive Director.
As the call for intensive intervention on SGBV issues and SRH needs of working youth caught the attention of most participants, they also unanimously expressed concern about the policy gaps that were seen as shortening the intervention efforts to achieve desirable outcomes. Some even called for concerted efforts and teamwork as a way forward to coordinate the establishment of youth-friendly services within workplaces, with DSW contributing its experience.

The initiatives based on the common objective promoted by the Executive Director of the EAS and other stakeholders were appreciated by Feyera, who saw how the whole effort of policy advocacy discussed during the consultative workshop served its purpose. “We observed and noted useful perspectives presented from different policy dimensions. Whether our talking points on the potential gaps tended towards policy formulation or implementation, the three measurable ways forward were underlined. These include reviewing elements of the Ethiopian Investment Policy and its impact on the SGBV cases and the SRH wellbeing of working youth, identifying where the gaps actually exist, and engaging the stakeholders will be the clear guidelines to scale up our concerted efforts to the best of our ability in the subsequent policy advocacy consultative meetings we have committed to,” Feyera concludes with a strong emphasis on way forward in his closing remarks.
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