How Companies Investing in Worker Health and Wellbeing are Adapting to a Post-COVID Reality
2022 Private Sector Action Progress Report, Adapting to a New Reality, shows companies innovating to stay true to commitments to women’s workplace health and wellbeing
For two and a half years, the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc: on health, livelihoods, economies, and entire industries. Women and girls have shouldered the brunt of the impact, including disproportionate economic, caregiving, and health burdens. Domestic and intimate partner violence has increased; essential health care services, including sexual and reproductive health care, has been put even further out of reach for those who need it most; and many women face economic hardship from lost jobs and wages and increased caregiving and unpaid work.
The question for the post-pandemic period is how business will respond structurally and systemically to the lessons of COVID-19 and the profound harm it caused especially to women workers.
Before the pandemic struck, there had been a 20-year trend, led by civil society in partnership with business, to address the unique needs of the millions of women workers in global supply chains that manufacture and produce goods for export. In addition to concerns about living wages and workplace abuse, many increasingly focused on women’s health and wellbeing at the workplace in low- and middle-income countries that represented most of value chain production. In 2018, the United Nations Foundation launched its Private Sector Action on Women’s Health and Empowerment initiative to work with global and national companies to make measurable, timebound commitments to expand access to reproductive health and other health information and services. The premise of the Private Sector Action initiative is that women’s health is integral to women’s empowerment, gender equality and economic opportunities – and the resilience of companies and their supply chains. In 2019, 11 companies made commitments.
And then COVID-19 hit. With disruptions to supply chains, closed workplaces, quarantines and lost jobs, it was not clear whether new companies would be willing or in position to make commitments to workplace women’s health anytime soon or whether existing commitments would be dropped. It turned out that global, regional and national business entities were ready to make public commitments during the pandemic. And so companies, after 2019, continued to step up in 2020, and even more in 2021:
2019 commitment-makers: Columbia Sportswear Company, Ethical Apparel Africa, Hela Apparel Holdings, Inditex, Lindex, MAS Holdings, Nordstrom, Share Hope, Shahi, Twinings, and Unilever
2020 commitment-makers: Ethiopian Horticulture Producer Exporters Association (EPHEA), Farida, Del Monte Kenya Limited, Novartis SSA, and PVH Corp.
2021 commitment-makers: Amalgamated Plantations Private Limited (APPL), Arvind, Mt. Kenya West Women in Coffee (WESTWIC), Kenya Tea Development Agency (KTDA) Foundation
As COVID-19 continued to ebb and flow and keep the entire world on its toes, companies have by and large held steady to their commitments, despite unforeseeable challenges and shifting lines in the sand. Progress reports in 2020 and 2021 outlined a dedicated group of private sector companies navigating hurdles, shifting plans, and innovating to maintain their commitments to women workers’ health and wellbeing at a time it was needed more than ever; and this holds true today, as outlined in the 2022 Private Sector Action Progress Report, Adapting to a New Reality:
Some companies have exceeded their commitments: MAS Holdings, Inditex, Lindex, Unilever, and Novartis SSA have all met and exceeded their commitments, even in the pandemic. And PVH Corp. became a founding investor in the Resilience Fund for Women in Global Value Chains, a first-of-its-kind pooled corporate fund that invests in the long-term health, safety, and economic resilience of the women in supply chain communities.
Many companies have adapted their approaches: Almost every commitment-maker has reported adaptations to their approach, timeline, and more during the pandemic. Share Hope, for example, faced a factory closure that altered its training plans, but is using the opportunity to move toward a more holistic approach which integrates trainings on health and wellness and on life skills. Columbia Sportswear and Nordstrom are working with BSR on the tablet-based program that will reach workers virtually with health and well-being information, as scaling in-person trainings has continued to be a challenge. And Twinings, has taken advantage of digital platforms like WhatsApp for trainings and workshops, as well as mass outreach to communities through tele-consultation.
And nearly all companies are on track and remain committed to reaching women workers where they are – in the workforce – with the health and well-being information and services they want and deserve.
The 21 business organizations that made commitments are mainly industry leaders. However, much more needs to be done. UNF’s own research has documented the wide recognition among companies that not nearly enough progress had been made on their responsible sourcing efforts in supply chains, which includes social issues like health and wellbeing. These findings were published in our 2021 report, “Meeting the Unmet Promise of Responsible Sourcing,” and summarized in the Stanford Social Innovation Review. Under Chatham House rule, corporate executives themselves – not related to our commitment makers – pointed to the need for much more action, the internal challenges business faces in meeting social commitments, and the importance of both partnership and external pressure to drive change.
Adapting to a New Reality provides a snapshot of specific and measurable actions some leading companies report they are doing for women workers’ health and wellbeing. The UN Foundation is not a compliance organization – the information below is self-reported. It nevertheless provides useful insights on important areas for further development and action:
Use of technology for e-learning and virtual activities. The majority of commitment makers are experimenting with new approaches to training, learning and health services, using tablets and smartphones, WhatsApp, Zoom, Teams and YouTube, among others.
Access to health services. Commitment makers are also implementing a wide range of approaches to providing services to women workers, such as through new arrangement with public providers and NGO partners, telemedicine, health camps and mobile services, and training of workplace nurses. Making long-term changes that enable access to services is essential to improving health and resilience.
Expansion of performance metrics and indicators. Several commitment makers have begun to use system-level metrics, in addition to counting workers reached, that use self-assessment tools, embed good practices in supply chains, or set targets across the supply chains.
These are trends to watch as we move into an era of much greater focus on corporate Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) performance, which includes more action and accountability on women’s health and empowerment.