Terms of Reference for Program Assistant Global Fairness Initiative Nepal
Organization: Global Fairness Initiative Nepal (GFI Nepal)
Job Description: Program Assistant
Responsible to: Program Manager
Duration: One-year contract with possibility of extension
Compensation: Commensurate with Experience
1. Background
The Global Fairness Initiative (GFI) is a non-profit organization (501(c)3) registered in the United States of America for the purpose of creating a more equitable, sustainable approach to economic and social development. After entering into an agreement with Social Welfare Council, GFI Nepal has established its office in Nepal and implements the Better Brick – Nepal program together with implementing partners.
Over 250,000 workers, of whom as many as 60,000 are children, labor in unhealthy and unsafe conditions in Nepal’s brick kilns. The informal nature of the industry, which operates on the periphery of communities and with little government oversight, has served to entrench exploitive labor practices such as forced, bonded, and child labor. While work conditions are often harsh, the brick industry provides needed income to thousands of unskilled laborers, and in the wake of the Gorkha Earthquake of April 2015 the sector has become a particularly vital source of the jobs and building materials necessary for Nepal’s rebuilding and recovery.
Better Brick – Nepal’s objective is to transform the brick industry by eliminating child, forced, and bonded labor. We incentivize kilns to improve conditions for workers through access to better production techniques, stronger operations, and the creation of a market for ethically produced bricks. To achieve this, long entrenched systems of recruiting workers, paying wages and operating kilns themselves must be reformed and new, locally appropriate, approaches introduced that maintain financial benefit for owners and workers alike. Brick kilns in Nepal play an important role in an economic infrastructure that supports the livelihoods of thousands of workers and provides the raw materials that drive Nepal’s reconstruction and future growth. A future goal of Better Brick - Nepal is to create a more nuanced vision of brick production with wider recognition of good and bad practices where, currently, the sector is largely disparaged on the whole. The impact of creating this “choice” leverages a prevalent interest from kiln owners to find solutions to social and environmental problems entrenched in the sector, and taps into an insurgent demand for responsibility and accountability in the commercial sector in Nepal, led in part by international donor agencies, and amplified in the wake of the Gorkha earthquake.
2. Better Brick Nepal (BBN) Initiative
Better Brick - Nepal is a collaboration of Nepali NGOs, progressive brick kilns, the Government of Nepal, the Global Fairness Initiative (GFI), and GoodWeave, and is supported by Humanity United. Better Brick – Nepal’s objective is to transform the brick industry by eliminating child, forced, and bonded labor by incentivizing kilns to improve conditions for workers through access to better production techniques, government recognition, stronger operations, and the creation of a market for ethically produced bricks.
Better Brick - Nepal is achieving this objective by utilizing a “tiered” system of engagement to differentiate levels of progress towards improving working conditions, as defined by the Better Brick - Nepal Standards, the program’s levels of engagement and investment on each kiln, and intensities of market facilitation and promotion for the kilns.
Better Brick - Nepal currently has 40 partner kilns, which fall into three tiers - Participant Kilns, Member Kilns, and Certified Kilns. By staggering engagement and investment based on performance, the program can partner with more kilns, more quickly. In addition, by marketing Member and Certified Kilns, the program can start to add in suppliers to meet the increased demand, while also ensuring that a zero tolerance policy on child labor is upheld.
Better Brick - Nepal’s specific objectives are:
3. Position Roles and Responsibilities:
Program Support
Monitoring & Reporting
Knowledge Management and Communication
4. Knowledge, Experience and Qualification:
How to apply:
Interested applicants are required to submit a detailed cover letter, along with their updated CV, and three (3) references to nepalhr@globalfairness.org (Please mention the name of position in the subject line)
Application deadline: August 30, 2019
Established in the year 2002, Global Fairness Initiative (GFI) is an organization which promotes equitable, sustainable approach to economic development for the world’s working poor by advancing fair wages, equal access to markets, and balanced public policy to generate opportunity and end the cycle of poverty. GFI has partnered public policy to generate opportunity and end the cycle of poverty. GFI has partnered with hundreds of marginalized working communities in Latin America, Africa, and Asia to enhance economic opportunities and build sustainable livelihoods. In Nepal GFI started its program Better Brick - Nepal (BBN) to address labor and environmental challenges in the brick kiln industry. The goal of this Better Brick - Nepal is to create sustainable and effective policies and structures that incentivize the socially and environmentally responsible production of quality bricks in Nepal and catalyse market to support the entrenchment of “Better Bricks”.