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Training materials have been produced to help multinationals improve the health of women working in apparel sector supply chain factories.

The advice has been posted free to the web as part of an initiative funded by the Levi Strauss Foundation, and is part of the HERproject, which encourages women working in developing world factories to learn more about health issues such as nutrition, water-borne disease, HIV/Aids, and family planning.

The guidance takes the form of downloadable one-hour training programmes intended for use in the workplace, but which can be used in any situation – such as a community group or school.

There are also manuals for trainers that provide more in-depth information on health topics, and post-training assessments to evaluate how well participants have absorbed the information provided.

The material – known as the ‘HERproject curriculum’ – has been based on best practice examples of where companies have worked to help women who work in their supply chains to learn more about health issues.

Daniel Lee, executive director of the Levi Strauss Foundation, said the new initiative ‘means that apparel suppliers are now better equipped to create and sustain their own women’s health programmes, which have proven to not only improve workers’ well-being, but also to increase productivity’.

The training materials were developed in partnership with several NGOs working in the public health and international development spheres, including CARE, Georgetown University, and USAID.

HERproject, which is administered by the US-based Business for Social Responsibility organisation, was launched in 2007 in China. It aims to create links between multinational companies and their factories with local NGOs in order to create women’s health education programmes in the workplace.

It operates in Bangladesh, China, Egypt, Kenya, India, Indonesia, Pakistan, and Vietnam with financial support from the Levi Strauss Foundation and the Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency.

The new guidance is available at http://www.herproject.org/resources/curriculum-topic/introductory-module/resources-for-trainers

Posted on July 09, 2012 at 06:04am.