ILO Participatory Gender Audit for trade union concludes recommended actions

The ILO’s Strengthening Industrial Relations in Indonesia (SIRI) project supports the enhancement of gender equality and equity within the National Trade Union (SPN) by proposing five key recommendations.

4 April 2025

Content also available in: Bahasa Indonesia

JAKARTA, Indonesia (ILO News) - Five key recommendations have been presented to the National Trade Union (SPN) as the outcome of the Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) carried out by the ILO’s Strengthening Industrial Relations in Indonesia (SIRI) project. The audit, conducted over six months from February to August 2024, aims to help SPN enhance its gender-related policies, practices and attitudes within the organization.

Gender training with participants seating facing a screen. — The Participatory Gender Audit (PGA) aims to enhance gender-related policies, practices and attitudes within the union federations in Indonesia. 3/2025

The PGA has applied participatory and consultative approaches that involves SPN’s all relevant stakeholders. The PGA has also comprehensively assessed the organization's gender-related policies, practices, and attitudes. Using the ILO’s PGA Modules, developed by its International Training Centre (ITC) in Turin, the PGA has included extensive desk reviews of gender mainstreaming in policies and programmes, semi-structured individual and focus group interviews, collective workshops and a staff survey.

The following recommendations are as follows:

Develop a gender mainstreaming roadmap tailored to SPN's needs, as well as the current and future dynamics of industrial development, with a focus on promoting gender equality in a responsive and transformative manner.
Revise organizational regulations concerning women's committees to define the scope of their authority and enable self-funding beyond SPN's internal resources, thereby strengthening the institutional capacity of women's committees.
Establish gender-responsive governance through participatory monitoring and evaluation, gender budgeting, creating a member database, and fostering member engagement in discussions, training, actions, and reporting.
Foster a supportive, gender-sensitive, and women-friendly environment by enhancing secretarial systems, bolstering media and campaign efforts with compelling texts and visuals.
Collaborate on a shared strategic agenda with other unions, federations, confederations, and civil society organizations.

People gather in front of a writing board. — Participants collaborate in groups to determine essential recommendations for the future actions and ways forwards. 3/2025

Nurus Mufidah, Coordinator of the ILO’s SIRI project, highlighted that the six-month PGA was designed to enhance women's participation and leadership within SPN by offering strategic recommendations for future advancements and broader inclusion of women. She stated: “SPN has demonstrated a strong commitment to fostering gender equality and equity. The ILO’s SIRI Project is delighted to have partnered with a federation that has shown initiative through its gender-focused interventions and programmes. These five key recommendations serve as a guide for advancing gender equality within trade union organizations in the garment and textile industry.”

Funded by the Canadian Government, the ILO’s SIRI Project aims to build the capacity of garment sector workers and their representatives to effectively organize and represent all workers in Indonesia’s garment sector. and participate more actively and inclusively in key national policy advocacy. The project has came to an end in April 2025.