A GENDER-RESPONSIVE ANALYSIS OF ADVANCING SOCIAL PROTECTION AND LABOUR RIGHTS IN THE COFFEE AND TEA SECTORS IN THE LAO PEOPLE’S DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC

INTRODUCTION 

Gender roles in the workforce are a priority consideration in the development work that emerged from the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and have been integrated into national agendas and relevant strategies. To achieve the gender-transformative objectives that arose out of advocacy and policymaking, gender mainstreaming must play a vital role in the implementation and institutionalisation of legislation, dialogue, research, consultations, resource allocation, planning, and monitoring and evaluation. Under the “Reducing Vulnerability in the Lao PDR: Advancing Social Protection and Labour Rights and its Entitlements in the Coffee and Tea Sectors (SOLAR)” project, implemented by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and Oxfam in Lao PDR and funded by the European Union, gender-responsive social protection is integrated into project activities to promote the participation, empowerment, and leadership of women working in the coffee and tea sectors in the Bolaven plateau. The main objectives of SOLAR are to raise awareness among women of their rights and enhance their ability to make decisions. This paper on promoting gender roles in social protection work has been created by collecting data from the implementation of the SOLAR project and analysing the problems, causes, and power relations that affect women's participation and access to social protection, especially among informal female workers in the tea and coffee sectors. In addition, this paper serves as a technical reference to propose improvements in policy and legislation, as well as how to implement activities to promote gender equity in the future

1. OVERVIEW

The tea and coffee production sectors create jobs in rural areas and make an important contribution to economic and social development in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic. In the country’s Bolaven Plateau region, coffee production is still mainly operated by local farmers. However, it has also witnessed the increasing commercialisation of production in recent decades through the involvement of cooperatives. Except for those who are employed by larger cooperatives, a majority of farmers in the coffee and tea sectors are informal workers who work on their own plantations. Meanwhile, cherry1 pickers are usually local people and seasonal workers from surrounding districts. The tea and coffee sectors involve both female and male workers in all stages of production, ranging from cultivation and harvesting to processing and sales. However, women and men are typically assigned specific tasks based on traditional roles in the family. This leads to a gendered division of labour in the sectors. Men usually handle jobs requiring physical strength, such as ploughing, installing fencing, weeding, pruning, and lifting heavy objects. Meanwhile, women are assigned tasks such as preparing coffee plants, cherry picking, and sorting. Workers in the coffee and tea sectors generally do not have access to employment benefits like those in large companies because they lack access to social protection and sufficient information concerning their labour rights. Consequently, coffee and tea workers find themselves among the least protected, as they are generally in the lowest income category and at substantial risk of occupational accidents and illness. This lack of access to social protection and benefits2 is true for both female and male workers, and does not consider the additional barriers faced by women due to gender inequality in the coffee and tea sectors. Therefore, gender inequality must be taken into account when designing interventions aimed at securing coffee and tea workers’ rights to decent work, including access to the National Social Security Fund, so as to ensure that female workers are not left behind.

Integrating gender equity into policies and interventions aimed at improving access to social protection and labour rights in the coffee and tea sectors is one of the priorities of the SOLAR project. Its activities are being implemented in the Bolaven Plateau, which covers the three districts of Lao Ngam in Salavan Province, Thateng in Xekong Province, and Pak Song in Champasak Province. The project aims to promote social protection for workers, especially female informal workers, in the tea and coffee sectors. It seeks to improve health and safety in the workplace, enhance gender-sensitive practices, and promote the participation of communities in the work of social protection and labour rights. To this end, the SOLAR project conducted a preliminary study using the participatory tool “Gender Action Learning System (GALS)” to build understanding, recognise gender gaps, and stimulate the participation of female workers in activities on labour rights and social protection (Oxfam 2020).

2. METHODOLOGY

This study was conducted using a mixed methodology approach. Both quantitative and qualitative data were deployed to build understanding around the role of gender in access to social protection in the coffee and tea sectors. It did so by collecting and analysing data in a participatory manner in workshops using GALS tools and a questionnaire. The GALS tools and application are designed to stimulate the participation of both women and men. This method emphasises discussion and the exchange of particpants’ experiences through drawings that reflect their problems and needs (as opposed to writing them down). The GALS method includes the use of tools to determine power in social relations, such as strategic trees, gender balance trees, setting life goals, and a journey road. These tools allow participants to analyse the challenges they face and consider recommendations to solve problems related to gender in the promotion of social protection and labour rights. In total, 154 farmers – 77 women and 77 men – who work in the coffee and tea sectors engaged in discussions through the gender-responsive GALS workshops. These farmers came from various coffee and tea producing groups: Bolaven Plateau Coffee Producers Cooperative, Santiphab coffee producing group, coffee producing groups from Lak Khao and Kongtayoun villages, and tea producing groups from Lak 33 and Lak 35 villages. The workshop discussions resulted in qualitative information used for this study.

Another data set was retrieved from the questionnaire3, which was distributed to 100 coffee and tea producers – 50 women and 50 men – in Paksong, Thateng, and Lao Ngam districts. The questionnaire was designed to produce quantitative data that captures how men and women working in the coffee and tea sectors contribute to both paid labour and unpaid work in the household, including opportunities to access information related to social security, gender equality promotion, and occupational health and safety.

Additional information was retrieved from primary data such as that in the SOLAR project’s baseline report and desk-based research related to gender integration and the promotion of labour rights.

3. FINDINGS  

Through an analysis of data collected from GALS, previous research conducted by Oxfam and the ILO, and various discussions, we can summarise the gender issues related to labour rights and social protection in the coffee and tea sectors on the Bolaven Plateau as follows: 

a) A lack of awareness of gender issues leads to lower female participation in social protection and labour rights 

Men working in the coffee and tea sectors participate to a greater extent than women in social activities, community gatherings, and meetings and have greater access to information on social protection and labour rights. In some activities, all participants were men. This indicates that there is a lack of awareness about the importance of gender issues as a contributing factor to the overall low awareness of social protection and labour rights among women, as shown in figure 1 below.

Figure 1 shows that a majority of women in the coffee and tea sectors reported only having a low degree of awareness of occupational health and safety, social protection, and labour rights. No women reported having a high degree of awareness. This lack of awareness among female workers hinders the ability of communities to protect themselves from work-related accidents. Similarly, female workers also tend to lack the ability to negotiate with employers to protect their rights and interests. This also means that most women only secure irregular access to social protection, even in the form of informal benefits, if they secure any access at all.

In addition, at the community level, it is clear that gender issues are not taken seriously, especially 3. FIndIngs in relation to gender-awareness efforts. This was evident during training sessions, meetings, and when recruiting labourers, since invitations or assignments generally specify that only the head of the family (as specified in household registration documents), who is normally a man, needs to attend. These gender-related issues are related to long-standing traditions and customs, not only in the Bolaven Plateau, but in all regions in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, where patriarchal views are predominant. Women are often controlled and restricted from participating in development activities and events by men, either their husbands or older relatives, who are perceived as the head of the family. These men often view development activities aimed at women with distrust and concern that their traditional beliefs are being dismissed or transgressed. For example, if women leave their communities to attend events such as trainings, meetings, and social gatherings without the consent of the head of their family, they will be blamed for ritual misconduct if unforeseen events, such as accidents or emergencies, happen to those women or their family members. This affects women's participation in development work and hinders them from joining activities that take place outside their community. This is another reason why women lack access to information on labour safety, social protection, labour rights, and vocational development.

Most women in the tea and coffee sectors do not dare to express themselves due to a lack of self confidence and acceptance; low capacity to make decisions for themselves; and/or insufficient encouragement, support, and learning opportunities such as training, meetings, or outside exchange visits. Many women also have a limited education and lower literacy levels compared to men. This is another contributing factor that results in lost opportunities for development.

b) Discrimination against women 

Discrimination against women in the tea and coffee farming sectors takes many forms. This includes discrimination against female workers on the basis of pregnancy and maternity. Pregnant women and new mothers will need time off to ensure their own health and well-being and that of their child. However, in the Lao coffee and tea sectors, this necessary time away from the plantations is generally perceived as an insufficient commitment to their work. Consequently, women are frequently denied employment, with coffee and tea employers preferring male labourers who can work without taking time off. During one of the gender balance tree sessions at the GALS workshop, one of the female participants said that, although men and women can take on tasks for equal rates of pay – such as lifting cherry sacks from the field after picking, or weeding the coffee plantation using machines – employers prefer men to women because of their physical strength and perceived greater expertise with machinery. Women also reported having more limited opportunities to access social security compared to men. This is due to the deep-rooted and widely-accepted belief that men are leaders, the heads of families, and the main breadwinner. Consequently, men believe that they have the right to make decisions on behalf of family members, for instance, in regard to financial matters and deciding who will attend social events. In addition, a perception persists that women are responsible for taking care of household chores and care work, while occasionally earning additional income to help the head of the family. This arrangement often leads to women having to handle multiple tasks – including both paid and unpaid labour – which provides limited time to rest, as well as fewer opportunities to learn, self-develop, and advance their lives.

Even when women are promoted to leadership roles or hold senior positions, such as leaders of groups or cooperatives, most do not receive good cooperation from their families. This puts women in a dilemma, since they must not only perform their management duties, but they must also be responsible for unpaid family care and community work.

c) The current economic and employment situation is unfavourable to women

Low wages and unpaid labour 

The current economic situation in the Lao People’s Democratic Republic, characterised by hyperinflation leading to a high cost of living due to wages not keeping pace, has had a substantial impact on gender equality in agriculture. In the coffee and tea sectors, economic hardship is attributable to the low national minimum wage, which has even influenced labourers’ wages in informal sectors, as well as the lack of proper labour contracts and the prevalence of seasonal employment. The average wage of a labourer in the Bolaven Plateau is between 50,000 kip and 150,000 kip per day for coffee production and between 50,000 kip and 70,000 kip per day for tea production, depending on the ability of workers (ILO 2023). 

On the Bolaven Plateau, women perform work like weeding, fertilizing, and tending the coffee plantations. These are seen as lighter duties and so receive a lower wage (ILO 2023). By contrast, men perform tasks that include using machines and lifting or carrying heavy objects, which involve higher wages. These differing roles reinforce the notion that men or husbands are the main income earners in the family.

In some circumstances, women can also be assigned heavy work such as lifting and carrying bags of coffee beans that weigh the same as those men carry, but they still receive lower wages. This also reinforces the idea that men are the breadwinners due to their higher income.

According to the survey conducted with the sample group of coffee and tea workers, both women and men engage in unpaid labour during the day. However, the discussions during the GALS training indicated that women are mainly responsible for chores and care work at home as well as crop production. Many of the women who participated in the discussions undertake lengthy periods of unpaid work each day. In fact, 78 per cent reported that they perform at least six hours of unpaid work every day. Over one-third (36 per cent) reported doing more than eight hours a day. Since women often have no choice but to juggle many unpaid tasks, they cannot fully engage in paid work to the same extent as men (Oxfam 2023).

Labour shortages during the coffee harvesting season 

Indirectly, labour shortages in the coffee and tea harvesting season can also be attributed to gender inequality issues. The low wages that women receive for harvesting coffee and tea, inflation and the high cost of living, gender-based discrimination, harsh-working conditions on farms, and the availability of better paying jobs outside the country were seen as the main reasons for many young women from the Bolaven Plateau region deciding to migrate to neighbouring countries like Thailand for work. One result is that, each year, there are not enough labourers to work on the coffee plantations. To compensate for this shortage of local workers, coffee plantation owners hire labourers from surrounding districts, many of whom are couples.

One-time (irregular) income

Coffee farmers receive their income once a year after the harvesting season and the yield varies each year in response to climactic conditions. This income is then divided up to pay for family expenses, debts, healthcare, investing in the upcoming cultivation season, and social obligations such as the village fund, Women’s Union contributions, the death of community members, and so on. This lack of regularity in the timing and amount of pay and the existence of multiple obligations and priorities mean that coffee and tea farmers (whether men or women) cannot register with or make regular contributions to the National Social Security Fund.

4. RECOMMENDATIONS

1. When determining participants for meetings, training sessions, and other events, organisers should seek to achieve gender balance or to have more women than men (for example, a meeting with five participants should have three women). This can be decreed at the invitation stage, and civil society organisations or village authorities should suggest, inform, or assign female participants for such events. This will empower women and give them more opportunities to develop their capacities. 

2. There should be events to build understanding of gender among local authorities and community leaders, since it will be difficult to achieve the project goals if they do not understand the purpose and benefits of gender-transformative work. Through training and awareness raising, village authorities and community leaders can become voices to foster sustainable gender mainstreaming in the world of work. 

3. There should be training for couples using the GALS tools. They are both useful and effective, as demonstrated in the Maeying Huamjai Phatthana (MHP) target villages, where they brought about positive changes in family affairs. In these villages, women initially lacked self confidence and were not happy with their roles in the family. Through GALS training, women and their spouses were able to develop knowledge related to gender, find opportunities to work together with their family members, openly speak about their likes and dislikes, and make future plans together. As a result, the women developed enough confidence to negotiate with their partners on the division of family responsibilities.

4. Further research is needed on gender roles related to care work in the agri-food sectors (including in the tea and coffee sectors) for different ethnic minorities to determine the specific issues faced by these groups and communities. This would help to ensure that gender responsive social protection and labour rights programmes are tailored to their needs and situations and effectively implemented. 

5. Exchange meetings should be organised that allow for the sharing of experiences on gender mainstreaming work within groups, communities, and at government level. For example, an exhibition on GALS was held among groups already trained in such tools, and this had progressive results as it allowed members of GALS groups and their communities to learn from each other. Another example is the GALS Festival, organised in Huaphanh Province by the Association for Bamboo and Non-timber Products, one of Oxfam’s implementing partners. The festival brought together association members who had received GALS training and provided a space to share their  knowledge and experience, which helped to further disseminate the GALS approach and results. 

6. Gender mainstreaming champions need to be identified so that capable women can be promoted to leadership positions at the community level.

7. It is essential to conduct outreach and awareness-raising among families working in the coffee and tea sectors and their communities on the importance and benefits of registering with the National Social Security Fund and putting in place measures to ensure occupational health and safety. There is a particular need to reach out to female workers who currently demonstrate a low level of awareness concerning both social protection and occupational health and safety.

8. Men need to be educated on providing opportunities and encouragement to women by fairly distributing household activities, such as care work, and by ensuring that women can join community and social events. Achieving this will require serious and sustained action given the ingrained social and cultural traditions within these communities. Some possibilities include mainstreaming gender components into educational curricula, employment, social services, and so on. At the local level, development partners like NGOs and civil society organisations can coordinate and continuously work on gender equality efforts, in part by considering gender in all aspects of their project implementation.

9. There is a need for greater legal protection and enforcement, including stronger legal protection against discrimination in the workplace, particularly measures to prevent the denial of employment opportunities to women after giving birth. Strict enforcement of existing labour laws is necessary to hold employers accountable for discriminatory practices.

10. Equal pay for equal work: There is a pronounced need to promote equal pay for work of equal value, regardless of gender. This includes the need to actively challenge stereotypes about women's physical capabilities and to advocate for fair compensation based on job responsibilities and skills rather than gender.

11. Equitable access to social security benefits for women in the tea and coffee sectors should be ensured. Mechanisms should be developed to facilitate women's registration and regular contribution to social security, taking into account the irregular nature of their income and household responsibilities.

12. The formation of women's groups specifically tailored to the needs and interests of women in tea and coffee farming communities should be encouraged. These groups can provide a platform for women to come together, share experiences, and collectively address common challenges.

REFERENCES

— ILO. (2023). Baseline Survey: Reducing Vulnerability, advancing social protection and labour rights and its entitlements in the coffee and tea sectors. 

— Oxfam. (2020). Gender Visible: Learning about gender integration in the Right to Food Programme. https://oxfamilibrary.openrepository.com/handle/10546/621196 

— Oxfam in Laos. (2023). Report on gender responsive social protection and occupational safety and health.