STRATEGIC PLAN
2012-2015
‘We, members of the IFWEA, are the worker educators of the world. Our task is to help workers and
their unions to understand this process which tries to destroy regulation in the formal economy,
pushing formal workers into the informal economy and pushing informal workers into even more
precarious and sometimes illegal activity. That is our challenge’.
(IFWEA president Sue Schurman, closing remarks, IFWEA General Conference, 2011)
Introduction
IFWEA president Sue Schurman, in her closing speech at the General Conference, summed up the theme
“Facing Flexibility: research and education to build democratic labour organisations”. She outlined the
relentlessness of the forces of global capitalism, with the neo-liberal economic policies that had their
birthplace in the USA having now invaded practically every country in the world. She underscored the notion
of relentlessness, viz. the inexorable pressure to deregulate all those policies that labour struggled to formalise
in the regulation of capital, primarily through collective bargaining.
She emphasised the essential task of strengthening north-south solidarity in this regard, with the focus on
understanding the processes of deregulation, job losses and informalisation, often leading to economic
migration. Accompanying this is the political challenge of organising and advocating for legal and social
protections against the consequences of universal flexibility. It is these elements which form the basis of
IFWEA’s education and research work and exchanges for the next four years.
The IFWEA programme for the period 2015-2015 is mandated by the 2011 General Conference. Central to this
is the provision of quality education and research services for the labour movement and membership-based
organisations of the poor (MBOP). IFWEA’s offerings must strive to be of a high standard in terms of its
teaching methodology and philosophy, highlighting the political social justice and equity orientation of its
members, their constituencies and beneficiaries.
Aim of IFWEA
The Aim of IFWEA is to assist and expand lifelong learning frontiers in knowledge, methodology, practices and
opportunities within the international labour movement.
Strategic objectives
For the period 2012 – 2015, IFWEA will:
1.
Strengthen our international network of member organisations though exchanges and greater online
communication;
2.
Improve the educational and research capacity and services of our members in order to assist them in
their role of strengthening democratic labour organisations in their countries and regions;
3.
Contribute to the global knowledge community to improve labour’s capacity to face 21 st century
challenges, with an emphasis on analysing the trends and consequences of flexibility and capacity
building to represent, organise and improve the conditions of informalised workers.
These strategic aims are framed by the overall IFWEA aim of expanding lifelong learning within the
international labour movement. The project activities for the period ahead, i.e. the Online Labour Academy
(OLA), The Workers’ Education Platform for Socio-Economic Equality in Cape Town (IFWEA Study Circle) and
the Youth Globalisation Awareness Programme (Y-GAP) have been designed to carry out these aims and
objectives.
Strategic Objective 1: Strengthen our international network of member organisations
though exchanges and greater online communication.
IFWEA communications are an important aspect of building networks and relationships between members and
organisations. The value of online technology to facilitate international networks and solidarity building
between the north and south cannot be over-stated. The IFWEA online communication channels is growing
and succeeding in directing traffic between the various social media pages, the IFWEA website and the OLA
platform. IFWEA communication channels include the IFWEA e-bulletin, the IFWEA and Y-GAP Facebook social
networking pages, the IFWEA website (public pages), the IFWEA website (affiliate’s site) and the OLA platform.
1.1 IFWEA Online (e-bulletin, website, IFWEA Facebook page, Y-GAP facebook page, Ola
platform)
Intermediate objective 1: Utilise online communication channels as a vehicle to facilitate
networking, solidarity building and communication between IFWEA, its members, partners and the
international labour movement.
Activity 1: IFWEA E-bulletin
Indicator 1: Ten issues per annum. Reduced in 2014 to six bi-monthly issues produced annually.
Activity 2: Social Media
Indicator 2: Online traffic to Y-GAP and IFWEA Facebook pages.
Activity 3: IFWEA Website update and maintenance
Indicator 3: Update IFWEA and Facebook pages.
Activity 4: OLA Platform
Indicator 4: Platform updated and maintained by OLA tutors specially trained in OLA online course delivery.
Support by PLADES whose supporting role will lessen as tutors become skilled in maintaining the OLA platform.
1.2 Youth Globalisation Awareness Programme (Y-GAP)
Intermediate objective 1: To build the awareness of young working people in the labour and social democratic
movements of the Nordic countries, of global links and inequalities.
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Intermediate objective 2: To build an awareness of acting globally in solidarity with the struggles in the south,
and to see the similarity between people of the north and south, through exposure to examples of
organisational responses to inequalities and changes in the world of work from these regions.
Activity 5: Y-GAP face-to-face programme.
Indicator 5: A two week exchange programme, part of which participants spend at a 3-day internship with
IFWEA trade union members, member-ship based organisations and NGO partners in Cape Town.
Indicator 6: Participant numbers remain steady and not exceed a total number of 30.
Indicator 7: Publication and promotion of Y-GAP exchanges through assignments entitled Postcards from South
Africa. Electronic version posted on IFWEA Online Communication Channels.
1.3 Member Liaison
Intermediate objective 1: To increase and strengthen member networks and collaborations.
Intermediate objective 2: To develop strategic and effective partnerships to progress the work and
social justice and labour rights agenda of IFWEA.
Activity 6: Strategic member and partner liaison
Indicator 8: IFWEA Facebook page will be further developed and maintained as more online traffic visits the
page and more requests for membership come in.
Indicator 9: The IFWEA communications co-ordinator will request information from members to populate the
IFWEA website, Facebook pages.
Indicator 10: The Secretariat will target and inprove contact with labour education and labour movement
representatives from the Nordic countries, England and Scotland, Portugal, Spain, Germany, Denmark and
South Africa.
Indicator 11: Phase 3 of OLA will emphasis greater regional networks through OLA
Strategic objective 2: Improving the educational and research capacity and services of our
members in order to assist them in their role of strengthening democratic labour
organisations in their countries and regions.
To build an online labour academy will take several years. The pilot years have shown its potential, and the
implementation phase has proven that collaboration between IFWEA organisations increased exponentially.
The next phase must take this expansion into the regions, so that more IFWEA affiliates can benefit from its
project.
2.1 The IFWEA Online Labour Academy (OLA)
Intermediate objective 1: Improved education resources and capacities of democratic workers'
education organisations for the development of international collaboration and best practice in
educational design and delivery.
Intermediate objective 2: Introduce the OLA to labour service organisations and membership
organisations of the poor, and their constituencies who have not used the platform previously for
the purpose of bridging the digital divide between north and south and improving their education
resources and capacities.
Intermediate objective 3: Building regional networks focusing on IFWEA members and strengthening
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the regional element of the global labour education movement.
Activity 7: Online Labour Academy
Indicator 12: OLA programme will focus on 10 IFWEA affiliates who will participate actively in the OLA.
Indicator 13: Programme expanded to non-participating IFWEA members in the regions of Africa, the Middle
East, Asia and Latin America.
Indicator 14: IFWEA best practice course design and delivery agreed upon.
Indicator 15: Advanced Tutor Manual available online.
Indicator 16: Regional baseline surveys of trade union beneficiaries who require education support conducted.
These regions include Africa, Latin America, Asia and the Middle East.
2.2 A Workers’ Education Platform for Socio-Economic Equality in Cape Town (IFWEA
Study Circle)
Intermediate objective 1: Improved capacity of the objectives of NGOs and trade unions to advocate and
build solidarity for socio-economic equality.
Intermediate objective 2: Improve the provision of education by IFWEA members so as to have a greater
impact on their beneficiaries and constituencies, especially the education of young women workers.
Activity 8: IFWEA Study Circle
Indicator 17: Work with 15 trade unions, NGOs and community-based organisations to develop skills and
capacities of study circle tutors who in turn will capacitate members in their own organisations.
Indicator 18: Study circle materials researched and compiled by the project co-ordinator
Indicator 19: Study Circle Tutors Manual developed
Indicator 20: All Study Circle materials uploaded onto the OLA platform
Strategic Objective 3: Contribute to the global knowledge community to improve labour’s
capacity to face 21st century challenges, with an emphasis on flexibility and capacity
building to represent, organise and improve the conditions of informalised workers.
The development of educational and research materials for the purposes of various online and face-to-face
courses, workshops, research and publications in which IFWEA is engaged in.
Intermediate objective 1: develop materials for educational materials
Intermediate objective 2: contribute to and publish materials relevant to challenges faced by labour
3.1 Materials Development and Research
Activity 9: OLA course development
Indicator 21: Courses developed and uploaded on the OLA platform. Courses are: Building effective
women’s membership organisations of the poor; 2) Advocate for and Communicate for improved
social policy, 3) Design information and communications systems for successful collective bargaining;
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4) Responses to issues of Climate Change; 5) Building democratic trade unions in Asia; 6) Designing
effective wage campaigns, 7) Building a women friendly, democratic trade union.
Activity 10: Y-GAP course materials developed.
Indicator 22: Y-GAP syllabus uploaded with new materials on OLA Platform.
Activity 11: Rutgers University research into global study on informal workers and their conditions of work
Indicator 23: IFWEA contributes to research for purposes of publication entitled 'Organising the Precariat –
Unions and the New Working Class.”
Activity 12: Case studies and manuals developed for improving trade union and member based organisations
of the poor to organise and advocate for social protections.
Indicator 24: Research and manuals uploaded onto Global Network website www.theglobalnetwork.org
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