Urgent Appeals: Data and Shared Learning

Context: The working conditions for today's typical garment worker are poor. The majority of production is located in the global south, mainly in parts of Asia, and ODA countries feature prominently as locations for production. With low associational power and limited access to remedy, workers need international allies in order to get their voices heard. The Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) has campaigned for the accountability of brands and lobbied policy makers for some 30 years. One of its core mechanisms for interacting with human rights defenders (HRDs) and other civil society actors is its Urgent Appeal (UA) system. Through the UA system workers and their organisations can contact CCC for support. Examples of UAs taken up by CCC include large scale disasters such as the Tazreen fire in Bangladesh in 2012, which killed over 100 workers, the Ali Enterprises Fire in Pakistan in 2012 where 265 people died, and the Rana Plaza building collapse in 2013 which killed over 1,000 workers and injured 2,000 more. In addition to health and safety, UAs may also relate to workers' rights such as freedom of association, wage theft or in relation to intimidation and harassment of HRDs. Each UA case file is a repository of information which, if organised, coded, analysed and fully utilised, could provide support for advocacy and campaigning at both international and local level. In 2018 researchers at Cardiff University were awarded funding under the IAA NGO data fund, with the aim of constructing a user-friendly dataset of UA data that could be used by CCC in strategising campaigns, identifying tactics that have worked in specific contexts and providing a strong evidential base for targeted lobbying and advocacy. The project concluded in March 2019 with its limited objectives met, but having highlighted the need for further work to improve the accuracy and consistency of the data across cases and undertake more detailed analysis of relationships between variables in UA case histories.

Aims and objectives: The overarching aim of the proposed project is to maximise the use of UA data that CCC holds but has not hitherto fully utilised. Such data has significant potential as an evidential base for decision making, strategic planning and targeting of tactics in campaigning and advocacy.
Two key objectives sit at the centre of the current application:

Research Objective 1: To further review and evaluate the UA IAA database in collaboration with CCC colleagues, with three aims:
a) to address issues highlighted to CCC in March 2019 around incomplete or inaccurate data, thereby improving its comprehensiveness and accuracy;
b) to undertake a comprehensive needs analysis and assess the functional capacity of the UA database for future usage in the light of sectoral trends;
c) to make recommendations for the maintenance and utilisation of the dataset within CCC.

Research Objective 2: To analyse the UA database in greater detail and embed it in the CCC network as a strategic tool with direct application to advocacy and campaigning. Such analysis would involve, for example, the tracking and mapping of violations, identification of successful campaigning strategies and exploring relationships between violations according to country characteristics and national / institutional variations.

Potential application and benefits: The project will provide CCC with more easily accessible data and an evidence base for campaigning and advocacy at the international level as well as acting as an operational tool for Urgent Appeals Coordinators (UACs) who need to access information in conditions of extreme complexity. Ease of access to data analysis provides potential for identification of effective tactics to assist campaigning in conditions of limited resource. It also offers potential for shared learning beyond the life of the Urgent Appeal, with benefits accruing to workers and civil society stakeholders in ODA countries.

The key beneficiaries of the proposed research will be the Clean Clothes Campaign (CCC) network, encompassing international civil society actors, human rights defenders (HRDs) and garment workers and their organisations in ODA countries. The academic community will also benefit from contribution to knowledge.

The CCC network encompasses civil society stakeholders and HRDs across the globe. Its work has particular relevance for ODA countries where the garment sector is most heavily located. CCC and its civil society stakeholders will benefit from a user friendly dataset that will allow them to fully utilise data they hold but have not thus far been able to exploit to its maximum potential in strategic campaigning and advocacy. The IAA NGO data project began this process by creating a dataset (referred to henceforward as the 'IAA dataset') which has recorded and coded a substantial number of UA cases, but would benefit from further work to verify the accuracy and consistency of data across cases and engage in more detailed and sophisticated analysis of relationships between variables such as brand involvement, tactics used and case outcomes.

The proposed project will thus embed and develop the IAA dataset as a core organisational tool within CCC, that provides a reliable evidential base for campaigning and an accessible source of information for Urgent Appeal Coordinators (UACs). We anticipate and intend that untapped learning currently hidden within the UA data will become more readily accessible and that in the course of UA cases it will be cascaded down from UACs to HRDs and workers' organisations in ODA countries. By these means, learning about campaigning tactics, organising tools and advocacy will be shared beyond the duration of the individual UA case, whatever its outcome. Such shared learning about 'what works' in advocacy and campaigning has potential to reduce the isolation experienced by workers, their organisations and HRDs on the ground by giving them detailed insight into how they might take the most effective action in defence of their interests in the struggle for decent work and basic human rights.

The sensitivity of the data precludes its general publication but it will inform CCC strategy and campaign publications, which are read by policy makers and brands alike. The academic contribution provided by deeper, detailed insight into the specific contexts for UA cases will inform high quality journal submissions to world class journals which we would hope would also reach policy makers as well as the academy. With the involvement of CCC, it is also intended to use the project to draw together a core group of academics writing on the garment sector (many of whom are already known to the PI on the project) to explore potential for new collaborations.