Social Dialogue 4 Sustainable Development (SD4SD)

The Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES)  jointly  with its trade union  partner  “the Congrès du Travail et de la Fraternité (COTRAF -Rwanda)” implement  a EU-funded 3 years project to foster social protection, social dialogue, minimum wages and the respect of national and international labour norms in Rwanda. The project targets three sectors: Mining, tea and education.

Through EU Project, FES aims to contribute to the promotion of an effective social dialogue, social protection and the implementation of national and international labor standards in Rwanda. Effective social dialogue, social protection and respect of  fundamental labour rights can only be realized if workers’ interests are effectively represented and advocated for by strong trade unions.  

While strengthening institutional capacity of  COTRAF and its member unions, FES also  supports COTRAF Rwanda with  knowledge materials  for raising awareness about social dialogue and decent work as well as project’s product to help other worker organizations and informal workers in their campaigns  to advocate for their causes and to promote Social dialogue on enterprise level  which is often not well developed neither in the tea ,education  nor mining industry.  The second important condition for securing decent work in tea, education and mining sector is to convince both employers and government that an effective social dialogue is not inimical but rather key for economic growth and sustainable development.  This is in line with  Rwandan vision  where the government hopes to improve working and living conditions in its quest to transform Rwanda into a middle-income country by 2035.

By bringing together a diverse range of national and international stakeholders, conducting researches, capacity building, training and advocacy campaigns, FES supports COTRAF Rwanda in promoting decent work, raising awareness among employers and public officials at the national and local level on the need and benefits of an effective social dialogue and compliance with national and international labour standards and laws.

In the span of three years, FES main activities under EU Project includes:  

• Capacity building activities to enable COTRAF and its member unions to better fulfil their role to defend the rights of workers. (i.e. exchange of international best practices and a gender audit).
•  Supporting Cotraf ton establish two pilot proximity offices (one in the mining and one in the tea industry). The proximity offices will help grassroots unionists to organize workers and to increase outreach towards women in particular.
• Effectively equip trade unions with campaigns materials to conduct three advocacy campaigns for living wages in the tea, mining and education sector.
• Establish a Youth Academy for Social Protection that provides a learning and exchange platform for young professionals on labour issues.
• Develop policy recommendations based on studies on labour conditions in the three sectors.
•  Conduct awareness raising activities to popularize the ILO core labour standards and SDG8.