The Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) has launched its Decent Work Strategy—a pivotal initiative aimed at improving working conditions and protection for organic cotton farmers, farm workers and their communities.
Over the next seven years, OCA will work to address key challenges in the cotton sector, such as:
- ensuring living income and wages;
- eliminating unlawful child labour, bonded and forced labour;
- improving health and safety on farms;
- ending discriminatory practices; and providing access to social protection and worker representation.
The strategy’s focus includes tackling discriminatory practices, one of its core pillars. OCA will tailor its plans to address risks and challenges unique to each region, focusing on corrective actions rather than sanctions for non-compliance.
DECENT WORK: The strategy outlines five priority actions that will be fully integrated into OCA’s existing Farm Programme and Contributor Platform, which brings together brands, suppliers, farm groups, and civil society organisations:
- Enable fair and transparent payment, access to finance and financial literacy;
- Build awareness and understanding of decent work risks and challenges through capacity-building and dialogue;
- Generate and share actionable data on decent work risks and improvements on OCA farms;
- Generate funding and proof of concept for targeted improvements and remediation;
- Integrate decent work into OCA plans, projects and governance.
Inspired by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8—Decent Work and Economic Growth—OCA’s strategy seeks to foster sector-wide transformation and systemic change in agricultural production.
- While organic agriculture standards typically don’t cover decent work or social criteria, OCA recognises the urgency to address these gaps.
- Farmers, particularly smallholders and farm workers, are among the most vulnerable, with limited access to fair work conditions.
- The report was published on the International Day for Rural Women.
TACKLING SYSTEMIC CHALLENGES: As the global demand for sustainable textiles continues to rise globally, the need to ensure fair, safe, and equitable working conditions for the people who cultivate organic cotton has never been more urgent.
- Through partnerships with global brands and suppliers, OCA has helped increase organic cotton adoption, raised farmer incomes, and transformed farming practices.
- While improving smallholder farmers’ incomes has been an essential step towards better livelihoods for the over 100,000 (mostly smallholder) farmers OCA supports, the organisation aims to do more.
WHAT THEY SAID:
We believe that all players in a sustainable supply chain, particularly farming communities, need to be empowered to access their rights and secure decent working conditions. With our unique position in the organic cotton sector and the support of our partners, we’re committed to driving positive change on farms within our network. The systemic nature of these challenges requires a balance between ambition and realism. Our focus will be on strengthening our Farm Programme, which has a track record of enhancing farmer livelihood, by, upweighting our monitoring and evaluation systems, sharing learnings, and promoting best practices.
— Ruud Schute
Programme Director
Organic Cotton Accelerator
