By: Carlos Sánchez, Regional Coordinator of COTRADO ALAC
With the participation of 25 leaders from unions of home-based workers, domestic workers, and unions of self-employed or own-account workers, a workshop on DEI Policies was held on August 29 in Managua, Nicaragua.
The Working Committee on DEI Policies, made up of leaders from CONATRADO (Chile), SITRAOVDISE (Nicaragua), and WIEGO —including leaders from other home-based and domestic workers’ organizations in Brazil and Argentina— is conducting a study and developing educational proposals aimed at leaders of organizations across Latin America and the Caribbean. The Committee also drafts recommendations to strengthen how our organizations address DEI policies.
On this occasion, a pilot implementation of the workshops designed by the team was carried out in Managua. The experience proved very positive, as the unions invited to participate immediately felt encouraged to develop, in the near future, a training program on DEI policies. To this end, they asked SITRAOVDISE to hold a meeting to plan such a program.
According to the participating organizations, the main strength of the workshop was its critical approach, which helps link traditional union struggles with the inclusion of new sectors historically excluded by the system, institutions, and organizations, within a social order where inequality seems to be the accepted norm.
In the coming months, the team will carry out further activities in the region, fostering participation and capacity-building to critically address the implementation of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion policies within organizations, as well as their advocacy on public institutions in their respective countries.
