Towards Health, Safety and Dignity of All Workers
Indian Institute for Human Settlements
(
Academic institution
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#SDGAction51399
Description
We commit to embedding sanitation workers’ rights in the Water Action Agenda, to ensure sanitation and urban development interventions do not neglect issues that could potentially increase the risks they face. The commitment focuses on social protection, access to health, occupational safety, fair contracts, recognition of worker groups and federations, and opportunities to grow within the profession as well as the option to choose alternate careers for themselves and their families. With a focus on informal sanitation workers, our commitment seeks to enable them to voice their challenges and ensure they have the agency to improve their lives and livelihoods. Sector cooperation and strategic partnerships are vital to enable various governments, authorities, organisations, businesses, unions, and other key players to work collaboratively towards improving the working conditions of sanitation workers, a key step towards retaining and expanding the sanitation workforce and delivering on the promise of safely managed sanitation services and decent work for all as set out in SDGs 6.2 and 8. The following are the main intervention areas and vision for the end of the Water Action Decade: Build evidence: Commit to effective approaches to improve working conditions across all aspects (e.g., legal, policy, regulatory, business models, technologies, behaviour change, funding). By 2030, collectively the partners aim to have significantly improved the evidence around numbers, conditions, challenges, and approaches that have worked for sanitation workers at the global and local levels. Reform policy, legislation, and regulation: Commit to including operational guidelines to acknowledge and professionalise the sanitation workforce along the sanitation service chain. These will include operational guidelines and government and employer budgets for their implementation. By 2030 collectively the partners aim to have improved aspects of policy, legislation, and regulation in at least 10 countries. Facilitate improved workplace conditions, benefits, agency, and recognition: Commit to amplifying the voices of workers, towards protecting their rights and thereby promoting their dignity and respect. Recognising their contributions to public health and raising awareness of the importance of their work. By 2030 collectively the partners aim to have supported workers' groups in amplifying voices, establishing or strengthening platforms, associations, and global champions capable of organising and advocating for improved working conditions in at least 10 countries. Dissemination of leading initiatives and enabling cross-learning: Commit to documenting innovative approaches for sanitation workers from diverse experiences (workers to technical agencies and vice versa), enabling replication and scaling across contexts involving other players (government, funders, private sector). By 2030, collectively the partners will engage regularly to take stock of the initiatives, share appropriate practices, work with local players in respective contexts, and hold at least one global workshop for dissemination.
Sanitation workers provide a crucial public service. Despite being integral to the sanitation chain and playing a pivotal role in achieving SDG 6.2, they are often invisible in the eyes of the government and citizens. Health, safety, dignity, employment security, and quality of life are basic human rights, and it is vital to ensure sanitation workers have access to them. Curtailed rights and entitlements of sanitation workers often adversely impact the quality of services they provide, leaving urban settlements prone to issues of health and climate change. A range of multilateral and bilateral agencies are working across the globe, in close coordination with national and sub-national government agencies to improve the lives and working environment of sanitation workers. By bringing together experts of these agencies into forming working groups, it is expected that ideas will travel fast, and innovations will take root more easily. Frontline sanitation workers will find platforms to voice their concerns and agendas through targeted communications and advocacy campaigns.
● Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS) ● International Labour Organization ● Pan-African Sanitation Actors ● Sustainable Sanitation Alliance ● SNV Netherlands Development Organization ● UN-Habitat ● WaterAid ● World Bank ● World Health Organisation
Startpage - Sanitation Workers Hub (susana.org) https://tnussp.co.in/sanitation-workers/ https://sanitationwork.wateraid.org/
SDGS & Targets
Goal 3
Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages
3.1
3.1.1
Maternal mortality ratio
3.1.2
Proportion of births attended by skilled health personnel
3.2
3.2.1
Under-five mortality rate
3.2.2
Neonatal mortality rate
3.3
By 2030, end the epidemics of AIDS, tuberculosis, malaria and neglected tropical diseases and combat hepatitis, water-borne diseases and other communicable diseases
3.3.1
Number of new HIV infections per 1,000 uninfected population, by sex, age and key populations
3.3.2
Tuberculosis incidence per 100,000 population
3.3.3
Malaria incidence per 1,000 population
3.3.4
Hepatitis B incidence per 100,000 population
3.3.5
Number of people requiring interventions against neglected tropical diseases
3.4
3.4.1
Mortality rate attributed to cardiovascular disease, cancer, diabetes or chronic respiratory disease
3.4.2
Suicide mortality rate
3.5
Strengthen the prevention and treatment of substance abuse, including narcotic drug abuse and harmful use of alcohol
3.5.1
Coverage of treatment interventions (pharmacological, psychosocial and rehabilitation and aftercare services) for substance use disorders
3.5.2
Alcohol per capita consumption (aged 15 years and older) within a calendar year in litres of pure alcohol
3.6
3.6.1
Death rate due to road traffic injuries
3.7
By 2030, ensure universal access to sexual and reproductive health-care services, including for family planning, information and education, and the integration of reproductive health into national strategies and programmes
3.7.1
Proportion of women of reproductive age (aged 15-49 years) who have their need for family planning satisfied with modern methods
3.7.2
Adolescent birth rate (aged 10-14 years; aged 15-19 years) per 1,000 women in that age group
3.8
Achieve universal health coverage, including financial risk protection, access to quality essential health-care services and access to safe, effective, quality and affordable essential medicines and vaccines for all
3.8.1
Coverage of essential health services
3.8.2
Proportion of population with large household expenditures on health as a share of total household expenditure or income
3.9
3.9.1
Mortality rate attributed to household and ambient air pollution
3.9.2
Mortality rate attributed to unsafe water, unsafe sanitation and lack of hygiene (exposure to unsafe Water, Sanitation and Hygiene for All (WASH) services)
3.9.3
Mortality rate attributed to unintentional poisoning
3.a
3.a.1
Age-standardized prevalence of current tobacco use among persons aged 15 years and older
3.b
Support the research and development of vaccines and medicines for the communicable and non-communicable diseases that primarily affect developing countries, provide access to affordable essential medicines and vaccines, in accordance with the Doha Declaration on the TRIPS Agreement and Public Health, which affirms the right of developing countries to use to the full the provisions in the Agreement on Trade-Related Aspects of Intellectual Property Rights regarding flexibilities to protect public health, and, in particular, provide access to medicines for all
3.b.1
Proportion of the target population covered by all vaccines included in their national programme
3.b.2
3.b.3
Proportion of health facilities that have a core set of relevant essential medicines available and affordable on a sustainable basis
3.c
3.c.1
Health worker density and distribution
3.d
Strengthen the capacity of all countries, in particular developing countries, for early warning, risk reduction and management of national and global health risks
3.d.1
International Health Regulations (IHR) capacity and health emergency preparedness
3.d.2
Percentage of bloodstream infections due to selected antimicrobial-resistant organisms
Goal 6
Ensure availability and sustainable management of water and sanitation for all
6.1
By 2030, achieve universal and equitable access to safe and affordable drinking water for all
6.1.1
Proportion of population using safely managed drinking water services
6.2
By 2030, achieve access to adequate and equitable sanitation and hygiene for all and end open defecation, paying special attention to the needs of women and girls and those in vulnerable situations
6.2.1
Proportion of population using (a) safely managed sanitation services and (b) a hand-washing facility with soap and water
6.3
By 2030, improve water quality by reducing pollution, eliminating dumping and minimizing release of hazardous chemicals and materials, halving the proportion of untreated wastewater and substantially increasing recycling and safe reuse globally
6.3.1
Proportion of domestic and industrial wastewater flows safely treated
6.3.2
Proportion of bodies of water with good ambient water quality
6.4
6.4.1
Change in water-use efficiency over time
6.4.2
Level of water stress: freshwater withdrawal as a proportion of available freshwater resources
6.5
By 2030, implement integrated water resources management at all levels, including through transboundary cooperation as appropriate
6.5.1
Degree of integrated water resources management
6.5.2
Proportion of transboundary basin area with an operational arrangement for water cooperation
6.6
6.6.1
Change in the extent of water-related ecosystems over time
6.a
6.a.1
Amount of water- and sanitation-related official development assistance that is part of a government-coordinated spending plan
6.b
Support and strengthen the participation of local communities in improving water and sanitation management
6.b.1
Proportion of local administrative units with established and operational policies and procedures for participation of local communities in water and sanitation management
Goal 8
Promote sustained, inclusive and sustainable economic growth, full and productive employment and decent work for all
8.1
8.1.1
Annual growth rate of real GDP per capita
8.2
Achieve higher levels of economic productivity through diversification, technological upgrading and innovation, including through a focus on high-value added and labour-intensive sectors
8.2.1
Annual growth rate of real GDP per employed person
8.3
Promote development-oriented policies that support productive activities, decent job creation, entrepreneurship, creativity and innovation, and encourage the formalization and growth of micro-, small- and medium-sized enterprises, including through access to financial services
8.3.1
Proportion of informal employment in total employment, by sector and sex
8.4
Improve progressively, through 2030, global resource efficiency in consumption and production and endeavour to decouple economic growth from environmental degradation, in accordance with the 10-Year Framework of Programmes on Sustainable Consumption and Production, with developed countries taking the lead
8.4.1
Material footprint, material footprint per capita, and material footprint per GDP
8.4.2
Domestic material consumption, domestic material consumption per capita, and domestic material consumption per GDP
8.5
8.5.1
Average hourly earnings of female and male employees, by occupation, age and persons with disabilities
8.5.2
Unemployment rate, by sex, age and persons with disabilities
8.6
8.6.1
Proportion of youth (aged 15-24 years) not in education, employment or training
8.7
Take immediate and effective measures to eradicate forced labour, end modern slavery and human trafficking and secure the prohibition and elimination of the worst forms of child labour, including recruitment and use of child soldiers, and by 2025 end child labour in all its forms
8.7.1
Proportion and number of children aged 5‑17 years engaged in child labour, by sex and age
8.8
Protect labour rights and promote safe and secure working environments for all workers, including migrant workers, in particular women migrants, and those in precarious employment
8.8.1
Fatal and non-fatal occupational injuries per 100,000 workers, by sex and migrant status
8.8.2
Level of national compliance with labour rights (freedom of association and collective bargaining) based on International Labour Organization (ILO) textual sources and national legislation, by sex and migrant status
8.9
By 2030, devise and implement policies to promote sustainable tourism that creates jobs and promotes local culture and products
8.9.1
Tourism direct GDP as a proportion of total GDP and in growth rate
8.10
Strengthen the capacity of domestic financial institutions to encourage and expand access to banking, insurance and financial services for all
8.10.1
(a) Number of commercial bank branches per 100,000 adults and (b) number of automated teller machines (ATMs) per 100,000 adults
8.10.2
Proportion of adults (15 years and older) with an account at a bank or other financial institution or with a mobile-money-service provider
8.a
8.a.1
Aid for Trade commitments and disbursements
8.b
By 2020, develop and operationalize a global strategy for youth employment and implement the Global Jobs Pact of the International Labour Organization
8.b.1
Existence of a developed and operationalized national strategy for youth employment, as a distinct strategy or as part of a national employment strategy
SDG 14 targets covered
| Name | Description |
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Deliverables & Timeline
Collectively build a repository to support global advocacy that can holistically improve overall well-being, health, and occupational safety for sanitation workers
Actively engage in communication and advocacy campaigns to: i ) Facilitate visibility of diverse voices of champions/ sanitation workers from the ground ii) Drive policy changes in partnership with local/ national governments and other key players
Dissemination of appropriate practices through an online platform and a global workshop
Resources mobilized
Partnership Progress
Feedback
Action Network
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Timeline
Entity
Region
- Africa
- Asia and Pacific
Other beneficiaries
Primary beneficiaries include a range of sanitation workers along the sanitation chain (e.g., toilet cleaners, fecal sludge emptying and transport workers, sewer cleaners, and wastewater treatment plant workers). This includes workers and their families across formal, informal, semi-formal, and contractual arrangements. Others include micro and small water/ sanitation businesses and local volunteering organisations. By extension, all citizens will benefit from the services of a larger and better-protected sanitation workforce delivering safely managed sanitation services.
More information
Countries
Contact Information
Kavita , Head – Practice, Indian Institute for Human Settlements (IIHS)