Evaluation Learnings Search

Learning Description

Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers through Empowerment and Advocacy in Malaysia (MWEA) management needed to integrate project communication and service-provision and outreach components more holistically. MWEA was effective in leveraging the existing, large online audience of R.Age and initiating face-to-face encounters with youth through Liber8’s university network to increase its engagement with audiences not typically involved in labor rights programming. In particular, project communication activities gained significantly by hosting mini documentaries and related content on migrants’ lives on R.Age’s online platform, drawing in a large youth audience. Given the campaign’s objective of changing public attitudes, the wider reach of this dissemination strategy greatly increased the potential impact of the campaign compared to the alternative of hosting the documentaries on a platform more specifically targeted to Non-Governmental Organization (NGO)/human rights activists. However, MWEA could have been more effective in using its communication campaign to direct participants and viewers to NGO social media sites as part of a “call to action.”

Learning Description

Setting a realistic number of objectives, outcomes, and outputs. Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers through Empowerment and Advocacy in Malaysia (MWEA) set a reasonable number of objectives and proposed a largely realistic intervention strategy that aligned with the allocated budget. Although the abuse of migrant workers’ rights is a complex problem in Malaysia, Bureau of International Labor Affairs (ILAB), and the International Labor Organization (ILO) did well to take MWEA’s more focused approach to the issue rather than spread project resources too thinly by trying to address all issues, all at once.

Learning Description

Carrying out a mapping to inform project design. Through its mapping study, Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers through Empowerment and Advocacy in Malaysia (MWEA) took a systematic approach to identifying what kinds of services are currently available for migrant workers, which organizations are offering them and where, and then used this information to determine MWEA’s final project design.

Learning Description

Working with Community Based Organizations (CBOs) that are run by migrant workers. Feedback from workers and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) suggests that migrant worker CBOs are effective in reaching fellow workers, offering support, and/or connecting workers to other support organizations. Their effectiveness is largely credited to the CBOs’ ability to capitalize on shared language, culture, and geographic roots to create and maintain solidarity networks among workers from same country/region.

Learning Description

Mobilizing young lawyers to assist with case management. Tenaganita reported a successful partnership with the Malaysian Bar Council. Through their collaboration, each quarter, the NGO receives 35 to 40 young lawyers (66 percent of whom are female) who volunteer one day a week to help with legal aid. A participant in the program recounted that as a volunteer s/he participated in activities to rescue an Indonesian domestic worker and facilitated the release of a migrant worker from a Malaysian detention center. The volunteer affirmed, “The program is really good because it exposes you to many things. You may read about exploitation online but you are not exposed to it firsthand. It opened my eyes.” The Malaysian Trade Union Congress (MTUC) likewise reported receiving young lawyer interns in collaboration with the Bar Council.

Learning Description

Migrant worker organizations collaborating with home-country consulates. The Indonesian Community Based Organization (CBO) partner of North South Initiative (NSI) developed strong ties with the Indonesian Consulate, which provides shelter and facilitates repatriation of migrant workers from the country. A representative of the Indonesian Embassy attended a meeting of the Indonesian workers’ association, also attended by the evaluator. Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers through Empowerment and Advocacy in Malaysia (MWEA) implementing partners cited examples of the consulate becoming involved in some workers’ cases to recover unpaid wages after workers’ repatriation. Because they are state-funded, the consular services are less vulnerable to project funding than are the Malaysian Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs). However, one MWEA Civil Society Organization (CSO) partner cited a case of a corrupt consular official who cheated a worker by keeping the worker’s recovered wages, highlighting the value of the Community-Based Organizations (CBOs) acting as an intermediary organization, defending the rights of migrant workers and holding government services accountable.

Learning Description

Collaboration between home-country unions, Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), and Civil Society Organizations (CSOs). One trade union representative described a good practice facilitated by an agreement between the governments of the Philippines and Malaysia, executed via the intermediary of trade unions in both countries. Based on the G2G agreement, all Filipino domestic workers are required to attend an orientation meeting upon arrival in Malaysia before taking up their jobs. The orientation, delivered by the Maylasian Trade Union Congress (MTUC,) provides workers with an overview of their rights and obligations as workers in Malaysia and informs workers on how and where to seek help in case their rights are infringed. According to an ILO program manager, recognizing the good practice, post-arrival orientation meetings for migrant domestic workers are supported by the International Labor Organization (ILO) in Malaysia through other on-going projects which include collaboration with trade unions, CBOs, CSOs, and the Philippine embassy.

Learning Description

Use of social media and hotlines in Civil Society Organization (CSO) outreach and reporting cases. Several Protecting the Rights of Migrant Workers through Empowerment and Advocacy in Malaysia (MWEA) implementing partners, as well as migrant worker Community-Based Organizations (CBOs), reported using social media to increase the visibility of their services and facilitate information sharing among their members. In a few cases, the organizations reported receiving requests for assistance from migrant workers through Facebook. In addition to social media, Tenaganita also maintains a hotline to facilitate the reporting of cases of migrant worker exploitation by concerned neighbors, family members, and workers themselves.

Learning Description

Focus on seasonal migrant workers in place of origin: Fair Labor Association (FLA), companies and partner Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) realized the need for focusing not only on the Black Sea region during the harvest but also to reach out to communities of workers in their home state in Southeast Turkey upon their return from their seasonal migratory work. The difficulty in working with them during the harvest was quite apparent due to long working hours

Learning Description

Building relationships and building capacity within the supply chain: The forming relationships, collaboration and building capacity occurred during the project where formalized relationships within the supply chain were not yet in place. While formalized relationships would ensure greater rights are observed, the evaluation team notes the familiar aspect of the non-formal as also facilitating work and collaboration