The Safe Threads Certification: An Economic Empowerment Good Practice

           The purpose of this blog entry is to share some of the good practices observed during the evaluation of the US Department of Labor’s E-FACE project in Ethiopia. E-FACE—which stands for Ethiopians Fighting against Child Exploitation—is a multi-organizational effort to reduce the number of children involved in child labour and trafficking in Ethiopia, specifically in its weaving industry. Over nearly three weeks in Ethiopia, the evaluation team visited the three areas of Ethiopia the project was operational in: Gamo Gofa Zone, Wolaita Zone, and the capital Addis Ababa. Among the project’s many advances was a particularly interesting initiative: its “Safe Threads” program.

The Safe Threads program is an E-FACE collaboration with the government to create a Child-Safe label for products, in order to increase their connectivity with international textile markets. E-FACE found that simple weavers of textiles in Ethiopia would not be able to connect with designers supplying foreign buyers in Europe and America due to a reputation for dependence on exploitative child labour. Many textile companies and fashion designers did not want to source their materials from Ethiopia because buying from businesses employing child labour would hurt their reputation with consumers in the West.

                In order to solve this conflict, E-FACE employed the program that we are identifying as a good practice: Safe Threads. In the program, domestic producers of textiles who are not using exploitative child labour can go to the government and, after proving that their means of production are Child-Safe, they can receive the Safe Threads certification. When these firms are certified as Child-Safe, international buyers should feel more comfortable buying from them, thus economically empowering the local weavers. Weavers continue to be monitored to ensure that they do not return to employing child labour. E-FACE had primarily created this initiative because part of the project’s goals is to get domestic producers of textiles to end their dependence on exploitative child labour. If they do so in order to get this certification, then these goals have been accomplished.

                This is a good practice because, instead of forcing the businesses to end their dependence on child labour, E-FACE is influencing them to choose to end the dependence themselves. Should these firms gain international market connections due to the Safe Threads program, it is safe to say that they will never return to using child labour again, as doing so would lose their certification, and thus their connections with foreign buyers. As far as the Informal Economy is concerned, this is also an effective formalization good practice because in receiving this certification from the government, businesses must become registered, and therefore formal.

                This practice motivates businesses to formalize themselves, as it provides large benefits for doing so. As a result, similar practices can be recommended in other situations where improving decent work conditions and economic empowerment are prime goals.