Supporting civil society and social partners under GSP Project

The EU is funding three projects to strengthen the role and participation of civil society and social partners in ensuring that current EU Generalised Scheme of Preferences+ (GSP+) beneficiary countries - Armenia, Bolivia, Cape Verde, Kyrgyzstan, Mongolia, Pakistan, Paraguay and the Philippines (and Georgia which recently graduated from GSP+) - effectively implement core international human rights and labour rights conventions.

The three projects are being implemented by three lead organisations, the Equal Rights Trust, Democracy Reporting International and the European Partnership for Democracy. Despite the different approaches, focuses and aims of the three, each strives to closely cooperate and join efforts where possible to avoid duplication, identify synergies and reinforce the impact of their actions.

The European Partnership for Democracy (EPD) is a non-profit organisation supporting democracy worldwide. It comprises thirteen European civil and political society organisations from eleven EU Member States present in Africa, Asia, Europe, the Middle East and Latin America. Located at the heart of the EU district in Brussels, EPD has established itself as a key player on EU democracy support, both vis-à-vis the EU Institutions and the member states, as well as the wider democracy support community (experts, CSOs, donors). Through innovative and collaborative methodologies based on the development of effective partnerships, EPD facilitates the exchange of knowledge and good practices around the world while advocating for a stronger presence of democracy support on the European Union’s agenda.

One of the three EU-funded projects accompanying the implementation GSP+ is INSPIRED+. INSPIRED+ supports local actors in nine different countries in identifying, analysing and monitoring those domestic policies that hinder the full implementation of the UN and ILO conventions relevant to the EU’s GSP+. All nine different locally-led policy dialogues of INSPIRED+ contribute to the nurturing of trust between all stakeholders, increase capacities of CSOs and social partners in monitoring and advocacy, and lead to the adoption of locally owned Roadmaps outlining an agenda towards the full implementation of the relevant UN and ILO conventions.

To this end, one Hosting Structure is selected per country, a local actor who convenes and facilitates the policy dialogue process, acting as an impartial and honest ‘broker’. The key role of these Hosting Structures consist of enabling local CSOs, social partners and other relevant actors to play an active role in the identification of the key institutional capacity gaps for the fulfilment of partner country obligations under the UN & ILO conventions.

The attachment provides some basic information on INSPIRED+. For more detailed information on INSPIRED+, you can consult our website. Below a brief overview of the topic of the multistakeholder dialogue and the hosting structure in each of the 9 INSPIRED+ countries:

Armenia:

• Topic of the dialogue: Socio-economic and labour rights of women
• Hosting structure: OxYGen

Bolivia:

• Topic: Socio-economic rights of women
• Hosting structure: UNITAS

Georgia:

• Topic: Labour inspection system
• Hosting structure: TBD

Kyrgyzstan:

• Topic: Rights of people with disabilities
• Hosting structure: Centre for Policy Initiatives

Mongolia:

• Topic: Rights of people with disabilities
• Hosting structure: Teghs Niigem

Pakistan: 

• Topic: Socio-economic and labour rights of women working in agriculture in Punjab province
• Hosting structure: Aurat Foundation

Paraguay:

• Topic: Violence against women
• Hosting structure: DECIDAMOS

Philippines:

• Topic: TBD
• Hosting Structure: TBD