Fashion Revolutionaires Policy Dialogue Toolkit by Fashion Revolution

POLICY DIALOGUE TOOLKIT

IN PARTNERSHIP WITH:

“never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. indeed, it’s the only thing that ever has.” MARGARET MEAD

CONTENTS 04

INTRODUCTION TO THE POLICY DIALOGUE TOOLKIT RESEARCHING YOUR POLICY DIALOGUE

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE POLICY DIALOGUE PROCESS?

HOW DOES THE POLICY ISSUE AFFECT THE FASHION INDUSTRY IN YOUR COUNTRY OR REGION?

GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES

WHAT’S NEXT?

APPENDICES

INTRODUCTION TO THE POLICY DIALOGUE TOOLKIT The fashion industry affects many lives, from farmer to factory worker to final consumer. Everyone wears clothes - whether you are interested in fashion or not, we still have to get dressed! That is why sustainability in fashion, better practices and a more mindful approach to how we make, buy and wear our clothes benefits us all. Fashion and textiles have played an important role in the history of global trade and international development. Today, fashion is one of the most globalised industries. It also relies on many other industries, including agriculture, chemicals, oil, transport, communications and technology. Our governments, from the local to the national and international level, play an essential role in writing the rules, upholding standards, and enforcing the laws and regulations that shape the global fashion industry. These influential governmental policies help determine the impact that the fashion industry has on the environment, people and communities across the world. Therefore, policies — such as laws, regulations, government directives and standards — have the power to transform our world, actively reducing poverty, creating sustainable livelihoods, promoting human well-being, empowering women and girls and protecting ecosystems. We all have a stake in ensuring that the fashion industry contributes positively to society and our planet. However, many voices are often left out of policy discussions. Consumers, producers and factory workers, creative professionals, artisans, farmers and other stakeholders should be an integral part of policymaking as they each hold valuable insights, experience and knowledge — but often these groups are not consulted, especially not by those who make laws and influence fashion industry norms. This is why we are inviting you to create your own policy discussion, inviting people with many different perspectives to weigh in on how the laws and policies that shape the fashion industry in your country need to be improved.

IN THIS TOOLKIT, YOU WILL LEARN:

•

What is a Policy Dialogue and how it can be a useful tool

•

How to organise your own Policy Dialogue

•

How to choose a focus issue for your Policy Dialogue

•

How to investigate and map out relevant stakeholders and policy issues in your country or region

•

Who to involve in your Policy Dialogue and how to ensure that their insights and ideas are heard and put into action

•

How to analyse the outcomes and information gathered through your Policy Dialogue

•

How to turn your analysis into actionable policy recommendations that you can share with governments, influential decisionmakers and your own community

•

How to creatively and effectively communicate and disseminate your policy recommendations to various audiences

INTRODUCTION TO THE POLICY DIALOGUE TOOLKIT

ABOUT THIS TOOLKIT

ABOUT THE CHECK-IN POINTS

This toolkit is intended to be used by a wide range of audiences interested in or affected by the fashion and textiles industry, including country level implementers and decision-makers at all levels, fashion professionals and supply chain workers, citizens and civil society organisations.

Throughout this document, there are several checkin points. You should use these check-in points as opportunities to track your progress. Once you have completed a section and see a check-in point, you should reflect on the work you have done so far. If you are working as part of a team, this would be a good opportunity to come together and review your work so far, make sure you are on the right track and decide what next step is best for you.

Although some parts of this toolkit are essential, it is not intended to be prescriptive. You may choose to follow it step-by-step or you may want to pick and choose the tools and techniques that make the most sense for your unique situation. In the appendices, you will find a series of worksheets and exercises designed to help you make the most of your Policy Dialogue. The Policy Dialogue toolkit has been developed as part of the ‘Fashion Revolutionaries’ partnership between Fashion Revolution and the British Council, which aims to create positive change in the global fashion industry.

“Fashion is a reflection of the culture we live in. Together we must change the culture that surrounds it into one that demands positive leadership, transparency, accountability and better lives all round. The fashion industry should lead on ethics and sustainability” ORSOLA DE CASTRO, CO-FOUNDER OF FASHION REVOLUTION

INTRODUCTION TO THE POLICY DIALOGUE TOOLKIT

WHAT IS A POLICY DIALOGUE? A Policy Dialogue is essentially a structured discussion that helps a group of people to develop or implement policy change. This is done through a series of evidencebased discussions, workshops and consultations on a specific issue. It starts with the belief that policy can have a positive impact on real life situations. A Policy Dialogue helps people to see the issues from multiple perspectives. This can lead to better understanding of the policies at play and bring about meaningful improvements to policies. When done well, a Policy Dialogue can be a powerful advocacy platform, a valuable source of information and provide solutions which take into account many different views. The ultimate goal of the Policy Dialogue is to inform policy making processes in your country. In other words, this will be a tool that enables a wide range of different voices to engage in a debate about the social and environmental impacts of the fashion industry in your country or region. Your Policy Dialogue will be an iterative process, meaning that it will take place via a series of evidence-based discussions, interviews and workshops over a period of time, to come up with solutions. Your Policy Dialogue will create interactions and promote collaboration amongst stakeholders over a common issue. It is worth noting that your Policy Dialogue may include formal consultations, workshops and discussions as well as many informal consultations (e.g. through email, coffee meetings, event networking and so on). It includes any communication or contact between people who are contributing in some way, shape or form to the discussions around the issue and policy recommendation. Whether formal or informal, a Policy Dialogue provides a means to enhance mutual understanding of problems and expand trust between partners by providing a platform to discuss and solve the issue together. A Policy Dialogue increases buy-in and ownership because stakeholders are given a chance to be actively involved

by sharing their perspectives and opinions on policy issues and questions. This is crucial because achieving policy change and effectively implementing policy is dependent on involving the stakeholders who are affected by the policy and those that are involved in creating and implementing policies in your country. It means stakeholders will have a vested interest in seeing the proposed changes being put into action. At the end of your Policy Dialogue process, you will create a set of policy recommendations that can be used to advocate for policy change in your country or region.

In Appendix 2 you will find a list of relevant definitions. These should help you better understand some of the terminology used throughout this toolkit, especially helpful when it comes to choosing the topic of your Policy Dialogue.

RESEARCHING YOUR POLICY DIALOGUE

DEFINING THE PURPOSE AND SCOPE OF THE POLICY DIALOGUE Clear, focused objectives are crucial. The clearer the objective, the more likely you are to get the right people in the room and to produce a useful outcome. You will want to limit the scope of your Policy Dialogue so that it is manageable given the time you have available, your limited resources and the access you have to different stakeholders. You don’t want to take on a commitment that is impossible to fulfil!

1 | Setting your organising principles Organising principles help you to set the tone, mindset and philosophy with which you will develop and conduct the Policy Dialogue process. We encourage you to adopt the organising principles prescribed below, but you maybe choose to add others. Inclusive: This means ensuring that all voices are heard, even if some of them may be reticent to speak up or may share an opposing view. Collaborative: This means striving to work together in a cooperative manner. Bringing together a variety of different perspectives and opinions enables the development of more robust and effective solutions. Respectful: This means showing regard for others’ feelings, desires and rights. It involves being kind and polite towards each other and avoiding behaviour based on prejudice. It also means not speaking over one another during discussions and allowing space for people to listen and be listened to. Optimistic: It is easy to be overwhelmed by the scale of the problems we face in the global fashion industry. However, having a positive attitude towards them can mean the difference between failure and success. Optimism is infectious, and it is an important part of engaging with your stakeholders. If you believe that you can help address an issue, then those around you will be more likely to feel the same way.

Participatory: A participatory approach operates from the belief that those most affected by an issue should be key players in any process that seeks to understand and help address the issue. It means ensuring that marginalised voices are heard and given equal importance.

2 | Choosing the topic of your Policy Dialogue

In Appendix 1 you will find a list of relevant policy issues at play in the global fashion industry. You may want to choose one as the focus of your Policy Dialogue, or you may want to combine two, or simply use these suggestions as a starting point to develop your own topic for the Policy Dialogue.

The key to a successful Policy Dialogue is in selecting a topic that is focused, simple and relevant to your national or regional context. A project which is too broad or too large may mean you cannot fully explore all the possible information in enough depth nor will you be able to involve all the crucial stakeholders. As a result, you risk creating policy recommendations which are too far-reaching to have an impact. Instead, you should choose a topic which will allow your team to dive fully and practically into the issues and enable you to create focused, meaningful policy recommendations that are easily actionable by a policymaker. When picking your Policy Dialogue topic, there are a few key things you should consider:

•

It is essential to pick a topic which is manageable to complete within your timeframe.

•

Do you have any existing strengths/knowledge on particular issues within your team?

•

Do you have any existing connections to key stakeholders which could be helpful to get your Policy Dialogue moving?

RESEARCHING YOUR POLICY DIALOGUE

•

How much research already exists on the topic? You want to avoid duplication and stakeholder fatigue but also will want to make sure there is enough interest in the research and existing knowledge on the topic.

Although many good policies/regulations may be in place in your country or region, these policies may not always be effectively implemented or enforced. You may alternatively want to consider exploring why a certain policy or set of policies may be failing and how it could be improved. You may want to choose a topic that is focussed on strengthening existing policies rather than creating new ones.

In the book “Blueprint for Revolution” by Srdja Popovic, the student who founded the Optor! movement to establish democracy in Serbia, recommends that you start by addressing basic, simple issues to gain support and then leverage your success as you move on to more important battles. Winning small victories will build coalitions, help keep up momentum and help you prepare for the bigger challenges to come. Example: Harvey Milk was a pioneering politician who was the first openly gay public official in America. In 1969, Harvey Milk moved to San Francisco to become an early champion for gay rights. However, back then homosexuality was still a taboo subject and his first campaigns were a failure. So he decided to start small and focus on something that all San Franciscans could get behind: dog poo. Because Milk listened to the people of San Francisco, he learned that dog poo on the soles of their shoes concerned most of the residents of the city. Milk once said, “whoever can solve the dogshit problem [in the city] can be elected mayor of San Francisco, even president of the United States.” And he was right - shortly after, he was elected! To get Milk elected, it required listening and finding out what people cared about, and fighting those battles, no matter how small they were. Fighting for gay rights in a city where people didn’t care was hard. But cleaning up dog poo was easy.

“Pick battles big enough to matter, but small enough to win.” JONATHAN KOZOL, AMERICAN WRITER AND ACTIVIST

RESEARCHING YOUR POLICY DIALOGUE

3 | Conduct a SMART Analysis Once you have an idea about a few topics you might like to explore, you will want to put each idea through a SMART Analysis process. This will help you determine which exact and focused topic you will choose for your Policy Dialogue. SMART Analysis will help you discover where you are most likely to be able to affect change. SMART stands for: Specific – Be precise about the issue you would like to address. If it is a huge issue that requires systemic change or requires change outside of the remit of your national policymakers, break it down further into smaller, achievable battles that you can win. Measurable – A goal should be measurable. How will you know when your goal is accomplished? What sort of policy change or relevant impacts do you hope to achieve? How will you measure your progress towards your goal? We will guide you through setting measurable goals in the SMART analysis template in Worksheet 1 in the appendices. Achievable – Your objective needs to be realistic and attainable to be successful. It is often better to start small and build momentum from small successes, particularly if this is the first time you have tried to address policy change. Consider what skills, experience and time is needed to achieve your goal. Relevant – The topic you choose should be timely and should align with goals of the Fashion Revolution movement (e.g. a safer, cleaner, fairer and more transparent global fashion industry).

•

For example: The issue of microfibres is in the public eye at the moment so it will be easier to lobby for legislation on this issue than it was a few years ago.

•

For example: What changes do you want policymakers to implement in response to the #MeToo movement? Is now a good time to use this zeitgeist as impetus to address policies affecting women throughout the fashion industry, from parental leave and childcare through to discrimination and harassment in the workplace?

Time-bound – Think realistically about the timeframe you have available and what you can achieve in that period. It is useful to set yourself targets along the way in order stay focussed and stay on track.

Please use Worksheet 1: SMART Analysis in the Appendices.

The SMART Analysis exercise is something you may want to use again and again throughout the stages of your Policy Dialogue planning. It will help you to continually define and refine your goals and objectives. Don’t be afraid to carry out this exercise multiple times across different potential topics in order to find the one you want to address in your Policy Dialogue. Once you have conducted the SMART Analysis on your various topic ideas, you should be able to narrow it down to one policy issue that best fits the SMART criteria. This will become the chosen topic for your Policy Dialogue going forward.

Questions to consider: • What is your motivation for choosing this issue?

•

Is this a growth area, so likely to see further negative impacts unless policies are put in place?

•

Is this an area ripe for innovation which policy change can support in order to ensure the maximum number of people benefit?

•

Have abuses or scandals related to this issue been covered in the media over the past year?

•

Is this issue topical right now?

CHECK-IN POINT

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

TEAM EVALUATION 1 | What skills are required to complete this Policy Dialogue? Throughout the Policy Dialogue, there will be many processes that require certain expertise or skills amongst your team. Before your Policy Dialogue begins, you will need to consider whether you have enough existing capacity, knowledge or skills amongst your team members to complete the project to the highest standard. If not, you may need to recruit new team members or other advisors, researchers or volunteers to help you throughout the life of the project. On this page you will find a list of skills that we believe are essential to carrying out this project effectively. Please evaluate your current team members against this list and identify where you have the most skills on your team and where you have the least. Additionally, you will want to make sure that the team’s skills are relatively spread out amongst individuals. Otherwise, you risk creating a workload that is too big for just one person. This evaluation will help determine whether you need to recruit any additional support to deliver the project.

•

Organising and project management skills

•

Time management

•

Budget management

•

Managing team members

•

Leadership

•

Decision-making

•

Problem-solving

•

Verbal communication

•

Written communication

•

Focus group moderation

•

Interviewing

•

Active-listening

•

In-depth knowledge of the chosen topic and related stakeholders

•

Research (ability to conduct literature review)

•

Policy knowledge and understanding of policymaking

•

Report writing and editing

•

Analysis of stakeholder data (interviews, focus groups, event)

•

Critical analysis and thinking

•

Events planning/management

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

EXERCISE A Team Skills Evaluation Matrix To evaluate your team, we recommend conducting an exercise called a Skills Matrix, which is a grid or table that clearly and visibly illustrates the skills held by individuals within a team. You can find editable and downloadable templates for this exercise in Worksheet 2. We have provided you with a blank Skills Matrix in Worksheet 2 which you can use as a template. Alternatively, you can draw it on a large piece of paper and use coloured pencils.

To conduct a Team Skills Matrix, you need to:

•

Discuss with each team member his or her skills, knowledge, and interests related to the activities that your project entails (from the list above).

•

Now go through each team member in the matrix and look at each skill, if they have no capability at all or very basic capability then insert a 1 into the cell and fill the cell red.

•

If they have an intermediate level of capability insert a 2 and turn the cell orange.

•

If they have an advanced level of capability insert a 3 and fill the cell green.

Please view our example below to help guide you in this process.

Jess

John

James

Julia

Organising and project management skills

Time management

Budget management

Managing team members

Leadership

Decision-making

Problem-solving

Verbal communication

Written communication

Focus group moderation

Interviewing

Active-listening

In-depth knowledge of the chosen topic and related stakeholders

Research (ability to conduct literature review)

Policy knowledge and understanding of policymaking

Report writing and editing

Analysis of stakeholder data (interviews, focus groups, event)

Critical analysis and thinking

Events planning/management

PROJECT MANAGEMENT

Once you have your completed Team Skills Matrix, like the one on the previous page, it is important to critically look at your matrix and the skill sets within the team. Take a look at your Matrix and think about the following:

•

Are there any areas where you don’t have any members of your team who have an intermediate/ advanced level of the skill. In our example, none of our team members have focus group moderator skills. In this scenario, it would be essential to recruit someone additional to lead on this task. In areas you only have one team member who is ‘intermediate level’, they may need some additional assistance from other team members. Keep a close eye on this task. If they are struggling, you may need to consider recruiting an additional team member with expertise in this area. If you only have one team member who is ‘advanced’ at a skill, you should, if possible, assign a team member with ‘intermediate’ skill level to help them. In our example, Only Jess has in-depth knowledge of the stakeholders and the topic, so she may want to take lead on some of the

2 | Finding expertise At some stages during your Policy Dialogue implementation, you may discover that you don’t have all the necessary skills or expertise, that’s okay. To ensure your Policy Dialogue reaches its highest potential, it will be necessary to get advice and feedback from outside experts. By engaging with academics, organisations or individuals with specific knowledge on the topic, this can also validate your research and add some more weight to your recommendations. Even if in the beginning stages of the project you feel you don’t need expert knowledge or advice, you might want to approach a potential expert or advisor at the beginning of the project to establish that connection in case you need help later on. We recommend that you keep them updated throughout the Policy Dialogue, which will help you build a relationship with them and demonstrate that you value their advice and insights. One way of engaging with experts could be through creating a ‘Policy Advisory Committee’, a board of people who you can present a draft of your project plan/findings

brainstormings around developing the topic and mapping the stakeholders. However, this task may require some additional assistance, so it would be best for her to have support from Julia, who has an ‘intermediate’ level of knowledge in this area.

•

However, if there is no-one in the team who is ‘intermediate’ in the skill to assist the ‘advanced’ member who is leading the project, it may be good to recruit an additional team member that is also ‘intermediate’ or ‘advanced’ in that area to assist. This may depend on how much workload there will be in that area.

At this stage, you should have identified whether your existing team’s expertise and skills are sufficient to complete the main tasks. Where new team members or additional advisors or volunteers are required, the Team Skills Matrix process should help you identify who to recruit. If some of the project team has already been appointed, you can use your Team Skills Matrix and the evaluation to help you set up your team structure and assign roles and responsibilities within the Policy Dialogue project.

and ask them for their critical opinions and feedback. This doesn’t have to be a physical committee or meeting, they can simply be a select group of people that you connect with via email or phone.

3 | Roles and responsibilities within the team A lack of clarity regarding the roles, responsibilities and expectations of the team members can impede your project’s overall success. We hope that you use the Team Skills Matrix to help you define and assign roles and responsibilities to each team member involved in the Policy Dialogue. We highly recommend that you host a project kick-off meeting with your full Policy Dialogue team and take time to walk the team through their roles and responsibilities during the project. This will help the team understand how everyone will be working together. You may also want to ask team members to sign a project-specific memorandum of understanding (MOU), which clarifies expectations and signifies agreement of the project terms. An example MOU can be found in Appendix 3.

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

1 | TIME MANAGEMENT

Below is an example of a simple Excel-based critical path template, where the timeline is managed weekly. You can also find editable versions of these templates in Appendix 4.

It is important that you track resources, activities and outputs against an agreed timeline throughout the life of your Policy Dialogue project. A ‘critical path’ is a useful tool to help you do this. It starts by breaking down each activity needed to complete the project and determining the length of time it will take to complete each activity. You can use the critical path to assign tasks to the different project team members. Your critical path will provide the team with an overview of how long it will realistically take to achieve the project outcomes. The critical path will also help to identify which activities rely on another activity and who is responsible for those dependencies. Therefore, if an activity is delayed then the end date of the project will likely be affected. This helps you track and understand when that might happen and then react accordingly to come up with a solution.

Team members assigned

Some individuals and teams may prefer to use a table format. Below is another example template, which also allows you to track deliverables, the specific deadline, who holds responsibility for ensuring it is delivered and what other team members need to be involved. The key to any good critical path exercise is to make sure you understand how each activity impacts later activities. This enables you to maintain oversight on the progress of the project against the project plan and timeline. Your critical path will show where delays will have the biggest impact and then you can better foresee and plan for unexpected changes.

June

July

Aug

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

British Council x FR Policy Toolkit Team Evaluation Budget Review Choosing Topic Stakeholder Mapping Topic Research Policy Mapping Planning your discussions/interviews/focus groups/ walkabouts with stakholders Conducting your discussions/interviews/focus groups/ walkabouts with stakholders

Excel-based critical path

Month

Deadline

Deliverable

Responsible

Fri 3rd

May

Fri 10th Mon 13th Tue 28th Fri 7th

June

Tue 18th Wed 19th

July

Fri 26th Wed 14th

August

Thu 22nd Fri 23rd

Table format critical path

Involved

PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS

2 | BUDGET MANAGEMENT Key tips for managing the project budget It is important that you: • Bank any money received as soon as possible, and if possible

•

Keep the project funds completely separate from your own money

•

Minimise the amount of personal money you use to cover costs - and always claim your expenses

•

Keep cash in a safe place, preferably under lock and key (funds may not be covered by your personal insurance policy)

•

Keep your records up to date

•

Keep records secure, remembering to password protect them if you store financial records electronically

•

Receipts should be issued for any money received

•

Receipts should be kept for any expenses incurred

•

Ensure that all expenditure is directly related to the successful implementation of the project, delivery of agreed outputs and in line with the agreed budget. If you are unsure whether a particular cost is eligible then contact the project manager before the cost is incurred.

Never: • Borrow or lend money from project funds

•

Spend more money than you have

•

Travel with large amounts of cash

Appendix 5 has more detailed guidance on effective budget management, including processes, developing a budget, spending plans, expenditure tracking and budget monitoring. An example project budget is also included.

CHECK-IN POINT

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE POLICY DIALOGUE PROCESS? 1 | STAKEHOLDER MAPPING You want to make sure that the right people are involved in your Policy Dialogue process, especially those who have a vested interest in or are directly affected by the policy issue you have chosen. To work out who these individuals or groups of people might be, you will carry out some Stakeholder Mapping.

First, who is a stakeholder? Any individual or organisation with ties to the policy issue you have chosen. The policy issue may directly affect their business or personal life, or this person or organisation may have the power to influence or change this policy issue even if it doesn’t directly affect them. Here’s an example. If you were focusing on the release of microfibres from textiles into the ocean and how this affects your community, a few stakeholders may be:

•

Fishermen – microfibres impact the fish stocks and therefore their livelihoods.

•

Local and international NGOs – particularly those focusing on marine issues.

•

National and local governments and specific governmental departments - e.g. the Department of Environment.

•

Washing machine producers and people managing sewage treatments.

•

The polluters themselves – fashion consumers (who may also be eating these same fish containing microfibres), fashion brands, manufacturers.

•

Fish and the ocean – just because they don’t have a voice, doesn’t mean they aren’t affected; perhaps you could involve a civil society organisation dedicated to their protection.

Why do you need to identify and engage with stakeholders? During this Policy Dialogue, you will be engaging with different people who are affected by the topic, and we ask that you involve your stakeholders using a participatory approach. Why do we want to use a participatory approach? In short, involving farmers, artisans, garment workers or others who may experience a sense of exclusion or exploitation helps them to become part of the solution. Furthermore, once people realise they are being listened to, they may feel empowered and have a greater sense of agency towards creating positive change. When those affected by an issue are given a voice and a way to meaningfully engage in decision-making, the policy design will be better informed, and the final policies will be more effective. Finally, bringing together all those affected will help to build mutual understanding, trust and credibility.

“Greater understanding of the lived experience of the most economically marginalised [people] leads to policies that promote a better base of economic security.” TONY GREENHAM (ECONOMIST AND ACADEMIC)

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE POLICY DIALOGUE PROCESS?

EXERCISE B VISUALLY MAP OUT THE STAKEHOLDERS: Create a ‘mind-map’ You can just make a simple list if you wish, but we recommend creating a ‘mind-map’ to help you better visualise who the stakeholders are and how they relate and interact with one another. This should help you decide which stakeholders to prioritise when organising your Policy Dialogue process. Alternatively, you can write a list of stakeholders and then map them and link them on a whiteboard or a large piece of paper (tip: write on sticky post-it notes which can be easily moved around) or use a free mapping tool such as VUE (https://vue.tufts.edu/index.cfm), you can use the Worksheet 3 in the appendices.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a ‘mind-map’(See Diagram 1) 1.

To start, write your chosen topic in the centre of your page with several broad categories coming out from the centre. These categories could vary depending on your topic, but you could start with; international, national, regional, industry and local/community stakeholders. You can then can add extra categories if you want, such as government sectors, academia, consumers, producers etc. Next, start to add stakeholders to your categories. The categories are there to make sure you include all levels of stakeholders, so don’t worry too much what category they are in. It is often easiest to start at the local category and write any stakeholder down who is directly and often personally connected to the issue. This may include farmers, garment workers, artisan producers and other local people impacted by an environmental or social issue (and maybe even stakeholders such as animals and plants). Then keep going to the next category. Look at the regional level – who is involved, affected or interested in the policy issue? For example, these could be local/regional NGOs, regional governments, factory managers and owners, trade unions, self-help groups, cooperative associations, local academic

links (university academics involved in research) or small or local businesses. 4. Next look at the national level. Those with an interest could include; national government and specific government departments (e.g. environment, energy, health or business departments), large national companies and brands, national NGOs and trade unions. 5.

Then look at the international community and think about who might have an interest. For example, intergovernmental organisations and programs (e.g UN, International Labour Organisation, World Health Organisation, UN Environment, World Business Council on Sustainable Development, OECD, the European Union, etc.) multinational corporations and brands, international NGOs (e.g. Greenpeace, WWF, WaterAid, Oxfam, etc.), international trade unions (e.g. IndustriALL).

6. Once you have all the stakeholders you can think of, it’s time to join the links between the stakeholders. Think about: • • •

Which stakeholders work together already? Who should be communicating with one another (but may not be)? Which stakeholders could act as links between the local level and the regional level or the local level and national level or the national level and the international level and so on?

Top tips: •

Drawing the links with different colour pens can be a good way to visualise this.

•

Don’t be afraid to take your time on this exercise. It can be useful to discuss your ‘mind-map’ or your list of stakeholders with friends, colleagues or mentors to consider all aspects of the topic and who might be interested or affected by it.

•

Make sure you document and keep all the work you have done safe as you may need to refer back to it.

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE POLICY DIALOGUE PROCESS?

Diagram 1 An example ‘mind-map’ using general stakeholders (created using VUE). This ‘mind-map’ is just an example. You should create a format that is easiest for you to use and that you can refer back to later in the Dialogue.

Departments within IGOs

Intergovernmental organisations (IGOs) e.g. UN, World Trade Organisation

National Branches of International NGOs International Unions

International Fashion Consumers

INTERNATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS

Farmers

NATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS

National Companies and Brands LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS

Small Businesses

REGIONAL STAKEHOLDERS

Local/Regional Government

Local People Affected

Unions

National Unions

TOPIC

Designers

Garment Workers

National Government

INDUSTRIAL STAKEHOLDERS

Transportation Companies

Factories

Government Sectors National NGOs

International Corporations

Animals and Plants Affected

International NGOs

National Fashion Consumers

Small NGOs

Academic Institutions Community Groups e.g. Religious Groups

Local Leaders

National Companies With Sites in the Area

Researchers

Students

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE POLICY DIALOGUE PROCESS?

2 | UNDERSTANDING YOUR STAKEHOLDERS It is important to consider why your stakeholders will be interested, motivated and engaged in your chosen policy issue? Your stakeholders will have differing levels of interest, power and influence. Understanding your stakeholders’ needs and interests will be key to engaging them in your Policy Dialogue.

Understanding stakeholders’ interest Different stakeholders will be connected to your issue in different ways. You need to think about why they would be interested in working with you, how you can make the topic a priority for them, and how they can benefit by being involved in your Policy Dialogue? For example:

•

Policymakers and government – Need a balance between caring about environmental and social issues but also prioritising the economy and what the public need. Priorities will change between political parties e.g. socialist, green or conservative parties.

•

Industry and businesses – Want to maximise profits, reduce risks and meet national/international requirements. However, some companies will have a higher interest in social and environmental issues. Companies also care about what the consumer thinks as this drives their business. How will being involved benefit their business?

•

Non-Governmental Organisations – Want to improve social and environmental problems yet need to meet the requirements of donors, investors and supporters. How can NGOs help you and what could you do for them? Contacts, resources, money, research, volunteers, anything else?

•

Supply chain workers, producers and local communities - Want a secure future for themselves and their family (job, income, health, education, etc.). They want to meet their ‘needs’ to survive and fulfil some ‘wants’.

•

Public/consumers – Desire to have clothes which don’t have a negative environmental or social impact. However, they are often limited by cost, ease of finding such garments and social norms etc.

Understanding stakeholders’ power; which have more influence than others? Individuals or groups of people will have different levels of power depending on their level of knowledge or expertise, how much money and resources they might have, how much they can influence policies, and their connections to other influential people. Power is: 1.

The ability to get what we want.

The ability to hold onto what we want.

The ability to shape events in the way that we want to shape them.

“Power is the capacity to ensure the outcomes one wishes and to prevent those one does not wish.” JOHN W GARDNER (ON LEADERSHIP, 1990)

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE POLICY DIALOGUE PROCESS?

EXERCISE C ‘POWER VS. INTEREST MATRIX’ This exercise will help you determine how much power each of your stakeholders holds and how interested they may be in getting involved. When you have completed this exercise, you will be better able to understand which stakeholders hold the most influence, those who may present the biggest obstacles towards change and those who will be most likely to help achieve change. You will also be able to identify which voices need to be better heard and how they could be included in your Policy Dialogue. For instance, within the fashion supply chain female garment workers are often said to be without much of a voice, as are those beyond the first tier of the supply chain – the farmers, those working in ginning, spinning, weaving and other processes beyond the regular scrutiny of brands in their audit process. However, whilst women working in garment factories may not have power, they certainly have valuable insights and an interest in seeing change happen. If women are able to get together in a group, such as a trade union, a worker participation committee or self-help group, they can exercise more power than they can as individuals.

Step-by-step instructions for creating a ‘Power vs Interest Matrix’ (See Diagram 2) In this exercise, you will be organising your stakeholders by power and by interest. This will help you identify the stakeholders who are most likely to be able to help you, the stakeholders who need helping and those you should keep informed about what you are doing. 1.

You will be plotting each of the stakeholders you identified in the previous ‘mind-map’ exercise.

As you look at the Matrix below, you will see that ‘power’ increases as you go up the Matrix and ‘interest’ increases as you go along the Matrix to the right.

Go ahead and plot each one of your stakeholders on the Matrix based on their individual interest in the policy issue and their power to make change. See the example in diagram 2.

4. After adding all of the stakeholders into the matrix, you could cross-reference your ‘mind-map’ and this ‘Power vs Index Matrix’ and annotate on the matrix how stakeholders may currently interact, which stakeholders could be brought together to form a group, where you can help empower stakeholders with high interest but low power and how best to engage with high power/low interest stakeholders.

Top tip: Similar to the stakeholder mapping in exercise B, we have given you Worksheet 4 in the appendices, but please do this exercise in a way that suits you. Draw it on a whiteboard, use lots of colours, use sticky post-it notes or scribble it on a big piece of paper and don’t be afraid to make mistakes, cross things out and change things again and again. There are no wrong answers! But please remember to take photos of it so you can refer back at a later point.

POWER

LOW

HIGH

Garment factories

Transport companies

Seed and fertiliser suppliers

National Media

Health and safety agencies e.g. European Agecny for Safety and Health at Work

Local media Doctors and hospitals

International NGOs Health and Environmental NGOs e.g. Friends of the Earth, Greenpeace

International National

Land owners Farm workers

Victims of pesticide exposure

Local NGOs

Environment and species affected

Rural residents

Small Fashion brands

Farmers associations

Local / Regional departments for environment and health

National NGOs e.g. Pesticide Action Network, Soil Association International Workers unions Consumers Organic Farming organisations e.g. Better National unions e.g. National Farmers Union cotton, EOA-I, Fairtrade

International agencies e.g. EC Directorate for Agriculture, Environment, Health; WHO, FAO

INTEREST

Scientists and researchers (toxicologists, environmental scientists)

Medium Fashion brands

National government departments for Environment and Health

Large international Fashion brands

Environmental agencies e.g. EA (UK) or EPA (US)

Pesticide and fertiliser manufacturers e.g. Monsanto

Diagram 2 The Stakeholder Matrix. Example: Social and Environmental impact of pesticides

HIGH

Regional Local

WHO SHOULD PARTICIPATE IN THE POLICY DIALOGUE PROCESS?

EXERCISE D EVALUATE YOUR STAKEHOLDERS

•

Ideally, you would want to involve, speak with or meet every one of the stakeholders you have identified in the ‘mindmap’ in exercise B and plotted in the ‘Stakeholder Power vs Interest Matrix’ in exercise C. If have you the time and capacity to reach out to everyone, that’s amazing! However, in all likelihood you will not be able to include everyone, so you should try to think strategically about which stakeholders to prioritise. In this exercise, you will identify the stakeholders most affected by your issue as well as those who have the power to influence the relevant policies. Try and narrow them down to around 5-15 stakeholder groups, with ideally with at least one stakeholder from each level (local, regional, national and international). To help you, look at your ‘Stakeholder Power vs. Interest Matrix’ in exercise C and consider the following questions: 1.

How might some stakeholders become more powerful or become more interested? •

• 2.

Who needs their voices heard most (their power increased)?

Do you have too many to cope with in any box (particularly top right)? •

Focusing initially on stakeholders with high interest but low power, how can they become more empowered? For example, whilst an individual may not have much power themselves, they may have more power through a group or union where their interest has a bigger impact and their individual concerns may be given a voice

Whilst it is important to consider all stakeholders, dealing with many large, powerful organisations or governments may require a lot of work.

Who on the Matrix has both high power and high interest that you can engage with the most?

Out of the higher power stakeholders, who has the most interest in our issue and do we have any connections with them (potentially via other stakeholders)?

4. Think about who could link in well with your other stakeholders. Are there any existing ties at the community level, for example a local NGO who already works with a government department? •

Which stakeholders may allow you to connect the stakeholders with lower power to stakeholders with higher power.

Whilst all stakeholders are important, you want to use these questions to pick out the stakeholders that are most valuable to your Policy Dialogue. You might want to copy your mind-map and matrix and annotate them answering the questions above for all the stakeholders. Cross off stakeholders that you don’t think will be helpful. At the end, you should have 5-15 stakeholder groups left. If you have more, go through the questions again and really think carefully about the questions above and which stakeholder can contribute the most to the Policy Dialogue. The final stakeholders you choose will hopefully be your participants for your interviews, focus groups and workshops during the rest of the Policy Dialogue toolkit.

Top tip: Before contacting any stakeholders later in the Dialogue, write down how you can get each stakeholder’s attention, interest, and potential ways they could help you. This will help you understand how much effort and time you need to invest to meet each stakeholders needs and engage them and therefore which stakeholders you should focus on. Also, explaining to the stakeholder how they can help you and why you have chosen them may help you gain their trust.

CHECK-IN POINT

“Transparency is not a choice. The only choice is, does it happen to you, or do you participate in it?” ALEX BOGUSKY

HOW DOES THE POLICY ISSUE AFFECT THE FASHION INDUSTRY IN YOUR COUNTRY OR REGION?

1 | TOPIC RESEARCH Through researching your chosen topic, gathering facts and figures, this will support and strengthen any policy recommendations you may make at the end of your Policy Dialogue process. Topic research will act as an evidence-base upon which you will be able to craft credible and relevant policy recommendations towards the end of the project. You will analyse and collate academic literature, published research and reports exploring your chosen topic. This could be economic, social or environmental data, this will largely depend on the focus of your topic. However, even if your topic focuses on the environmental impact of something, it is still useful to understand the social impact too. For example, if your topic was the water usage of cotton, you may also want to find out about the social impacts around water usage in the area. If you can show a policymaker that this is both a social and environmental issue, it will strengthen your report. Through your research, you may also identify areas where the issue is concentrated or where the impacts are higher. It is worth keeping this in mind when you choose which stakeholders to approach. Talking to stakeholders in an area which is highly affected by the issue would be a very valuable insight.

“they always say time changes things, but you actually have to change them yourself.” ANDY WARHOL

HOW DOES THE POLICY ISSUE AFFECT THE FASHION INDUSTRY IN YOUR COUNTRY OR REGION?

EXERCISE E TOPIC RESEARCH In this exercise, you should look at gathering the following types of data and information about the industry. Here are some examples looking at cotton farming and the effect of pesticides.

•

Economic data – Current value of the relevant market (e.g. GDP, estimated employment numbers, predicted growth of the sector). For example, in the cotton industry, data could cover the quantity of cotton produced in your country per year and how much money that is worth, the number of farm workers employed, what volume your country exports.

•

Social data – The impact of the issue on the labour force or those otherwise affected and indirectly employed by the industry, including families and communities. For example, in the cotton industry, data could include: the effect of pesticides on human health (i.e. physiological effects, healthcare cost) child labour, forced labour, health and safety issues, working conditions, wages/income, migrant workers.

•

Environmental data – The impact of the issue on the environment. For example, the amount of pesticides used to grow cotton, the biological effect of pesticides on the environment or the amount of fossil fuels or water used in the production of cotton.

•

Identify key locations – Is there a particular geographical area in your country where the industry issue is predominantly located? For example, is there an area where textile factories or cotton farmers are most commonly working? These ‘clusters’ can help identify which region or city might be most relevant for targeted policy change and where you should engage with stakeholders.

Where to look for this type of data and information:

•

Literature review – It is always helpful to review existing academic research on your chosen policy issue. This gives you further useful context. You can search terms related to your issue through ‘Google Scholar’ or other similar search engines to gather relevant publications. However, statistics within research papers are often several years old, so if possible try to find out where the original data came from in the first place and see if they have updated the statistics. You may be able to find updated statistics elsewhere.

•

Analysis of government data – Official government statistics can be used to assess industries’ contribution to employment, trade, environmental impact, etc.

•

Analysis of non-governmental data – In many countries, government statistics may not be detailed or reliable enough. So, you may want to look at alternative sources. For example, in some countries private sector businesses produce databases or reports for marketing or other purposes. Trade associations and industry bodies, universities, trade unions or NGOs may also have information that could be used. Most of these should be available online or by request.

Make sure you note down where you have found any useful information or data as you want to be able to reference these documents or resources later. Be sure to write the name of the author, the date it was published and the web link or publication details. This will become important to support your policy recommendations later on.

HOW DOES THE POLICY ISSUE AFFECT THE FASHION INDUSTRY IN YOUR COUNTRY OR REGION?

2 | WHICH POLICIES ARE RELEVANT TO YOUR POLICY DIALOGUE? Policy mapping can help you better understand which policies may support your topic as well as identifying potential gaps within policy. Simply put, policy mapping involves finding and evaluating all relevant international, national and regional policies relating to your chosen topic.

It is important to look at the current policy landscape to understand what is lacking or which policies aren’t working. This will help shape your policy recommendations later on.

EXERCISE F POLICY MAPPING There may be several international, national, regional and local level policies which have an effect on your chosen topic. You may already have a broad understanding of policies that affect the fashion and textiles industry in your country, but this policy mapping exercise is a useful way of ensuring you are aware of all relevant policies, regulations and governmental initiatives.

How to conduct your policy mapping: 1.

Start by looking for international agreements and treaties covering your topic as these are often the easiest to find. We have listed some in Appendix 7 to help you get started.

Then move on to national legislation. Appendix 7 has some useful databases which give information on domestic policy in areas such as labour and environmental legislation. An internet search may also provide other useful databases that can help.

You may need to go to your local town hall or similar facility to find out about the regional and local policy. When looking at regional or local policies relating to your topic, try to find policies which apply to your ‘clusters’ from the industry mapping.

4. Finally, do not forget to ask your stakeholders about any relevant policies they may be aware of. This exercise is the step in which you are likely to need to seek some external insights. Don’t hesitate to get in touch with experts and academics who might have more knowledge. Appendix 7 contains examples of policies at different levels and a brief outline of their potential strengths and weaknesses. You will also find further examples of databases you can search to find out more about policies affecting your chosen topic.

HOW DOES THE POLICY ISSUE AFFECT THE FASHION INDUSTRY IN YOUR COUNTRY OR REGION?

EXERCISE G

EXERCISE H

EFFECTIVENESS OF THE POLICIES After you find a relevant policy, make a few notes of what it covers and who it affects. Next, try to assess the effectiveness of the policy. This can be challenging as they come in many forms and can fail and succeed in different ways. Here are a few questions start your assessment: 1.

Is the policy legally binding?

Have any countries/companies not implemented the legal requirements? Why not?

Which bodies oversee implementation and how are they kept accountable?

4. Are the goals of the policy being achieved? Why/why not? However, whilst these questions act as a useful starting point don’t forget that policies can be effective in different ways. For example, policies without any legal commitment can act as a ‘springboard’ for other policies and movements or raise awareness of an issue which results in change, despite no legal obligations being place. In addition, policies can be successful even if they don’t fully achieve their targets. The targets can act as signposts to be followed; even if not fully met they can sometimes set things in motion along the right path. Also, if a collective target hasn’t been achieved, some individual countries or companies may have overachieved and in the process set great examples for others to follow. Don’t be worried if you currently can’t answer some of these questions. Finding information about policies can be very difficult and sometimes the information you are looking for might not exist. If you feel as if this is a case, then perhaps it is something you want to incorporate into your dialogue with your stakeholders. You could ask them about relevant policies and whether they think they are effective.

POLICY GAPS AND YOUR STAKEHOLDERS By now, you should have gathered as many relevant policies as you can find and have an idea of what they cover and how effective they are. Next, we want you to find any gaps in policy relating to your chosen topic and how they impact your stakeholders. You would hope that effective policy would cover all of the stakeholders involved in the issue. However, this may often not be the case. In this exercise, we want you to pull together all the information on the policies you have researched and look at the information critically in relation to your stakeholders. This should help you identify any areas which you think might need an additional or reformed policy. How to assess policy gaps: 1.

Write on a piece of paper, whiteboard or post-it notes all of the policies you found, and sum up in a line who they affect and, in your opinion, whether they are effective.

Next look at your stakeholders link each policy to the key stakeholders it affects (if any). Ideally, you want each stakeholder to be covered by policies at all levels (international, national, regional, local). You could do this by drawing lines between them or by placing postit notes next to each other.

Are there any stakeholders which aren’t covered by any policies? If so, then you have identified a gap in the policy! Identifying these policy gaps will help inform where to potentially focus your policy recommendations.

In Appendix 7, we have provided you with some examples of policies at different levels and a brief outline of their potential strengths and weaknesses. There are also some examples of databases you can search to find out more about domestic policies relating to your topic.

CHECK-IN POINT

GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS 1 | HOW DOES THIS PROCESS WORK? Now you’ve set your objective, found your stakeholders and researched the industry and current policies, you can start to collect information from your stakeholders. You will gather a wide range of different voices about your chosen topic in your country or region. You will do this through holding discussions, interviews, consultations, focus groups and workshops with some of your stakeholders. This will allow you to create a holistic picture of how the issue impacts all of the different people involved. The interviews, focus groups, consultations and other stakeholder discussions will culminate in a final oneday workshop where you will bring various stakeholders together to discuss the topic and hopefully come up with some solutions which can work for everybody. Not all the stakeholders you interact with during the dialogue have to attend the one-day workshop. However, you want to make sure a broad variety of stakeholders are represented in-person at the event. You will then use all of the opinions and discussions you have collected throughout this Policy Dialogue to form the basis of your policy recommendations paper. Showing that you have taken the voices of stakeholders into account will strengthen your policy recommendations and make your findings more appealing to policymakers.

Approach stakeholders

Engage stakeholders Interviews

Questionnaire

Walk-about

Focus groups

One day workshop

Review findings

Policy recommendations

Communicate findings back to stakeholders

GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS

2 | COMMUNICATING WITH YOUR STAKEHOLDERS It is important that you effectively communicate about the Policy Dialogue project, the project aims and your expectations with your stakeholders from the outset. When initially approaching stakeholders, you should always begin by introducing yourself and the aims of this project. It is important to be very clear about the project, why Fashion Revolution is engaging on this topic now and what you hope to achieve. Different stakeholders will respond better to some types of communications. Policymakers, NGOs and academics often prefer emails, whilst others may prefer verbal communication in person or on the telephone. After introducing yourself via email or telephone, you could then arrange to meet with a stakeholder to explain more about the project and how they can be involved. This is also a chance for you to better understand your stakeholders’ relationship to the topic. You may find it easiest to nurture your relationship with key stakeholders, such as grassroots NGOs, trade unions or industry organisations, rather than spend lots of time on individuals.

Tips for engaging different types of stakeholders: Throughout the Policy Dialogue, stakeholders should feel engaged and interested in the project, so they feel like they have a part to play and are invested in coming up with solutions. Here are some of our best tips for keeping your stakeholders engaged in the project:

•

When thinking about how to get your stakeholders to participate, it’s useful to put yourself in their shoes. Some people might be busy with their own lives or work in jobs with limited time to commit to outside projects. Or, perhaps you will want to engage with someone who has been marginalised or suffered exploitation and as a result, may have lost selfbelief or make feel scared of speaking up. Empathy towards other people can help you understand what’s important to them and how you can best engage them in your project.

•

Give participants plenty of information about dates and how long an interview or workshop will take so that they can make time to attend.

•

If your stakeholders feel that their opinion matters to you, they will be more likely to engage in the Policy Dialogue process. To help each participant feel valued try to be adaptable to their needs. For example, a garment worker may not have strong written or verbal skills (or possibly even illiterate), but perhaps instead they can express themselves in other ways. They could create an expressive piece of art showing how they feel, or they may feel more comfortable talking about the issue to a voice recorder which keeps their identity anonymous.

•

Policy and decision-makers will be very busy and may be tricky for them to find time to participate in the workshop. However, they will be more willing to find time if you can engage their personal interest. It’s a good idea to do some online research about the person you are contacting first. For example, are there issues which they are personally involved with? Sometimes looking at their social media will show you causes they are interested in. If so, how do they relate to your Policy Dialogue? It’s also worth asking other stakeholders such as NGOs if they have any connections with relevant policymakers.

During email or verbal communications with your stakeholders, we recommend using the 4mat model, to effectively communicate with them because it takes different learning styles into account. The 4mat model involves structuring emails or other communications the following in order: 1.

Why? – the attention grabber – many people come to the why later on, by which time the audience has switched off

What? – the overview – getting straight to the point

How? – the detail – some people start with the how which confuses themselves and everyone else

4. What if? – painting a vision of the future – what the end result will ‘look like’ creating interest and desire It is very important throughout the stages of your Policy Dialogue and especially near the end of the process, to keep in contact with your stakeholders and update them on the findings and recommendations. This is important for them to feel a part of the process and that their time spent was valued.

GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS

3 | METHODS TO ENGAGE WITH YOUR STAKEHOLDERS To get different stakeholders engaged and then bring the stakeholders together for the final workshop will take time. You will have to find different ways to effectively engage each stakeholder before bringing them together for the workshop. Below are some ideas on how to engage your stakeholders. You may need to try all of these methods, or just a few. Some stakeholders will respond better to one-to-one interviews, some may prefer to work in groups, whilst others may be hard to reach in person. Feel free to be imaginative and think of other ways to find and engage with your stakeholders, for example networking at events can be very helpful. For each stakeholder you want to involve, think about which of the methods below will be best to engage them. For some stakeholders, meeting in person may be daunting or risky for them or it may not be possible if they are too far away or too busy. One-to-one interviews: This can be a useful way of getting to know stakeholders before the workshop. You can also interview stakeholders who are unable to attend the workshop, so you can still have their opinions recorded. The format of an interview is quite flexible. You can sit down in a room or a café together and have a discussion, but make sure you have some pre-prepared questions. You could also do phone or skype interviews if your stakeholders are hard to reach. If possible, be sure to record the interview so that you can focus on the discussion, not notetaking! Try not to make the interview isn’t too long - 30 minutes is a good amount of time to ask someone to concentrate. If you’re travelling to meet someone it might be a good idea to combine face-to-face interviews with a ‘walk-about’ around the community, as long as it’s safe and appropriate to do so. Pros of one-to-one interviews: • Enables people who may be wary of speaking in a large group to share their opinion

•

Easier for people who find it hard to travel or live far away

•

Voice-only interview can protect people’s identities

•

Gives a deeper and more personal understanding of a stakeholder’s view

•

Helps you build relationships with stakeholders

Cons of one-to-one interviews: • May require some travel and cost for you

•

You only get one perspective at a time

Questionnaire: This can be a useful way to scope out potential stakeholders to see if they are interested in participating in the dialogue. If carefully considered, a good questionnaire can provide robust data for your study, allowing you to analyse multiple stakeholder opinions with relatively limited bias. This may be a useful tool to supplement any other engagement with stakeholders. Pros of questionnaire: • Enables you to collect comparable information across a variety of stakeholders

•

Can be emailed, allowing access to stakeholders further away

•

Easy and quick for the stakeholder

Cons of questionnaire: • Requires a level of literacy from the stakeholders

•

Impersonal

•

Can’t dive deeper into answers that interest you as relying solely on the questions in the questionnaire

A ‘walk-about’: By visiting communities affected by your issue in-person, you can hear about the real-life impacts of the problem from those most affected by it. Before doing your ‘walk-about’ it is a good idea to contact any local stakeholders, such as NGOs, from the area and ask if they can guide you around the location. They may be able to introduce you to other people and show you key areas of interest. Also, think about what sort of equipment you will need to bring (voice recording, film or photographic recording, spare batteries) and if you need to bring any consent forms (Appendix 8). Pros of walk-about: • You may find previously unidentified stakeholders

•

Can help spark useful ideas about practical ways to address the issue

•

Introduces you to the communities affected by your chosen issue, gives you deeper personal understanding of the issues you’re exploring

•

You can use footage as visual evidence (if you have permissions)

GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS

Cons of walk-about: • Make sure that people in the community know who you are and why you are there, otherwise you may be met with suspicion

•

Have to bring equipment with you

•

May require some travel and cost

•

Personal safety and security could be a concern, depending on the location - use your common sense

Stakeholders as information seekers: If there is someone within a stakeholder group who is engaged and easy to communicate with, you could ask them to carry out interviews with their colleagues and other people involved in the issue on your behalf. Prepare the stakeholder with some questions to ask the others. Ask them to film their answers on a phone if possible. Make sure the interviewer gets completed consent forms for anyone being filmed (Appendix 8 has an example form you can adapt). Also, ensure that each person interviewed fully introduces themselves, their name and relationship to the topic, and their contact details if they’re willing to share them. If possible, you could give a financial incentive to your information seeker for their efforts. However, be aware that they may collect too much and possibly irrelevant data. Be clear about which stakeholders you want opinions from and how many interviews you will need. Pros: • Enables a much wider amount of information to be collected

•

People may be more comfortable talking to someone they already know

•

Access to stakeholders who may not otherwise participate

Cons: • You have to rely on the questions the information seeker asks

•

It may be hard to follow up with the interviewee directly

•

You are relying on the information seeker to find and record the best stakeholders

Focus groups: Focus groups are a brilliant way to bring people together to discuss your issue. To improve discussions, focus groups work best if all participants are from a similar stakeholder group. Aim to have 6-8 people in a focus group - you don’t want to have your group too large as some voices may not be heard. The success of your focus group will depend a lot on your skills as a moderator. Make sure you leave enough time for discussion around each question and some time at the end to talk about solutions. Always make sure you stop and check to see if everyone understands the questions and discussion. The next section ‘Conducting your Policy Dialogue’ has lots of practical information gathering exercises and moderation techniques you can use. Pros: • Allows stakeholders to speak freely

•

Develops a deeper understanding of one group’s perspectives

•

A good way to get many opinions in quite a short amount of time

Cons: • Some voices may dominate, resulting in less participation from others

•

Because all participants are from the same group, a limited viewpoint is discussed

•

Conflict may arise

•

Requires strong moderation skills

GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS

4 | ORGANISING THE DISCUSSIONS Now you have an idea of the formats you want to use to gather information from your stakeholders, you can begin organising them. One-to-one interviews: This may involve some travel for you, so it’s worth being selective about which stakeholders you need to interview. Politicians and policymakers are often busy, so it might be easier to meet in their office, or have a call. Garment workers and trade union representatives may feel more comfortable talking in a less public setting. The benefit of doing one-to-one interviews is that you develop a relationship with some harder to reach stakeholders. You may find that their interest in your issue increases as a result of the interview, making them good candidates for the final workshop. Focus groups: Focus groups work best within a group of similar stakeholders, for example amongst trade union representatives, or a group of second hand clothing street vendors. Try to hold them geographically near the people that you want to meet with. Also, you could ask a stakeholder, for example a local NGO, if they have access to, or are aware of, a space within the community or area where your focus group will be. As previously mentioned, an ideal size is about 6-8 participants. However, not everyone you invite will be able to attend the focus group, so invite at least 12 people initially. It is a good idea to have some other people you can invite in case not enough people respond to the first invitations. Websites like doodle polls can be useful ways of finding a time that everyone can make. https://doodle.com/make-a-poll/ Final One-Day Workshop: Organising the workshop will take time. You may decide to arrange the date of your workshop around the availability of some key stakeholders or availability of the space you choose to use. At a minimum you should give all participants six weeks notice of the workshop. The key thing is to make sure you have a range of different stakeholders, so you can get lots of opinions during the workshop. Try to identify some engaged stakeholders from each group you have met or

communicated with already. It may be that some stakeholders would feel more comfortable being at the workshop with another colleague or friend. The amount of people that can attend your workshop will depend upon the space and resources you have available. However, anywhere between 10-30 stakeholders for the final workshop can work well. You will have a good idea about who you want to involve for the final workshop from your stakeholder mapping and after interviewing people. However, getting stakeholders to join the workshop will take more effort. Think about offering an incentive to participate i.e. a certificate of participation, covering local travel costs, food and drink, a small gift or you could offer some recognition via social media - for example, following all participants and posting about the event. You will need to start planning the event at least 6 weeks prior to the event. It is important to first send a ‘save the date’ to the stakeholders at around this time. Once the event venue has been set, invites will need to be sent as early as possible. We have provided a designed general letter template in Appendix 6 which you can adapt to create a ‘save the date’ letter or invitation. You will also want to think about the exercises you want to do during your workshop (See Exercises for the workshop/ focus groups on page 40) and whether you need any additional equipment or people to help run it. This will largely depend on the number of stakeholders and the activities you will conduct during the event. For example, if you wish to use a graphic recorder during the workshop, you will need to book them several weeks in advance.

GATHERING INFORMATION FROM THE STAKEHOLDERS

5 | RESEARCH ETHICS AND CONFIDENTIALITY

Top tips: Try to think about the materials and equipment that you will need for each stage of your Policy Dialogue.

•

Do you have access to film and sound recording equipment? Your phone can be useful as a backup, but you will be able to make better quality recordings using a video camera.

•

Other useful items for the focus groups and workshop include large sheets of paper, marker pens, post-it notes, name tags or stickers, pens and paper.

•

If the workshop is a half-day event or longer you will need to offer your participants some food and drink.

•

Ask colleagues or volunteers to help you during interviews, ‘walk-abouts’, focus groups and the one-day workshop. Having a few people to focus on filming and recording the events means you can focus on moderating and making sure you get the most out of the events.

Consent: All participants involved in the Policy Dialogue must give their consent. The UK -based Economic and Social Research Council defines informed consent as “giving sufficient information about the research and ensuring that there is no explicit or implicit coercion so that prospective participants can make an informed and free decision on their possible involvement.” 1 It is important that participants are aware of the intended possible uses of any information they share and what risks, if any, are involved. The best way to do this is to ask each participant to sign a Participant Information Sheet and a Consent Form. You can find templates for these in Appendices 4 & 5 which you can adapt for your own use. For the workshop, you may want to adapt the consent form to allow the stakeholder to choose what they agree to. For example, they may agree to be quoted but want to remain anonymous, or they may wish to not be featured in photographs or videos. Allowing the stakeholder to choose to what extent they want to remain anonymous will help them to feel safe and in control during the Policy Dialogue. We would recommend getting the participants of your workshop to read and sign the consent form as you register them for the event. Storage of information: During your Policy Dialogue you may collect film, audio or written documents about your chosen issue. Some of this information may relate to vulnerable people or stakeholders who want to stay anonymous. You will need to think about how you can safely store this information.

1 (ESRC 2015) “Framework for research ethics” https://esrc.ukri.org/files/funding/ guidance-for-applicants/esrc-framework-for-research-ethics-2015/ Page 29

Chatham House Rule: You could consider using this rule for your interview, focus groups and workshop. The rule is that any information shared during the meeting can be used after the meeting, but the identity and the affiliation of the speaker(s) can’t be revealed. This allows people to speak as individuals and have opinions which may be different to their organisations. It’s a helpful way of making people feel more relaxed as they don’t have to worry about the implications if they are publicly quoted. However, if you quote them, you cannot include their name or organisation.

CHECK-IN POINT

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

1 | STRUCTURING THE POLICY DIALOGUE Conducting your interviews, focus groups and the one-day workshop When thinking about conducting your interviews, focus groups and your final one-day workshop, you will need to think carefully about the structure of the sessions to make the most of the time. These formats will generally be lead by one ‘moderator’ who is responsible for engaging with the stakeholders and keeping them feeling comfortable in order to get the most information possible.

What makes a good moderator and interviewer?

Understanding of the issue

Respect for others and belief in their abilities

Sensitivity to emotions, body language and social dynamics

Patience and listening skills

Neutrality Writing skills Ability to synthesise information

Self-belief, without arrogance

Creativity

Flexibility

On this page, we have given you a broad schedule that you could follow. This can be adapted depending on whether you are hosting an interview, focus group or one-day workshop and the amount of time you have available. For example, a politician may only have 20 minutes available whereas a garment worker may need much more information in order to trust you and make themselves feel comfortable. 1.

Introduce yourself, your teammates (if anyone else helping you), the purpose of the session and what the information will be used for.

Explain practically how the interview/focus group/ workshop will work.

Give your stakeholders some background information about the issue. The amount of information you give will vary depending on how much time you have. You may want to dedicate 10-15 minutes to this in a workshop, but only a few minutes in other formats.

4. Explain what you want to achieve during the session. For example, if it is a one-to-one interview you may want to focus on gaining a deeper personal insight into an issue. During a focus group, you may want to explore problems and solutions related to your chosen issue. 5.

For groups, set out your rules for the event. For example, you could ask people to not interrupt each other but raise a hand if they wish to speak.

6. If in a group, everyone should introduce themselves and find out what each person wants to get out of the session. Be sure to write their responses down so you can refer to them later in the session. When working with a group, it is also a good idea to give people name tags. Once you have dealt with the formalities, there are several activities and ways of keeping the stakeholders engaged. For the interviews and focus groups, you will then want to begin asking them your prepared questions.

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

2 | HOW TO STRUCTURE YOUR QUESTIONS Have a list of about 5-8 questions you can ask to get the discussion going. Start the discussion with a fairly neutral, easy and broad question to help warm up the participants - ideally one that focuses on a common aim of all group members, then move towards more complex and challenging questions as you progress. Questions should be open-ended - they should require a full explanation. Here are some examples of openended questions: • How can factory conditions be improved? What issues in particular could be addressed?

•

How do trade unions affect relations between workers and management?

•

How can women and girls be empowered in the factory environment?

•

How does pollution from Factory X affect your life?

•

In what way does X affect your life?

•

We want to avoid closed questions which lead someone towards a certain answer, often yes or no. Here are some examples of closed questions:

•

Could health-related education help improve factory working conditions?

•

Is pollution from Factory X a problem?

Even if you have used open questions some participants may need to be encouraged to expand on their responses by asking them ‘Can you say more about that?’ or ‘Can you give an example of what you are talking about?’

3 | EXERCISES FOR THE ONE-DAY WORKSHOP During your One-Day Workshop, you have more freedom in the structure of the event, compared to interviews or focus groups. You will want to begin with the same formalities as an interview or focus group (e.g introducing yourself, giving background information to all participants) but then you can conduct a number of different exercises. Asking pre-prepared questions will still be important in your One-Day Workshop but as it is a long event, you may find more engagement and discussion from your stakeholders if you use a variety of different exercises and activities throughout

the workshop. You could choose to start with an exercise or activity then go into asking set questions, or the other way around. Below are some ideas of exercises you could choose to incorporate into the workshop along with set questions. Yes/No/Maybe A series of quick-fire Yes/No questions (or hands up, hands down) can be a good ice-breaker exercise. It can also help you gauge the initial opinions of your stakeholders. You need to be careful not to choose polarising questions making stakeholders feel uncomfortable. Mentimeter You can use an interactive software such as Mentimeter, which allows you to ask your participants to contribute to polls, word clouds, Q&A’s anonymously through their mobiles and the results can be instantly displayed on a screen in front of them. You will need a projector if you want to put the results on a big screen on the wall for all participants to see. This is a fantastic way to engage your stakeholders whilst making them feel comfortable as the results are anonymous, allowing you to explore some potentially more sensitive topics. However, this requires all participants to have a mobile phone and internet access. Role-playing Separate the group into smaller groups and assign each group a role of a stakeholder - for example, policymakers, NGOs, brands, factory owners, workers and so on. Once assigned a role, give the groups a description of an example scenario (can be made-up) or a set of questions which they have to answer from the opinion of the role they have been assigned. The ‘Go Round’ This is a simple and quick way of getting everyone’s views heard. Write your question up on a flipchart or whiteboard so everyone can see it and go around the group asking each person to speak for up to two minutes about this issue. You can allow people to pass so they don’t feel pressured to talk. ‘Parking space’ This is a good way to ensure that ideas get recorded and no one feels ignored. If anything that isn’t relevant to the current question or discussion comes up you can ‘park’ it by writing it up on a large sheet of paper on the wall. This helps people feel that their voice is being heard. Remember to come back to the ‘parked’ issues!

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

Graphic recording This tool uses pictures, drawings, words and symbols to record and encourage discussion. People obtain 80% of their information visually. While you are encouraging the discussion, an artist will draw on a large sheet of paper or whiteboard anything related to your discussion as it happens. The artist could be a professional, a nominated community representative or assistant. Participants can see what they have heard, allowing them to visualise the issue during the discussion, stimulating participation, creativity and focus. There are plenty of great examples online for you to look at before having a go! You can keep the graphic that was created and use it to help you write up what happened during the discussion. Also, if you use this technique for multiple events, you can compare the results visually. The ‘Problem tree’ and the ‘Solution tree’ The Problem tree is another visual method for understanding the cause and effects of a problem within a group. It is a helpful way to get a variety of perspectives. A Problem tree helps you break down the issue into more manageable chunks and reveals the interconnectedness of causes. You can use the Problem tree to identify who are the stakeholders involved and what are the key policies that need to be changed. You can also have a separate flip chart to record any ideas and thoughts that may be related, such as solutions and concerns.

Please go to Worksheet 5 for a template of a Problem and a Solution tree. 1.

Start by writing down the issue that you want to address in the centre of a large sheet of paper (this is the tree trunk).

Ask your participants what happens as a result of this issue - these are the effects. List these above the main issue (the branches of the tree). You may want to include some related effects coming off the main branches - these are called secondary effects. It’s a good idea to write the effects on post it notes, so they can be moved about later it needed.

Finally ask for people’s thoughts about what causes this issue. These will be placed below the issue (in the roots). Example: If your Problem tree was looking at the overuse of pesticides in the cotton industry, one of the causes might be a lack of education amongst farmers about the negative effects of pesticides or positive effects of reducing pesticides.

4. The next stage is to work with your participants to create a solution tree. A Solution tree works by reversing the negative causes from the Problem tree into positive ones and finding a solution to this. A solution to the above issue could be a public information campaign targeted at farmers to help them better understand the environmental and health impacts of excessive pesticide use. It’s worth remembering to keep the solutions policy-based. This is where your background work on policy mapping will come in very useful.

Top tip: When writing anything on a whiteboard or flipchart, be sure to write very clearly and also read out what you are writing to ensure that everyone understands what is written there.

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

Diagram 3 A problem tree looking at the issue of achieving a living wage.

Gender inequality Harassment and discrimintation

Poor housing

Lack of sustainable development

Secondary Effect

Poor social cohesion

Not much Inability to time outside support family of work Insufficient healthcare

Reduced education

Lower worker morale

Effect

Core Problems

No living wage

Immediate Cause

No unionisation

Price pressure from brands

No domestic regulation Secondary Cause

Consumers unwilling to pay more

Political pressure to keep businesses competitive

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

Diagram 4 A solution tree looking at the issue of achieving a living wage.

Strong unions

Reduced price and time pressure from brands

Domestic regulation

Means

Core Solution

Living wage

Immediate Effects Good morale

Free time outside of work

Better education

Healthier citizens

Better housing

Improved family support Sustainable development Reduced discrimination

Better social cohesion

Reduced inequality

Secondary Effects

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

Top Tips for structuring your workshop: •

How you structure your workshop will depend upon the size of the group you have and how long your workshop is. A half day event is ideal as it offers quite a substantial amount of time for discussion, whilst allowing people time to return to their workplace/life for the other half of the day.

•

If you have a large group (over 20 participants) it’s worth breaking into sub-groups at a later stage of the workshop to brainstorm solutions to some of the problems raised earlier in the day. These subgroups should then present findings to the wider group.

•

The workshop is also an opportunity to feedback information from any focus groups or interviews you have already held. You may also want to share the information you have gathered during your mapping exercises with all the stakeholders present.

•

Highlight how addressing this issue will have a positive impact on the stakeholders. This will remind them about why they should remain engaged and help ensure their active participation in the workshop.

•

Don’t forget to give participants a refreshment break during the event. This also acts as an ideal networking opportunity enabling stakeholders to develop connections.

•

A Speakers’ List is a useful way to ensure that everyone who wishes to speak gets a chance. As people raise their hand to speak, ask your workshop helper to note down the order then invite them to speak in that order.

•

When groups of people come together, some participants may dominate the conversation. It is your role as the moderator to reign them in to give others space. Do not be afraid to remind participants about the principles you outlined earlier. You could also suggest that participants write down a few thoughts in response to a question or send it to a group Padlet (https://engb.padlet.com/) before the group discusses it together.

•

You should encourage all participants to express their perspective by asking, ‘Does anyone have a different view?’

•

Listen out for inconsistent comments and follow them up for a deeper understanding.

•

Be aware of the cultural and historical background of your participants. For example, some women may not feel confident talking in front of men. If you sense this is the case, you can break into sub-groups, such as a female-only subgroup where they can discuss a chosen issue and report back to the wider groups. Similarly, you also need to think about whether there are historic power imbalances in the issue you are tackling or in the geographical region. Again, sub-groups can be a useful way of offering a space for people to open up during your workshop event.

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

4 | DOCUMENTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE There are various ways of documenting each format you choose for your Policy Dialogue. Written: Note-taking is a useful way of documenting the discussion. If you don’t have a chance to write notes, ask a friend or colleague to do so. Be sure to document who says what, you can do this by writing someone’s initials next to the opinion being voiced. Writing on whiteboards and flip charts is helpful to keep track during a discussion. It may be useful to note participants’ tone of voice and body language as this can reveal a lot about how they feel. Don’t forget to go over your notes soon after the event. If anything is unclear, then don’t be afraid to follow up with your stakeholders afterward. Film: Filming is a good way to document your research. Not only does it give you a chance to listen and look at discussions again, but it can be used to create short films. Filming also allows you to replay the event to look at people’s body language and note who is communicating. If you feel that someone’s opinion wasn’t being heard, you could arrange to meet them again or have a call. It’s worth remembering that some people may be intimidated by a camera, especially in one-to-one interviews. Be sure that they have signed a consent form before filming, see Appendix 8 for details on this. Photographic: Photographs can provide powerful imagery that can be used online, in documents or in an exhibition. For example, whilst doing a ‘walk-about’ you could take photos of areas affected by the issue. Images of people are important as they can help us connect with a problem. Again, be sure that you have consent before taking photos, see Appendix 8 for full details on this. Voice recording: This is useful for one-to-one interviews as it allows you to focus on your interviewee and not on taking written notes. You may be able to play short snippets of these recordings at your workshop to share the voice of anyone who wished to remain anonymous. You could also compile them together to make a podcast on the issue. Remember to get their consent.

EXERCISE I DOCUMENTING YOUR LEARNINGS Documenting your stakeholders’ opinions clearly and precisely as you go through your Policy Dialogue will help you spot areas of consensus and disagreement and will be useful to you when you are ready to start writing up the outcomes and analysis of your Policy Dialogue. 1.

Write down each question you asked your stakeholders

Below each question mark down any opinions and information you have gathered, along with a note of who they can be attributed to.

Add to this document after each interview/focus group and finally after the workshop. Ideally you will end up with a list of various different opinions about each question

4. Also note down any ideas you had during the events and any issues not directly related to the core questions Follow up any uncertainties or areas you might like to explore further with your stakeholders.

CONDUCTING THE POLICY DIALOGUE

5 | HOW TO DEAL WITH CONFLICT

6 | WRAPPING UP THE EVENT

It is likely that there will be an element of conflict during your Policy Dialogue; when people with differing opinions and perspectives come together, they might clash. This is not something to be afraid of, but it is important to learn how to deal with it.

This is an opportunity to make sure you have noted most of the key points and that participants feel valued and informed

Anger is often a sign that someone is upset. It’s normal to want to react to anger with anger, but this closes down communication. Instead, see if you can stay calm and listen to what is making them angry. Responding with compassion and empathy shows you have been listening and can make it a more positive experience for both parties. You may experience anger between participants. In this situation it’s important to remind your participants that you are ultimately looking for a solution that will benefit everyone. You can always pause the discussion to allow people time to cool down.

Top tip:

Use the notes you or your assistant have taken throughout the session and summarise the main points of views and any recommendations and outcomes you have developed.

You can also go around the group and revisit the expectations that people listed at the beginning of the meeting and whether they have been addressed.

Explain the next steps, including: how long it will take you to develop your recommendations, any further input you may need from participants, any social media related activities, what you plan to do with any information and visuals shared.

4. Ask participants to fill in an evaluation questionnaire. This is an important way of getting feedback on the session and also an opportunity for people to express things they may not have wanted to say during the session (see Appendix 10 for a sample evaluation form).

The Talking Stick exercise is a useful way of preventing people from interrupting one another. Participants take a stick (or any other object) and only the person holding the stick is allowed to speak. This gives people time to express their views without interruption.

CHECK-IN POINT

POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES

1 | WRITING UP THE OUTCOMES AND ANALYSIS OF THE POLICY DIALOGUE Make sure that you write up notes from each session as soon as you can after the event. Clearly label all documents and recordings and store them in an organised manner on your computer. If you have time right after your workshop, ask your assistant if they have time to discuss the key findings, ideas and solutions from the event.

EXERCISE J DOCUMENTING YOUR LEARNINGS Compare and contrast results of different stakeholders in the one-day workshop. You will use these findings to support your policy recommendations.

Within a few days after the final workshop find some time to bring together all the information you have gathered from your one-to-one interviews, ‘walk-abouts’, focus groups and workshop. Listen to tapes, watch films and read all the notes you have made. You should do this soon after the workshop while it is still fresh in your memory.

Write down common themes and solutions that came up in your interviews, focus groups and workshop.

For each of the topics and solutions which came up in the workshop.

Describe the views of each stakeholder group you have involved, where they agreed and disagreed, trying to use quotes and information you have gathered to support as many points as possible.

After going through all of your information gathered, you should think about the following:

•

What was learned about the issue?

•

What’s already in place? Is it working? How can it be strengthened?

•

Who’s involved?

•

What’s not working?

•

What are the main obstacles towards tackling this issue?

•

What can be done to overcome these obstacles? What sort of new policies or legislation could be introduced to tackle the issue? Are there existing policies which need to be better implemented or strengthened?

CHECK-IN POINT

POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES

2 | DEVELOPING POLICY RECOMMENDATIONS This is where you will use all the information you have gathered throughout this toolkit to write a short paper with 3-10 policy recommendations. You will need to separate your report into a few main sections:

Analysis/Discussion

•

Title

•

The title should be simple and easy to understand.

Acknowledgements

•

Make sure you thank all the people that have helped you, including all the stakeholders involved, even if you can’t name them personally.

Summary

•

You should save writing your summary until the very end. In a summary, you want to briefly include some of the key points of your paper, including a couple of key recommendations. Some policymakers are very busy and may often only read the summary of your paper. Make sure it captures their attention and makes them want to read more! Try to avoid complicated language, you want them to easily understand your issue and your findings.

• • •

Policy recommendations

•

Introduction

•

It’s often easiest to start with your introduction. You will need to use the relevant information from your desk-based research (this includes the stakeholder, industry and policy mappings you have done) to highlight why your chosen issue is important in your region or country and who it affects. By the end of your introduction, you would want someone who knows very little about the issue to understand the issue and the stakeholders. Write it using language that a 12 year old would be able to understand. This may be where you include some personal stories from your stakeholders about how the issue has impacted them.

•

• •

•

Methods

•

You will need a very brief section on how you gathered your findings. You need to show that your research was conducted in a credible way and that you interacted with the stakeholders first hand. Sometimes this section is included after policy recommendations, but it is personal preference.

This is where your findings from interviews, focus groups and the workshop(s) will come together. Look at your work for Exercises I and J where you compared stakeholders opinions - you can use this as a draft for your discussion. Remember to support each key point you make with information or quotes from your stakeholders, as well as statistics and references from your desk-based research where possible. Mention any gaps in policy you found during your policy mapping, backed up with any views of stakeholders. Mention any key locations/areas that policy should focus on based on your industry mapping and talking to your stakeholders. This section is the place to include any other information which supports the policy recommendations.

•

This is where you lay out potential solutions based upon your desk-based research and engagement with stakeholders through interviews, focus-groups and the workshop. You can have anywhere from 2-10 solutions, depending on how detailed they are. Be sure to support your recommendations with evidence from your stakeholders. This will make your policy recommendations stronger and more appealing to policymakers. If there is policy in place but it’s not working well, suggest how it can be made more effective. You should support this with information gathered from your desk-based research and interviews, focus groups and the workshop. Identify who should be involved in implementing these recommendations, such as key NGOs or industry bodies. Policymakers like seeing how things work in reality. If possible give some examples of how policy is working to address this issue elsewhere, either in a different sector or another country/region. Recommendations should be cost-neutral where possible or demonstrate that they are economically feasible i.e. while money needs to be spent now, it will save large amounts of public expenditure in the future. Try to show that you have thought about the costs and the pros and cons of each policy. Show how your recommendations tie into existing areas of policy focus. For example, how can they help support the Sustainable Development Goals or other international policies? This can be a useful way of getting buy-in from policymakers.

POST-EVENT ACTIVITIES

How long should this paper be? This largely depends on who you are targeting your report towards. If you are aiming to place this report on policymakers’ desks, you want to keep it short (between 2-6 pages) or write a larger report and then write a 2-6 page summary for policymakers. If you also wish to release this publicly to raise awareness around the issue with consumers, other NGOs, press etc, then you might want to consider writing a longer report but keeping a summary for policymakers. Take a look at other similar policy papers to get an idea of the length of the overall document and the length of each section or chapter. Examples of good policy recommendation papers and other ways of communicating solutions which represent the voices of civil society.

•

Fashion Revolution Philippines’ policy dialogue report on the topic of importation of second hand clothing in the Philippines. https://issuu.com/ fashionrevolution/docs/policy-paper-1_philippines_ apr2019

•

Fashion Revolution India’s policy dialogue report exploring gender equity and its impact on sustainability in cotton farming in India. https:// issuu.com/fashionrevolution/docs/gender_equity_ cotton_farming_policy_pilot_fr_bc

Top tips on how to make sure your recommendations have an impact:

•

The person reading your paper is not likely to know much about your chosen topic, make sure to explain the issue and its background very clearly and simply..

•

Showing evidence and stories about the people most affected by the issue is a great way to get policymakers’ attention.

•

As we’ve already said, starting with a relatively small policy can make change easier to achieve.

•

Show that you have taken a wide range of views into account and developed a solution based on these views.

•

Oxfam’s recent report on supermarket supply chains uses participatory methods to address issues including women’s empowerment and living wages. https://policy-practice.oxfam.org.uk/publications/ ripe-for-change-ending-human-suffering-insupermarket-supply-chains-620418

•

CARE International’s story about Maly, a line leader at a garment factory in Cambodia, shows the benefits of contraception and maternal health education in a visual way. https://www.care-international.org/news/ stories-blogs/malys-story-keeping-mothers-andbabies-healthy-in-cambodia

•

Restless Development supports young people to meaningfully participate in global decision-making and policy-creation processes. One aspect of this work centres around The Big Conversation. This informationcollecting exercise gathered 5000 submissions from across 64 countries from rural villages to online platforms. The findings were brought together into a report to highlight key issues young people are facing and ways to address these. http://restlessdevelopment.org/ file/big-conversation-findings-youth-strategy-team-pdf

•

Girl Effect trains young women living within communities to become Technology Enabled Girl Ambassadors (TEGAs). These insights have been used by various organisations to develop better designed more targeted programmes. https://www.girleffect.org/ what-we-do/mobile-platforms/tega/

•

Include any interesting photos and visuals you have gathered.

•

Your recommendations must be solution driven. Many policymakers are aware of the problem, but you need to show that you have some potential solutions to help them.

•

Show positive examples of how other countries have addressed similar issues and how policy change has led to benefits for stakeholders.

•

It’s up to you how much input you want from other stakeholders during this stage. You may have identified some well-informed NGOs from whom you could get feedback. The important thing to remember is that the less biased your report is, the more appealing it will be to policymakers. Having two or more people, including stakeholders with different perspectives, read your paper will help reduce bias.

CHECK-IN POINT

WHAT’S NEXT?

1 | COMMUNICATING YOUR FINDINGS Now you’ve done all the hard work bringing together stakeholders to develop your policy recommendations paper, it’s time to get your message out there! There are many ways to get your voice heard. This is your chance to be creative to get people’s attention about the issue and your research.

Approach local press and media: It is important to think about why they would want to run your story. The report on its own is unlikely to get their attention, but if you can tell a news story around your issue whilst including key elements from the Policy Dialogue then journalists will be more interested. You can write and send out a press release and/or hold a press briefing with a panel discussion around the topic and your findings to engage the media.

Sharing with stakeholders: The first thing you should do is share the findings with your stakeholders and check that they are happy with all the content. Then you can ask them to send the paper to their networks as this will help to amplify your message. You may want to print some copies to give to stakeholders if they don’t have online access. Direct outreach to policymakers: If you didn’t get the opportunity to meet with some of the decision makers you identified during your mapping process, sharing your findings is an ideal opportunity to engage with them e.g. policymakers, fashion brands and other influencers. Be sure to identify the correct person to contact - often people within the CSR or sustainability section of a company will be most interested in the report. Before contacting any policymakers and politicians, have a look at their voting record and only choose those who have previously shown to care about social or environmental issues. Otherwise it could be a waste of time. Also, before contacting them, check the parliament recess dates, you don’t want to contact them when they are not in their office.

Identify windows of opportunity: Find a hook to draw attention to your findings, such as promoting on a relevant day in the calendar like World Oceans Day or International Women’s Day.

Write a blog: This is a chance to document any interesting experiences you have had during the Policy Dialogue as well as outlining the outcomes. You may want to share unexpected learnings, such as the power of positive thinking in developing solutions to an issue, or how to deal with conflict in a group. Sharing the stories you have heard is a powerful way to communicate the issue, but remember that if you haven’t obtained permission you can’t name individuals or their organisation.

You could create a social media campaign with the aim of educating consumers around the topic you chose, through a series of images, videos and discussions. You could create a template encouraging citizens to write an email or postcard to their local policymaker about the topic, encouraging them to read the policy recommendations and make a change. Through galvanising the consumers, it can place pressure on policymakers to make a change.

Visuals: If the issue can be shown in a very visual way, such as pollution, you may want to organise an exhibition of photographs, or you could use video footage to create a short film which you can share via social media. Further events: If you have some remaining time and budget, you may want to host an event for policymakers. Events which are easily accessible for policymakers are a good idea, such as a breakfast event at their government offices, as they will already be there and offering them breakfast gives them an incentive to come. Social media: Use your social media accounts on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook to share the findings. Pictures speak a thousand words, so share some images and footage from the events if possible.

YOU ARE A REVOLUTIONARY

WHAT’S NEXT

FEELING UNSTOPPABLE? Don’t underestimate the value of what you have done. At Fashion Revolution we are aware of the lack of localised information about the fashion industry across the world. We need information from people on the ground in countries to help inform local, national and international policy. It is YOUR voice that counts.

“somewhere inside all of us is the power to change the world.” ROALD DAHL

You don’t have to stop now. You may want to use the information gathered during the Policy Dialogue to develop practical documents which can be of use. These might include Code of Conduct recommendations and procedures to be implemented for the stakeholders who are the cause of any problems being addressed (brands and factories etc.); documents showing examples of best practice and implementation guidelines; or even a Manifesto on the topic. Just because the Policy Dialogue is over doesn’t mean you can’t continue to work with your stakeholders. Now you have made these connections, you may both be able to help each other further in the future. Why not set up an email chain or WhatsApp group with stakeholders which were most involved to discuss future collaborative possibilities?

THANKYOU Thank you for the effort you have put into the Policy Dialogue. Fashion Revolution is built by Fashion Revolutionaries like you! Your commitment and drive to create a fashion industry that values people, the environment and creativity in equal measure inspires us all. We can’t wait to learn more about your local fashion industry and how we can involve the people who make our clothes to turn fashion into a force for good.

APPENDICES 57

APPENDIX 1 Ideas for policy dialogue topic

APPENDIX 10: Evaluation form template

APPENDIX 2 Definitions

APPENDIX 11: Fashion Revolution Contacts

APPENDIX 3 MOU

WORKSHEET 1: How to do a SMART analysis

APPENDIX 4 Project Management Tools

WORKSHEET 2: Team Evaluation Matrix template

APPENDIX 5 Budget Management

WORKSHEET 3: How to mindmap your stakeholders

WORKSHEET 4: Example Power vs Interest matrix

WORKSHEET 5: Example problem and solution tree

APPENDIX 6 Letter Template APPENDIX 7 Example policies and useful databases for policy mapping

APPENDIX 8 Consent Form template

APPENDIX 9: Participant information sheet template

APPENDICIES

APPENDIX 1 | IDEAS FOR TOPICS Governance

Biodiversity

•

Is there a problem with bribery or corruption in garment factories or in fashion businesses in your country?

•

Are you worried about illegal deforestation to fuel demand for wood derived textiles such as viscose?

•

With factories based thousands of miles away and work being sub-contracted out it can be extremely difficult for a business to ensure total compliance. What incentives could governments introduce to encourage local manufacturing?

How can biodiversity be maintained in areas where textile crops are being crops? Could a sustainable use protected area be created? Are there any subsidies for agri-environmental schemes that could be put in place to enhance biodiversity?

•

Is the textile and leather industry in your country linked to deforestation? Do your government’s climate change policies effectively prevent primary forests from being destroyed?

•

How might biodiversity policies and management practices of raw material suppliers be modified to accommodate climate change?

•

What impact is biodiversity-friendly agriculture, i.e. organic schemes, having in your country and what policies could encourage further adoption?

Environmental •

Is your country at risk from a shortage of fresh water? Could factories and brands do more to minimise water usage. Do policies need to be introduced or strengthened to ensure fresh water is prioritised for local communities rather than for irrigating agricultural crops destined for the textile industry?

•

Do you know of water pollution and/or effluent releases from processing facilities (dyeing, tanning, etc.)

•

Are citizens in your country concerned about the environmental and potential health impact of microfibres? Could you look at recommendations for policy change around washing machine standards and waste treatment plants to prevent microfibre release into the environment?

•

Do consumers in your country care about the use of fur and the treatment of animals in garment and accessories manufacturing? Is there a demand for sustainable fur production or a movement towards banning fur?

•

What incentives can the government (national or local) put in place to reduce energy consumption and move towards renewables in textile and garment manufacturing facilities? Are renewable energy sources available for machinery and vehicles involved in harvesting or transportation?

•

Is there concern around GM crops used for textile production and are these on the increase? Should policies be in place to reduce the influence of GM and pesticide corporations?

Chemicals •

Should your government restrict the use of certain chemicals in manufacturing?

•

Is pesticide use increasing or is there a movement towards organic?

•

Do the chemicals used impact the health of farmers or garment workers?

•

Are chemicals having an impact on the marine environment? Could policies be put in place or reinforced to prevent chemical release into waterways?

•

Are there issues around the illegal or improper disposal of chemicals? Can you encourage polluter-pays policies or reinforce current legislation to ensure compliance?

APPENDICIES

Waste and Recycling •

Does your country receive too much secondhand clothing? Is a law needed such as the one in Rwanda to ban the import of second-hand clothing and what would the consequences be on the local economy and on local people’s ability to buy new clothing at an affordable price?

•

What happens to the textile waste from garment factories in your country? Is it landfilled or incinerated? What policies should be put in place to ensure pre-consumer textile waste goes into a circular system?

•

What about non-textile waste – coat hangers, plastic bags, etc.?

80% OF ALL CLOTHING ENDS UP IN INCINERATORS OR LANDFILL ONLY 20% IS RECYCLED.

•

Do women suffer from discrimination, unfair dismissal when pregnant or are they unable to exercise their right to maternity leave?

•

Are there problems with foreign or migrant workers being exploited or discriminated against?

•

Does government policy strengthen or hinder the operation of unions in your country? Is there a lack of unionisation or are the unions ineffective? Is collective bargaining in place and is it effective? Are union leaders regularly intimidated and does there need to be new/stronger policies to address this and allow them to speak and operate freely?

•

Is forced labour or bonded labour widespread in your country? Is an effective ban likely to happen or would increasing pressure on brands to address the issues and educating consumers (i.e. Uzbekistan, Sumangali) be more effective? Is there any interest amongst policymakers for a new law like the UK’s Modern Slavery Act (https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/ modern-slavery-bill) to address this issue?

Working conditions •

Are there significant health and safety issues in garment factories in your country? What about in the processing facilities, or health issues facing cotton farmers?

•

Is legislation around holidays, working hours and rest breaks regularly ignored due to pressure to fulfil orders? Can compliance be incentivised, training provided or laws strengthened to decrease the risk of workplace accidents resulting from excessive working hours?

2018

Workers’ rights •

How far is the legal minimum wage away from a living wage? Do workers even receive a minimum wage? What are the real and perceived barriers to increasing the minimum wage in your country?

•

Are there problems with sexual harassment or abuse in the garment sector?

•

How can policies address women’s empowerment or gender equality? (e.g. new UK law on gender pay gap. https://www.gov.uk/government/news/ gender-pay-gap-reporting)

Supply chain transparency •

Is there any legislation that requires companies to publicly report on human rights, social or environmental issues?

•

Can you explore the potential for due diligence legislation to make companies more responsible for their impact on human rights and the environment (see section 2C on policy mapping for examples of legislation which is driving due diligence)

•

Are companies required or could they be required to disclose who their suppliers are?

APPENDICIES

International Trade laws

Creative businesses

•

Would you like to learn more about how import/ export laws and trade deals may affect your fashion industry?

•

How does intellectual property law affect fashion design? Does it help or hurt designers and brands?

•

Would it be feasible to give preferential tariffs to goods that are sustainably produced/fair trade? Do artisanally produced handicrafts from your country benefit from very low or zero rate import tariffs into the EU or US? If not, what are the barriers around Rules of Origin for including handicraft products from your country in the Generalized System of Preferences? http://trade.ec.europa.eu/doclib/ docs/2013/may/tradoc_151175.pdf

•

Is there enough support from the government for creative industries?

•

How can the Government reinvest into the textiles industry and encourage designers to rebuild such creativity and production in the industry while nurturing raw talent?

•

Is education about sustainability lacking in the fashion industry, can the government do more to support this?

•

Could the government support tax breaks for sustainable businesses?

•

Which were most involved to discuss future collaborative possibilities?

Indigenous rights and artisan crafts •

Could you explore domestic laws and protection for indigenous peoples’ culture and crafts?

•

Are any traditional skills potentially able to be recognised by UNESCO as intangible cultural heritage and what process is needed for this to happen? (may be a push to include as policy but it does need government agreement I assume)

•

If cultural appropriation is a problem artisans are facing in your country, how could policy change strengthen their cultural and intellectual property rights? https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/maasaishould-fight-against-cultural-appropriationluxury-joy-mutimba/ Could a law be implemented like the Navajo Nation’s Indian Arts and Crafts Enforcement Act of 2010? https://www.doi.gov/ocl/indian-arts-crafts-0

•

How can you promote small artisan businesses in the fashion sector?

•

What about the impact of wood pulp production on forests and the indigenous people who live in them?

•

Could you encourage the creation of a sustainable use protected area or a community-based protected area to enable indigenous rights to be upheld and minimise environmental impact?

APPENDIX 2 | DEFINITIONS Policy: A policy is a set of ideas or plan set by a governmental organisation about what it is going to do about an issue and what it can achieve. Law: Laws are set standards, principles, and procedures set by a government. Laws are generally enforced. Legislation: A law or a set of laws. Regulations: A law which controls companies or systems. For example, managing the amount of fossil fuels a company can use. Guidelines: A recommendation set by a company or government. Not legally binding or enforced. Stakeholder: Any individual or organisation with a tie to the topic. Implementation: Putting a policy or plan into action or practice. Due diligence: A company taking reasonable steps to ensure that they comply with (follow) laws. Compliance: Meeting the requirements of a certain law, policy or regulation International agreements (also called treaties, agreements, protocols or conventions): International laws between countries or international organisations.

APPENDICIES

Intergovernmental organisation (IGO): An organisation made up of a group of countries. Often used to solve problems that need international collaboration, e.g. the UN and the World Bank. Non-governmental organisation (NGO): a non-profit organisation that is independent to governments. Often, they aim to tackle social, political or environmental issues. Advocacy: Public support for a particular cause or policy recommendations. System Action Research (SAR): SAR focuses on the relationships and interconnections between stakeholders and the issue. By changing one small thing which seemingly is only affecting one stakeholder, this may have dramatic effects on others too.

APPENDIX 3 | MOU Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Please find downloadable version here

APPENDIX 4 | PROJECT MANAGEMENT TOOLS These are examples of simple Excel and table-based critical path templates, where the timeline is managed weekly. Team members assigned

June

July

Aug

Week 1

Week 2

Week 3

Week 4

Week 5

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

Week 9

Week 10

British Council x FR Policy Toolkit Team Evaluation Budget Review Choosing Topic Stakeholder Mapping Topic Research

Participatory Action Research (PAR): A type of research where the people most affected by the issue are involved in the research trying to solve it. Each person involved brings knowledge and expertise that is unique to that individual. Any research conducted must incorporate actions toward social change.

Policy Mapping Planning your discussions/interviews/focus groups/ walkabouts with stakholders Conducting your discussions/interviews/focus groups/ walkabouts with stakholders

Month

Deliverable

Responsible

Involved

Fri 3rd

May

Fri 10th Mon 13th Tue 28th Fri 7th

June

Some examples of PAR are below are:

Deadline

Tue 18th Wed 19th

July

Fri 26th Wed 14th

Girl Effect https://www.girleffect.org/what-we-do/ our-approach/. Uses mobile platforms to empower and educate girls across the world Indigenous People’s Experiences, Feelings, Anger and Hope: Reflections from Mexico http://www.xoc.uam.mx/ This programme works with community-based organisations and NGOs across the poorest regions of Mexico to collaborate with indigenous people to plan for alternatives to development. We Can Also Make Change https://www.sightsavers.org/ wp-content/uploads/2017/09/VOTM-Summary_WEB.pdf This project worked with numerous national and international organisations to identify the problems with exclusion of people with disabilities, older people and people with mental health issues in Bangladesh. It involved research and action to explore those issues.

August

Thu 22nd Fri 23rd

You can find editable and downloadable versions of the critical paths here.

APPENDICIES

APPENDIX 5 | BUDGET MANAGEMENT

•

Ensure that the budget directly links to your project plan and critical path. If these documents are not in line then you will certainly encounter issues later.

•

The purpose of a budget is to give your team a direction. A budget will highlight when you need to make changes to the project and what you can afford to change. Keep it simple!

1 | Guidelines & processes Having clear financial guidelines and processes will help you and your team to manage resources effectively, and reduce the risk of any unexpected over or under spends. It is important that all team members understand the processes and the expectations of them. Examples of financial management processes include:

•

Clear roles and responsibilities - who is responsible for the following elements: budget and expenditure approval, budget oversight, review of expenditure, documentation of expenditure, preparation of reports. Clarify which team member(s) are able to approve project expenses. All team members should also know what they can spend project funds on, and how much. All costs above £500 amount must be signed off by the project manager.

•

Staff expenses procedure - expenses submitted on a monthly basis (within 10 days of month end).

•

Invoice payment procedure - to be paid within 30 days of receipt (unless otherwise specified).

•

A financial report is produced and reviewed on a monthly basis in order to assess project progress and inform discussions around any changes that need to take place.

2 | Project Budget Developing a budget: Start with the activities you want to do, then break this down into the resources or items that you will need to complete each activity, e.g. staff time, room hire, travel, refreshments, etc.

Here is a simple budget template example: Item

Unit

Cost per unit

Quantity

Country Coordinator

Per day

Staff Contributions

Per day

Staff 1

Per day

Staff 2

Per day

Total

Event costs

Per event

Venue hire

Per event

2500

Catering

Per event

300

Comment Policy research, agenda devlopment,

logistics, event coordination

Total

Contact the global team if you have any questions or would like support with your budget.

3 | Spending plan Once you have your budget developed, it can be helpful to expand it to include your spending plan. This will help you to anticipate certain costs, identify costs that are delayed, and to make adjustments to your budget during the project period. For each item in your budget add columns for each month of the project period and include how much you anticipate spending of the total budget line for each month. Here is an example: Item

Total

Jun

Jul

Aug

$500

100

300

Comment

e.g. Staff 1 will be involved in this activity Staff 1

from start to finish. The activity should require 5 days of their time and they will recieve $100 per day. We anticipate to hire 10 room during

Venue hire

$1,500

300

1000

200

the course of the project at approx $150 per room

For each item you need to know: the unit (how the item is measured), unit cost (cost of one unit only), quantity (number of units required), total cost (unit cost x quantity), comment (your assumptions and calculations, which will be really useful to refer to later). Budget Tips:

•

Keep your budget simple, don’t let it get more complicated than it needs to be.

•

Involve others in the process. Different team members have different knowledge and expertise that can help ensure the budget is accurate.

APPENDICIES

4 | Expenditure tracking Expenditure tracking does not need to be complicated, it can be done in an excel spreadsheet and one person should be responsible. Ask the global team for a template if needed. At a minimum, tracking should include all expenditure that has been incurred and paid for. Other items that can be useful to track also include:

•

Expenditure incurred and not paid for (e.g. invoices received but not paid)

•

Significant expenditure planned/upcoming (e.g. upcoming room bookings and event costs. This should link to your budget spending plan.)

Expenditure tracking should also be shared and discussed on a regular basis.

5 | Budget versus actual (BvA) monitoring As part of monitoring the progress of your project it is important to review how your project expenditure compares against your budget and spending plan. The main questions we want to answer during the monthly review are:

•

How are we doing compared to the budget? How does our current actual expenditure compare to what was planned?

•

What position are we in? Are there major differences?

•

What needs to happen now? Do we need to make changes in our budget, our spending plan, or our project plan?

•

What are we learning about our budgeting and expenditure that we can apply?

BvA Tips:

•

Review of project expenditure and comparison with the project budget has the best benefits if done on a monthly basis. The budget holder should review expenditure each month, and meet with the finance focal point to discuss progress and update the team as necessary. Review transaction lists to understand where any difference is coming from. E.g., cost of rooms is higher than expected, team changeover meant lower team costs this month.

•

Make the trade-offs where necessary, because you have a finite amount of resources available to you. If you must spend money on something you didn’t budget for, then decide what expense can be removed in order to finance the new item.

•

Keep your monthly forecasts updated on a monthly basis. This will help you keep on top of changes and upcoming expenditure.

•

If budget changes of more than £500 need to be made then notify the global team, who can support if needed.

APPENDIX 6 | LETTER TEMPLATE Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) Available to download as an editable word document here

APPENDIX 7 | RESOURCES AND EXAMPLES FOR POLICY MAPPING International policy Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Agreed in 2015 the SDGs are a collection of 17 goals to be achieved by 2030. They highlight many issues relevant to the fashion industry including: no poverty; gender equality; decent work and economic growth; industry, innovation and infrastructure; reduced inequalities; responsible production and consumption; climate action; life below water; and life on land. You can find a full list of the goals here. https:// sustainabledevelopment.un.org/?menu=1300 Although aspirational, the SDGs have had a powerful impact on the way development is funded and prioritised. Understanding and outlining how your Policy Dialogue fits into the SDGs will make it more robust and may help to engage policy makers. Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action for Human Rights https://www.ohchr.org/en/ professionalinterest/pages/vienna.aspx Adopted in 1993 it acted as a catalyst for change in human rights and influenced many key movements. It also acted as a springboard for other international treaties and led to the creation of the UN core values of universal human rights. However, there was a lack of implementation from countries as there were no legally binding requirements making it difficult to enforce and develop accountability.

APPENDICIES

International Labour Organisation (ILO) https://www.ilo. org/global/lang--en/index.html The ILO “brings together governments, employers and workers...to set labour standards, develop policies and devise programmes promoting decent work for all women and men.” 1 Its website has resources covering a range of labour issues including: freedom of association, indigenous and tribal peoples, collective bargaining, equality and discrimination and sustainable entreprises. United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) Paris Agreement https://unfccc.int/ process-and-meetings/the-paris-agreement/the-parisagreement The 2015 UNFCCC Paris agreement succeeds the expired Kyoto Protocol. It differs from its predecessor in that it does not set legally binding emission reduction targets for developed countries to adhere to. There is legitimate concern that allowing countries to set their own emission reduction targets will not achieve the necessary cuts requires to keep global warming to less than 2°C preindustrial temperature averages. However the Paris Agreement made significant progress in encouraging developing countries to adopt national goals. For example China has committed to peak its carbon dioxide emissions by 2030. This has been rated as “highly insufficient” by the Climate Action Tracker. 2 You can track each countries’ national pledge here https:// climateactiontracker.org/countries/ Despite their numerous flaws both the Kyoto Protocol and the Paris Agreement have given business a vision of the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and in certains parts of the world have helped spur a greener economy. Convention on Biodiversity (CBD) - Nagoya protocol and Aichi targets https://www.cbd.int/convention/articles/ default.shtml?a=cbd-01 Simply explained here: https://www.youtube.com/ watch?v=0FdKu_YHTfE The CBD has been effective in bringing global political attention to environmental issues, enabling the development of the Nagoya Protocol and recognising the role of women and indigenous communities and setting standards for sustainable development. In addition, developing countries had a powerful negotiating voice as they contain 4/5 of world’s biodiversity.

The Nagoya Protocol objectives are: the conservation of biological diversity, the sustainable use of its components and the fair and equitable sharing of the benefits arising from the use of genetic resources. Many of the historical targets set by the CBD, such as the Aichi targets to minimise biodiversity loss at a global scale, are highly ambitious and therefore, it is unlikely we will meet them. However there are lots of regional successes. For example, New Zealand is working with its indigenous Māori community, through co-governance, to carry out ambitious programmes aimed at preserving biodiversity by removing non-native predators and plants threatening native species. However, reaching the Aichi and Nagoya targets requires far more funding then has currently been provisioned in some countries. Additionally, national plans for CBD have been criticised for lacking integration with other governmental sectors, causing implementation issues. European Transfrontier Shipment of Waste Regulation https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/ PDF/?uri=CELEX:02006R1013-20180101&rid=1 This regulation covers exports of waste, including waste textiles, from the European Union (EU). Waste textile exports to non-EU or non-Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries are allowed but have to be accompanied by a contract in which the exporter agrees to take back the shipment is the country of import doesn’t want it. Second hand clothing is not subject to these controls.

Due Diligence policies Due diligence is an increasingly important part of global legislation affecting the garment industry. It has the potential to be game changing as some policies require brands to take responsibility for what takes place within their supply chain. These laws are relevant to garment producing countries, as this is where the supply chain begins. Connecting the dots between problems in garment production and the brands associated with these problems can help leverage policy change aimed at tackling these issues.

1 2

https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/lang--en/index.htm https://climateactiontracker.org/countries/china/

APPENDICIES

OECD Due Diligence Guidelines for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector http:// mneguidelines.oecd.org/OECD-Due-Diligence-GuidanceGarment-Footwear.pdf This comprehensive set of guidelines provide in-depth and practical due diligence guidance on issues such as: child labour; sexual harassment; working time; occupational health and safety; greenhouse gas emissions and water use. Whilst not legally binding the guidance reflects the position of OECD Member States and any other countries adhering to the guidelines. The OECD currently has 36 Member States, mostly made up of advance counties however some emerging economies such as Chile, Mexico and Turkey are also members. You can find a list of OECD member states here http://www. oecd.org/about/membersandpartners/ What makes these guidelines particularly relevant is that they call for companies to “seek to prevent or mitigate an adverse impact where they have not contributed to that impact, when the impact is nevertheless directly linked to their operations, products or services by a business relationship.” (OECD Guidelines, II, A12)3 Whilst this is not intended to shift responsibility from the direct cause of the problem it does ask fashion brands to address problems within their supply chain. French Duty of Vigilance Law In February 2017 the French National Assembly adopted a law establishing a “duty of vigilance” for large multinational firms carrying out all or part of their activity in France. Whilst it is a national policy, it affects international brands. Any company headquartered in France with over 5,000 employees or company active in France but headquartered elsewhere with over 10,000 employees must adhere to it. The law requires companies to publish a publically available plan to reduce environmental impacts and avoid human rights violations within their chain of production, including their sub-contractors and companies within their control. Companies must also show how the plan is being implemented each year.

Regional policy California Transparency in Supply Chains Act https:// oag.ca.gov/SB657 This Act requires large retailers and manufacturers doing business in California to disclose “efforts to eradicate slavery and human trafficking from [their] direct supply

chain for tangible goods offered for sale.” The law applies to any company doing business in California that has annual worldwide gross receipts of more than $100 million and that identifies itself as a retail seller or manufacturer on its California tax return. However, whilst this provides transparency, companies just have to show their efforts, if any, and this doesn’t require them to meet a certain standard.

Cross-industrial agreements https://www.aise.eu/documents/ document/20180116153055-cross_industry_agreement_ prevention_of_microplastic_release_into_aquatic_ environment_during_washing_of_synthetic_ textiles_13jan2018.pdf Agreements endorsed by the European Commision in December 2017 are currently being put in place between apparel brands Berghaus, Adidas and Arc’Teryx, detergent manufacturers and associations to tackle microfibre pollution. Whilst there are no legal requirements, it’s a way for industry members to share knowledge and promote research to find solutions to the releasing of microplastics.

Databases for researching National policy and legislation NATLEX https://www.ilo.org/dyn/natlex/natlex4.home?p_ lang=en NATLEX is a tool provided by the ILO to give information national labour, social security and human rights regulation. The database will give you a wealth of information regarding your domestic legislations. Climate change laws of the world http://www.lse.ac.uk/ GranthamInstitute/climate-change-laws-of-the-world/ This database contains information on national climate legislation and policies FAOLEX Database http://www.fao.org/faolex/en/ This database gives information on national legislation and policies relating to food, agriculture and natural resource management. Topics covered include: environment; land and soil; water; sea; and cultivated plants.

APPENDIX 8 | CONSENT FORM TEMPLATE Available in downloadable and editable format here 3 http://mneguidelines.oecd.org/OECD-Due-Diligence-Guidance-Garment-Footwear.pdf

APPENDICIES

APPENDIX 9 | PARTICIPANT INFORMATION SHEET TEMPLATE

Is the information confidential?

Title of the project

We will not identify you by name in any reports using information obtained from this research unless you give your permission for us to do so. Confidentiality, privacy and anonymity will be ensured throughout the process, including the collection of interviews and data, storage of information and publication of research material.

The title should be simple and self-explanatory

Photographs

Name and contact details of Policy Dialogue organiser

We will not use any photographs or videos without the permission of those pictured. Confidentiality, privacy and anonymity will be ensured throughout the process, including the collection of interviews and data, storage of information and publication of research material.

The participation information sheet should contain the lead researcher ’s full contact details and will normally cover the following:

Please include some contact details (Phone, email etc.) of the Dialogue organiser for the participants. Invitation paragraph This should explain that the person is being asked to take part in your policy dialogue i.e. You are being invited to take part in a policy dialogue about X. Before deciding whether or not to take part, you need to understand why the research is being done and what it will involve. Give some more information about your chosen issue, as well as the timescale. Why have I been invited to take part? You should explain why this stakeholder was selected for the policy dialogue and how many other people will be asked to participate. Do I have to take part? It is up to you to decide whether or not to take part. If you do decide to take part you will be given be asked to sign a consent form. You can withdraw at any time and without giving an explanation. What will taking part entail? Explain how you will be collecting data from stakeholders. Cover what the individual will be asked to do, the location of any events and how much time will be involved. What are the possible benefits of taking part? Outline direct benefits for the individual and those that they represent (other workers, their community etc) Talk about potential beneficial outcomes relating to enhanced understanding of the issues by policy makers and potential policy change. Are there any disadvantages to taking part? If applicable, you may want to cover any disadvantages, financial or reputational costs, time etc.

APPENDIX 10 | EVALUATION FORM TEMPLATE Available in downloadable and editable format here

APPENDIX 11 | FASHION REVOLUTION CONTACTS Fashion Revolution Policy and Research TeamTransparency@fashionrevolution.org

WORKSHEETS

WORKSHEET 1 | SMART ANALYSIS Template for carrying out a SMART Analysis available in an editable and downloadable format here.

WORKSHEET 2 | TEAM EVALUATION MATRIX TEMPLATE We have provided you with a blank Team Skills Evaluation Matrix so you can evaluate your team’s strengths and areas of weakness. The instructions to complete this exercise can be found on page 14. Downloadable and editable version of this template and an example Team Evaluation Matrix here.

WORKSHEET 3 | MIND MAP OF YOUR STAKEHOLDERS Please find a downloadable version here.

We have given you an example template above, but you can do this in a variety of ways. Draw it out on paper or a whiteboard, use post-it notes or use a computer software such as Microsoft Powerpoint or VUE (https://vue.tufts.edu/ index.cfm) To start, write your chosen topic in the centre of your page, as shown below with several broad categories coming out from the centre. These categories could vary depending on your topic, but you could start with; international, national, regional, industry and local/ community stakeholders. Next, start to add stakeholders to your categories. It is often easiest to start at the local category and write any stakeholder down who is directly and often personally connected to the issue. Then look at the regional level, national level and finally international. Once you have all the stakeholders you can think of, it’s time to join the links between the stakeholders. Drawing the links with different colour pens can be a good way to visualise this. Drawing the links with different colour pens can be a good way to visualise this. To do this, think about:

•

Which stakeholders work together already?

•

Who should be communicating with one another (but may not be)?

•

Which stakeholders could act as links between the local level and the regional level or the local level and national level or the national level and the international level and so on?

INTERNATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS

INDUSTRIAL STAKEHOLDERS

NATIONAL STAKEHOLDERS

TOPIC

LOCAL STAKEHOLDERS

REGIONAL STAKEHOLDERS

WORKSHEETS

WORKSHEET 4 | STAKEHOLDER POWER VS INTEREST MATRIX You can find an editable and downloadable template here.

You will be plotting each of the stakeholders you identified in the previous ‘mind-map’ exercise. As you look at the Matrix, you will see that ‘power’ increases as you go up the Matrix and ‘interest’ increases as you go along the Matrix to the right. Go ahead and plot each one of your stakeholders on the Matrix based on their individual interest in the policy issue and their power to make change. See the example in diagram 2 on page 24. After adding all of the stakeholders into the matrix, you could cross-reference your ‘mind-map’ in exercise A and this ‘Power vs Interest Matrix’ in exercise B and annotate on the matrix how stakeholders may currently interact, which stakeholders could be brought together to form a group, where you can help empower stakeholders with high interest but low power and how best to engage with high power/low interest stakeholders.

WORKSHEET 5 | EXAMPLE PROBLEM AND SOLUTION TREE Diagram 3 on page 42 shows an example problem tree addressing the lack of living wage within a county/ region. It’s interesting to notice the dotted lines which highlight the interconnectivity of effects. On the following pages, we have included templates for you to use if you need it, or you can draw it on a whiteboard or large piece of paper. 1.

Start by writing down the problem that you want to address in the centre of a large sheet of paper or whiteboard (this is the tree trunk).

Then ask your participants for their views on what the effects of this problem is. List these above the main problem (the branches of the tree). You may want to include some related effects coming off the main branches (these are called secondary effects). It’s a good idea to write these responses on post it notes, so they can be moved about later it needed.

Finally ask for people’s thoughts about what causes this problem, these can be placed below the problem (in the roots).

4. The next stage is to work with your participants to create a solution tree. A solution tree works by reversing the negative causes from the problem tree into positive ones and finding a solution to this. TOP TIP: When writing anything up on a whiteboard or flipchart, be sure to write very clearly and also read out what you are writing to ensure that everyone understands what is written there.

WORKSHEETS

Blank Problem Tree

Secondary Effect

Effect

Core Problems

Immediate Cause

Secondary Cause

WORKSHEETS

Blank Solution Tree

Means

Core Solution

Immediate Effects