Amsterdam, October 15, 2024 – The Organic Cotton Accelerator (OCA) launches  its Decent Work Strategy, a pivotal initiative aiming at improving working conditions and protection for organic cotton farmers, farm workers, and their communities. Published on the International Day for Rural Women, the strategy’s focus includes tackling discriminatory practices, one of its core pillars. Over the next seven years, OCA will work to address key challenges in the cotton sector, such as ensuring living income and wages; eliminating unlawful child labour, bonded and forced labour; improving health and safety on farms; ending discriminatory practices; and providing access to social protection and worker representation.

Tackling systemic challenges

As the global demand for sustainable textiles continues to rise globally, the need to ensure fair, safe, and equitable working conditions for the people who cultivate organic cotton has never been more urgent. Decent work is core to the philosophy of organic farming and to OCA`s objectives. Since its founding, OCA has supported farmers by offering access to secure markets and premium pricing for their cotton, enabling better economic conditions at the farm level. Through partnerships with global brands and suppliers, OCA has helped increase organic cotton adoption, raised farmer incomes, and transformed farming practices. While improving smallholder farmers’ incomes has been an essential step towards better livelihoods for the over 100,000 (mostly smallholder) farmers OCA supports, the organisation aims to do more.

We believe that all players in a sustainable supply chain, particularly farming communities, need to be empowered to access their rights and secure decent working conditions. With our unique position in the organic cotton sector and the support of our partners, we’re committed to driving positive change on farms within our network. The systemic nature of these challenges requires a balance between ambition and realism. Our focus will be on strengthening our Farm Programme, which has a track record of enhancing farmer livelihood, by, upweighting our monitoring and evaluation systems, sharing learnings, and promoting best practices. Collaboration is key, and we are committed to working closely with all actors in the cotton value chain to improve incomes, working conditions, and the empowerment of farmers, farm workers and their communities," said Ruud Schute, Programme Director at OCA.

Inspired by the International Labour Organization (ILO) and aligned with the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal 8 – Decent Work and Economic Growth – OCA’s strategy seeks to foster sector-wide transformation and systemic change in agricultural production. While organic agriculture standards typically don’t cover decent work or social criteria, OCA recognises the urgency to address these gaps. Farmers, particularly smallholders and farm workers, are among the most vulnerable, with limited access to fair work conditions.

OCA will tailor its plans to address risks and challenges unique to each region, focusing on corrective actions rather than sanctions for non-compliance. The strategy outlines five priority actions that will be fully integrated into OCA’s existing Farm Programme and Contributor Platform, which brings together brands, suppliers, farm groups, and civil society organisations:

  1. 1. Enable fair and transparent payment, access to finance and financial literacy
  2. 2. Build awareness and understanding of decent work risks and challenges through capacity-building and dialogue
  3. 3. Generate and share actionable data on decent work risks and improvements on OCA farms
  4. 4. Generate funding and proof of concept for targeted improvements and remediation
  5. 5. Integrate decent work into OCA plans, projects and governance

These key actions are outlined in OCA’s dedicated publication, available for download here.

Collaborating for sector-wide impact

To drive this work, OCA will expand our collaboration with other organisations pursuing the same goals. The success depends on the support and collaboration of diverse stakeholders, including brands, suppliers, institutional and philanthropic donors, public, private, and voluntary organisations, and farming communities. OCA invites organisations to join this transformative journey and accelerate the organic cotton effect, ensuring that every thread of cotton carries a story of dignity, farmer prosperity, and positive change.