Operating SIA - Social aspects
Outline
Considering social aspects is an important element of the sustainability concept. This means for sustainable industrial areas that the parks, apart from providing social infrastructure like housing, shopping, education, health, sports and other recreational facilities, should promote community participation, occupational health and safety, gender issues, and civil society institutions like NGOs, trade unions, clubs, etc. as well.
Key Elements
Social infrastructure:
Basic social infrastructure should cover catering, small shops or kiosks and communication facilities. Especially for risky work conditions adequate medical services are necessary. Educational and training institutions specialised to train apprentices and employees of the industry sectors settled in the park are very important and may be one key success factor. If many workers live with their families close to or on the premises of the park, the question of schools for children needs to be addressed. Adequate child care facilities are required. If the park is regarded a development zone the basic facilities needs to be complemented by further shopping and banking facilities as well as recreational and sports facilities. In providing a cultural infrastructure (e.g. cinema, cultural events and congregation space) the areas can play an important societal role.
Occupational health and safety:
The promotion of working and occupational health standards in the industrial area addresses health and safety at the workplace itself. It comprises aspects such as workplace comfort regarding air quality, visual comfort, noise protection and an appropriate work-rest balance. Regular medical check-ups of workers and employees, provision of safety gear (protective google, glows, safety shoes, filter masks, etc.), monitoring of exposure limits and safety trainings are important measures to increase occupational health and safety.
Gender issues:
In many countries women are still underprivileged. Although they often represent a large part of the workforce of an industrial area, the parks do not care sufficiently about the specific needs of women. Ignorance exists regarding their needs for separate toilets and washing facilities, their combined role as worker, housewife and mother, their vulnerability in respect to security issues or their special needs as business women or entrepreneur.
Civil society institutions:
Transparency is an important attribute of a sustainable industrial area. It includes not only the information of everybody inside and outside the industrial area regarding the future development of the park or possible environmental risks but also intends to promote civil society and the activities of its institutions in the industrial area. While trade unions in particular take care of the workers’ rights and are an important factor for better working conditions, NGOs and other civil society organisations will address more general environmental, social and even political issues.
GIZ expertise
For GIZ, social aspects of development always play a central role. This is also considered when developing and implementing concepts for sustainable industrial areas.
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Advanced Training Program for Chemical Management in Textile Wet Processes
The Advanced Training Program aims to support wet processing plants in China and Bangladesh in establishing detox-compliant chemical management. The program was initiated by Tchibo GmbH, Rewe Group and GIZ within the develoPPP.de program of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development and in cooperation with the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles.
The Training aims to provide the knowledge and practical skillset required to replace hazardous chemicals in the wet processing units in a comprehensible way.
The Advanced Training Program is a combination of classroom training and on-site visits. Target of the classroom trainings is to raise awareness and teach general knowledge on the subject. During the factory visits, consultants will then further introduce the program, identify gaps between the operations and best practices, develop a management action plan with the factory and consult on any challenges regarding the implementation. Incorporated into the training is also a train the trainers scheme which helps to increase chemical management capacity in the region. The complete training program will run over approximately 12 months from kick-off to completion.
The content of the training materials are based on the GIZ Resource Efficient Management of Chemicals" (REMC) Toolkit and closely follow the recommended structure and content of the Zero Discharge of Hazardous Chemicals (ZDHC) Chemical Management System Guidelines. Currently, the training materials are available in English, Chinese and Bengali.
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Enhancing the Quality of Industrial Policies (EQuIP)
EQuIP is a highly innovative programme that empowers governments to effectively design Industrial Policies (IP) through on-the-job coaching and knowledge transfer.
The EQuIP toolbox contains simple and intuitive analytical tools, based on a set of indicators, which can help policymakers in lower income countries to address important strategic questions, such as how to:
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move from an agrarian to an industrial economy
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diversify the economy
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create more jobs in industry
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upgrade industry
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promote the greening of industry
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reduce poverty through industry
With the fundamental objective of capacity development, this toolbox has been operationalized through the development of training manuals, course materials on the different methodologies and an online platform which provides free global access to the toolbox.
Ultimately, the EQuIP diagnostic toolbox, together with the accompanying training and capacity building package, aims to support industrial policy practitioners to undertake a thorough industrial diagnosis and to design evidence-based strategies for inclusive and sustainable industrial development.
See that attached handbook for an overview of what EQuIP is and how it works. See also the EQuIP website for further information (www.equip-project.org).
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Monitoring SIA
Monitoring of various aspects (ambient pollution, risk management and disaster preparedness, occupational health and safety, energy and resource efficiency, etc.) is an important task of any park management. Multi-stakeholder monitoring teams have the advantage of creating transparency and putting the findings and resulting consequences on a multi-stakeholder base.
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Planning of Sustainable Industrial Areas in India
The overall objective of the technical cooperation on the core topic of “Planning of New Industrial Parks and Investment Zones” is to demonstrate innovative planning and designing of new or upgrading of existing industrial parks. This can be achieved by incorporating the aspects of resource efficiency, integrated environment monitoring, management structures of eco-friendly production and gender-sensitive infrastructure design. National and state level stakeholders are supported in considering the results in new strategy papers and guidelines of the government and/ or industry associations.
The pilot activities are focused in the state of Telangana (former Andhra Pradesh).
The tool presents a collection of Site Master Planning experiences from two pilot projects, namely the Green Industrial Park (GIP) Jadcherla and the Association of Lady Entrepreneurs of Andhra Pradesh (ALEAP) Green Industrial Park (A-GRIP). Both are showcases of the successful elaboration of site master planning supported by application of GIZ standards on cooperation (stakeholder involvement), processes (for involvement of stakeholders) and a strategic approach for arriving at customised, yet high quality results.