Zimbabwe horticulture project

ETI Experimental Projects

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Introduction to Project

The project arose out of the concern of UK retailer for standards in horticulture production in Zimbabwe which coincided with the set-up of the Horticultural Promotion Council (HPC) in Zimbabwe’s own code of practice.

Project aims and objectives

Begun in 1998, this was one of the first ETI pilots to be established and this project was completed in 2000. The project sought to test commercial approaches to inspecting social conditions and to compare this to a locally developed and staffed participatory methodology established specifically for local conditions and the industry.

Key achievements and challenges:

ETI corporate member's interest in international labour standards stimulated a reaction from the producers in Zimbabwe. In early 1999 a local stakeholders in Zimbabwe formed a group to relate to ETI's Pilot Group. These included producers and NGOs in the first instance and later the trade union GAPWUZ. Together with the ETI Pilot Group in London, this group organised two rounds of farm inspections, in June and September 1999. Five farms and 6066 workers participated in this pilot project and drew up improvement plans as a result of the inspections.

Also, during 1999 the Horticultural Promotion Council (HPC) of Zimbabwe launched its own code and labelling system. This was separate from ETI's pilot initiative but involved some of the same organisations. The HPC planned to use the inspection method they had developed with others as a result of their interaction with ETI. However, the initiative was hard for ETI members to accept because it did not include all the international labour standards in the ETI Base Code and trade unions had not been sufficiently involved in its development.

Following each round of inspections improvement plans discussed and negotiated between growers, Primary Marketing Organisations and local NGO’s and unions. Revised inspection methodologies were produced and these and the inspection findings fed into the work of the HPC.

The inspections were conducted by researchers from the University of Harare, a representative from the HPC and the National Employment Council. The five suppliers were interested in using SGS to conduct the commercial audits, as they had experience working with them before on technical and safety issues. The NGOs and academics planned to use a rapid rural appraisal (RRA) methodology for their audits. These audit techniques were tested, ETI drawing out the best of each approach. For example, the rigour of the trained commercial auditor's approach and their experience on some aspects such Health & Safety was a clear benefit. On the other hand, the social survey techniques that NGOs and academics had developed through years of research were much more powerful at accessing workers’ opinions on a range of issues; for example, the predominantly women workers were only willing to share their experiences of sexual harassment in the workplace if they were talked to in confidence, in their own language and with someone they could relate to and trust.

Whilst ETI worked with HPC there were some discrepancies over the maximum working hours per week in the HPC code which was higher than the international standards in ETI Base Code. This was subsequently negotiated on between HPC the Zimbabwean Union GAPWUZ.

In May 2000 farm invasions began which destabilised Zimbabwe. The conditions created made it impossible to carry out the third round of inspections which ETI and HPC had planned which would have joined the social inspection

Despite this unrest, a more inclusive dialogue did develop , enabling the negotiations regarding discrepancies with working hours and as a result a tri-partite organisation was formed. In December 2000, The Agricultural Ethics Assurance Association of Zimbabwe (AEAAZ) was launched. This independent body which was developed as a result of the co-operation between HPC and ETI, carries out inspection and certification of producer farms within Zimbabwe, using the social inspection methodology developed within the ETI project.

Who was involved?

ETI members:
Companies: J Sainsbury Ltd · Somerfield Stores Ltd · Fisher Foods · Tesco · Waitrose (N.B. the project was established before ETI was formally set-up and membership instituted, thus Waitrose although it had not joined ETI continued to work within this group.)
Trade unions: International Union of Foodworkers (IUF)
NGOs: Save the Children (SCF)

as well as their suppliers, affiliates and partners in Zimbabwe

Others:
Horticulture Promotion Council (HPC) Zimbabwe
Save the Children Zimbabwe
General Agricultural and Plantation Workers Union of Zimbabwe (GAPWUZ).
 

For further information contact:

eti@eti.org.uk

 

 

Project documents & relevant links:

See Capacity Building: Zimbabwe - AEAAZ