The Pilot Project in Turkey

Background
Representatives of the six organizations met during 2003 and 2004 and agreed the broad outline of a ‘trial project’ which would pose and test various aspects of the overall collaborative effort (the ‘Joint Initiative’).  They elaborated concrete, measurable objectives in an initial Project Design (2004), spanning over 30 months and two “phases” of testing.
Turkey was chosen as the site for the Trial Project. Organizations involved in the Joint Initiative intend to build on the results of the Turkey Trial Project, elaborating on the models of collaboration developed and the lessons learned there, in other countries.   
In July 2005, the Steering Committee of Jo-In agreed and approved the draft Jo-In Code of Labour Practice which will be used in the trials and reviewed the objectives and timeline of the project.  The Steering Committee decided to refine the focus of the Trial Project and to extend the timeline.  The project is expected to run until the end of 2007.
 Seven multinational buyers  joined the initiative, each belonging to one or more of the MSI’s with member companies, for the purpose of conducting the trial project in Turkey. These are Adidas, Gap Inc., Hess Natur, Marks and Spencer, Nike, Patagonia and Puma. A limited number of facilities in Turkey, which supply these multinational brands, have participated in the trial project as well as trade unions, NGOs, industry and employers associations and other interested parties-national and international

The objectives of the project are:
·          to improve conditions and observance of labour rights for garment workers and their families in a specified number of Turkish garment producing facilities;
·          to delineate the points at which the participating multi-stakeholder initiatives might avoid duplicative efforts; where they might reinforce each other and where the efforts of some of the initiatives differ, leading to potential complementarity between the initiatives;
·          to demonstrate to companies and other stakeholders how they might take advantage of the compatibilities and complementarity;
·          to identify jointly with Turkish stakeholders the roles MSI’s and local stakeholders can play in implementing codes of conduct;
·          to agree best practice in the implementation of codes of conduct through pooling the experience of all six organizations;
·          to disseminate lessons from the experience;
·          to identify areas for future collaboration.
While the purpose of undertaking a trial project is to discern good practice and provide guidance that will inform the global effort of achieving improved working conditions, it is critical that the experiment itself also produce real, positive outcomes in the country where it takes place.
The trial project is being carried out in the garment sector in Turkey.  Particular elements of the trial will be tailored to the Turkey context.  Any conclusions drawn from the effort will take this into account.

    This document replaces the original 2004 Project Design and elaborates on the methodology that will be used in the factory trials.