Impacts of Family-Friendly Factories program and how they’re supporting workers through the COVID-19 pandemic

Promoting worker well-being lies at the heart of the ICTI Ethical Toy Program (IETP). Supporting factories to deliver improvements that not only benefit factory workers – but also deliver positive business outcomes – is central to IETP's mission to build better lives for workers and stronger industry through ethical production.

The worker well-being programs have become an integral part of IETP's operations. IETP has made great progress in creating Family Friendly Factories, developing and implementing tailor-made programs in direct response to the identified needs of workers and management.
Children who are having fun at the Family-frendly Spaces
The five core elements of the Family Friendly Factories (FFF) include the Worker Helpline, Family-Friendly Spaces (FFS), Migrant Parent Training (MPT), After-School Centers (ASC) & Women’s Empowerment initiatives. FFF has already achieved so much with these projects, benefitting the lives of thousands of workers and their children. To date, over 6,000 workers have received Migrant Parent Training, over 3,000 children have attended Family-Friendly Spaces and After-School Centers.

Positive impacts from IETP Family-Friendly Factories
2020 was a difficult year for everyone, everywhere and IETP's worker well-being programs proved more vital than ever before. IETP continued to support workers and their children and adapted IETP's programs to the changing circumstances. Due to COVID-19, many left-behind children could not travel to be reunited with their parents during the summertime so fewer FFS were opened in 2020 but the need to support parents maintain relationships with their children was greater than ever. IETP responded to this by delivering more Migrant Parent Training and making it accessible online so that working parents are empowered with skills to provide effective support for their children and strengthen their parent-child bond at distance.

Despite the impact of COVID-19 IETP were delighted to have 10 FFS open in 2020, this year these mostly benefitted workers who have their children live all year round but had no or insufficient childcare available to them.

This year, more than ever has proven that IETP programs are sustainable, vital, and reactive to worker’s needs. 2021 will undoubtedly provide further challenges to everyone, all over the world. Already this year, it has been reported that there will be a huge decline in the numbers of workers traveling home for the Chinese New Year due to ongoing contagion fears. It is therefore crucial that we continue to provide these essential programs, notably Migrant Parent Training, and continue to build Family Friendly Factories in supply chains across the globe.

The impacts IETP has achieved to date have been made possible by collaborating effectively and through the financial support of program sponsors, IETP's buyer members, and of course, the participating factories. To be part of this collaborative effort, or to learn more about IETP's plans for 2021 and beyond, please do get in touch at info@ethicaltoyprogram.org.

ICTI Ethical Toy Program

Room 518, Star House
3 Salisbury Road, Tsim Sha Tsui
Hong Kong

IETP operates the most engaged responsible sourcing program for the global supply chain. With 15+ years of experience, IETP is known for its robust social assessment & certification, wide-range of capability-building programs, and scalable worker wellbeing initiatives that empower buying and manufacturing businesses to achieve supply chain sustainability and advance their ESG objectives.