GROUP TWO

1. GROUP TWO African Labour Educators Network African Labour Research Network

2. Why do you participate in these networks? • Gain new knowledge. • Get facts and figures which are required for informed decision-making and negotiations. • Share information and ensure intellectual exchange. • Achieve some measure of cultural exchange and social interaction. • Promote understanding around economic and political integration.

3. What do you get from the networks? • Research skills. • Information and knowledge. • Experience. • Shared solidarity and unity of purpose around issues of interests. • Human, financial, material and moral support.

4. What do you contribute? • Identification of research problems. • Resource persons and human hours. • Educational materials. • Logistics, services and facilities for hosting meetings. • Research findings and other relevant publications.

5. What would you improve? • Scope of coverage and outreach. • Capacity of researchers, union leaders and members. • Governance: transparency and accountability. • Mechanisms for data collection, processing and dissemination of research findings. • Coordination of the activities of the networks. • Resource mobilisation and utilisation.

6. What would you abolish? • Domination of the coordination of networks by sub-regions and national trade union centres. • Unhealthy competition and disagreements among trade union leaders and researchers.

7. What could you contribute to strengthening global networks like GLU and GURN? • Motivating new research questions. • Reinforcing cooperation between the global networks and allied African institutions. • Providing research information on trade and other related development issues. • Sharing of information through the exchange of research reports, publications and journals.

8. What should the networks do to strengthen the labour capacity for research and policy development? • Train and educate researchers, union leaders and members. • Build synergies between global debates and national policy formulation and their inherent developmental programmes. • Establish linkages with other networks and like-minded institutions. • Put premium of human resource development.

9. What should the networks do to strengthen the labour capacity for research and policy development? • Deepen and broaden ideological discourse and frameworks. • Focus research work on issues that are of relevance to workers and their trade unions e.g. working conditions, OHS&E, unemployment, informal economy, trade policies, poverty, unemployment, TIPs, migration, child labour, HIV/AIDS, OHS&E, PRSP, NEPAD, etc.