SADAQA NGO - Towards a Family Friendly Work Enviroment

SADAQA was launched in 2011 as a community organizing campaign and was registered as a non-for-profit organization in 2012 with the aim of increasing women's economic participation in Jordan through creating a friendly environment for working women and mothers. The work is based on advocating for the implementation of Article 72 of the Labour Law which stipulates that companies that employ 20 female employees with a total of 10 children under the age of four must provide a daycare facility in the workplace. The goal was to support working families and encourage women and mothers to enter the job market, remain in the job market and potentially assume decision making and managerial posts through working on eliminating the three main barriers to entry to the workforce; the lack of daycares, inadequate transportation and pay inequity. SADAQA’s focus on Article 72 created creative solutions and models of workplace daycares so that access is more inclusive and public. SADAQA has advocated with the relevant government bodies, and parliament on coming up with by-laws for Article 72, as well as suggested amendments to the Article itself to include these models as part of the new amendments. It launched in collaboration with the ILO the first study of its kind in the region on the “Value of Daycare Services at the Workplace”, to build a business case for daycares. The study concluded that daycares should be become a public good that require the support and collaboration of both the government and private sector. Based on the study, SADAQA has created a national framework for turning daycares into a public good. It raised the awareness of the employer of more than 300 companies (that employ 100 women and above) across five sectors in Jordan and provided direct technical assistance to over 100 companies and organizations. It reached out to thousands of working mothers, families, and employers to spread awareness about women’s labor rights in general.