BWI Africa and Middle East Regional Representative Garikanai Shoko, together with BWI Regional Education Officer Boitumelo Tsotetsi, on 21 January 2026, hosted a strategic meeting at the global union’s regional office in Johannesburg with Alexander Geiger, Director, and Bethuel Maserumule, Project Manager, both from the Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung (FES) Trade Union Competence Centre (TUCC). The dialogue focused on the current regional context, analysing how socio-economic shifts and political landscapes are reshaping the labour environment across Africa and the Middle East.

Both organisations considered their understanding of the pressing issues facing the regional workforce, particularly the gross labour rights violations experienced by workers in multinational companies, the need for climate-resilient workplace protections, and the impact of the geopolitical shifts occurring in Europe, among others. The dialogue also focused on the upcoming Global Union Federation (GUF) Forum, emphasising the need to align regional labour priorities to ensure a unified and powerful collective voice when advocating solutions to the workforce's most critical challenges, such as social protection, accountability, occupational health and safety, and migrant labour.

The meeting also reinforced the long-standing collaboration between the two organisations and mapped out the desired joint activities for 2026. This partnership remains vital for bridging the gap between high-level policy research and grassroots union organising. By combining BWI's sectoral reach with FES's capacity-building expertise, the meeting concluded with a commitment to continue fostering a resilient, informed, and proactive trade union movement capable of navigating the complexities of the modern global economy, with a focus on the following:

• Strengthen union capacity to engage with and influence labour inspection mechanisms and safeguard policies in IFI-funded infrastructure projects, including monitoring compliance with national labour laws and international labour standards.
• Build practical knowledge among union leaders and legal officers on Business and Human Rights frameworks, including the OECD Guidelines, UN Guiding Principles (UNGPs), and IFI accountability mechanisms, and how to use them for complaints, reports, and remediation.
• Strengthen the regional network and coordinated negotiating platform for unions engaging the same Chinese MNCs and project financiers across multiple countries, enabling joint strategies, information sharing, and solidarity actions.