GWO aligns WINDA with UN Human Development Index

GWO today announced bold new steps to ensure long term value for employers and greater safety for the expanding global workforce in wind energy.

In keeping with its non-profit principles, GWO has revealed plans to calculate its fees from 1st January 2020 on a country by country basis against the United Nations Human Development Index. Globally leading wind energy companies collaborate through GWO to ensure a safer working environment for workers everywhere and their collective intention is to support increased use of GWO standard safety training in as many regions they can. The HDI-aligned fee is one method designed to support this goal.

The new WINDA fee structure provides an objective measurement for a globally standardised product. All income generated is reinvested by members in GWO to manage operations and pursue their mission of creating an injury-free working environment.

Eloy Jauregui, Chairman of Global Wind Organisation explained: "As the industry's main employers, GWO members are committed to creating an injury free working environment. WINDA's value to the industry and our goal of creating universal worker safety far outweighs the costs to end users. Aligning our fee to the UN HDI is an appropriate step forward that will help GWO continue this mission."

The WINDA credit fee represents a modest share of total cost of training.

Members of GWO have shown that GWO standardised basic safety training, not only increases safety performance, but also unlocks substantial savings in avoided duplicated training and travel plus the value of additional productive days.

The continued growth in registered users in WINDA - and in uploaded training records – has enabled GWO to reduce WINDA fees from 2020 in line with our non-profit commitment.  

As of 1 January 2020, the current WINDA credit fee of €10 will be adjusted according to the 2018 United Nations Human Development Index (Current fee multiplied by country HDI value).

The resulting new and reduced WINDA credit fees will range between approximately €5.50 and €9.50. Credits continue to be purchased online and in advance. The 4% discount for large advance credit purchases will no longer apply.

Given our expectations of increased global adoption of GWO, the new and reduced fee as of 1 January 2020 will allow GWO to maintain its focus areas going into the next decade while remaining true to its non profit principles. Targets include new measures for quality assurance of the expanding training provider network, and global projects to improve and align the entire portfolio of training standards against regional and national regulation, standards and best practices.

Important information for Training Providers

1. The credit fee for WINDA will be maintained at €10 per record until 31st December 2019.
2. Credits purchsed before 31st December 2019 will still be valid from 1st January 2020
3. The fee reduction does not affect un-used credits that may remain on a TP account as of 31st December 2019.
4. Refunds will not be available for any difference between the cost of credits purchased before 31st December 2019 and their price from 1st January 2020.

GWO and WINDA

Leadership from GWO members ensures development towards a safer working environment in the global wind industry

• GWO and WINDA offer quality assurance of training, mutual recognition of skills and greater mobility for the workforce
• WINDA ensures digital verification of skills
• The WINDA fee finances all GWO work, supporting standardisation and the creation of value for the wind industry

UN HDI indexation Key facts

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• Average WINDA fee will reduce by 17%
• Depending on country, between 5% and 44%
• New record fee calculation method = €10 x HDI Index Score (Norway's 2017 HDI Score = 0.953. New Norwegian fee €9.53)

About WINDA

WINDA helps employers verify the certification status of GWO certified training providers and the training status of delegates who have attended GWO certified training courses.

About the United Nations Human Development Index

The HDI was created to emphasise that people and their capabilities should be the ultimate criteria for assessing the development of a country, not economic growth alone. The HDI can also be used to question national policy choices, asking how two countries with the same level of GNI per capita can end up with different human development outcomes. These contrasts can stimulate debate about government policy priorities.

The Human Development Index (HDI) is a summary measure of average achievement in key dimensions of human development: a long and healthy life, being knowledgeable and have a decent standard of living. The HDI is the geometric mean of normalized indices for each of the three dimensions.

The health dimension is assessed by life expectancy at birth, the education dimension is measured by mean of years of schooling for adults aged 25 years and more and expected years of schooling for children of school entering age. The standard of living dimension is measured by gross national income per capita. The HDI uses the logarithm of income, to reflect the diminishing importance of income with increasing GNI. The scores for the three HDI dimension indices are then aggregated into a composite index using geometric mean. Refer to Technical notes for more details.

The HDI simplifies and captures only part of what human development entails. It does not reflect on inequalities, poverty, human security, empowerment, etc. The HDRO offers the other composite indices as broader proxy on some of the key issues of human development, inequality, gender disparity and poverty.

For more information, visit The UN Development Programme web site

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