Better Work Bangladesh, an initiative to improve working conditions and promote competitiveness in garment industry, began its first stakeholders and buyers forum in Dhaka yesterday. The two-day meet on 6 and 7 March would discuss progress made so far and the next course of action towards the goal. A dialogue was held between the programme officials and its partners on the inaugural day taking stock on achievements and challenges in the pursuit of improved working conditions and competitiveness in the local RMG sector. As many as 200 members of government, development partners, industry, unions and buyers are participating in the event. “RMG sector is the driving force of the Bangladesh economy. We welcome Better Work’s approach of seeking to boost industry’s competitiveness and to improve the lives of workers,” Mujibul Haque, state minister for labour and employment, told the opening session. The Better Work programme is a partnership between the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC) that currently operates in eight countries. The objective of Better Work is to improve working conditions and promote competitiveness in the global garment industry. It does so by promoting compliance with international labour standards and national law in global supply chains as a basis for building socially responsible export strategies, and by enhancing enterprise-level economic and social performance, said an ILO press release. Srinivas Reddy, ILO country director, praised government, workers and employers to lend “excellent support” to the programme in just a short time. He added: “It is now working closely with almost 100 factories and we look forward to deepening and widening this engagement in years to come.” Wendy Jo Werner, IFC country director said: “This (Better Work) will contribute to greater resilience to global economic trends as well as increasing demands from buyers and customers.” Better Work commenced its operations in Bangladesh in 2014, becoming fully operational in 2015. It currently works with 96 factories which employ over 183,000 workers with a plan to expand to 200 factories by the end of 2016. Better Work activities in Bangladesh include assessments and advisory visits conducted to develop compliance improvement plans. Training is taking place on supervisory skills, financial literacy, industrial relations and workplace cooperation, according to the press release. Canada, the Netherlands and the UK fund the programme in Bangladesh while the US and Switzerland support it globally.
