The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, a platform of 28 North American retailers and brands, appointed former US Ambassador James F Moriarty as country director on Tuesday. Moriarty was the executive director of the Alliance, prior to his new assignment. He will now lead strategic oversight and outreach activities with key stakeholders in Bangladesh’s government, garment industry, and nongovernmental and nonprofit organisations, the Alliance said in a statement. “As our operations team continues to work to empower factory workers and owners, we saw an opportunity to increase our engagement with key stakeholders and focus on long-term sustainability,” said Ellen Tauscher, independent chair of the Alliance. With safety inspections completed in all Alliance factories, 1.2 million workers trained in fire safety at least once, and 50 percent of factory repairs now complete, there has been significant progress in Alliance activities in Bangladesh. As country director, Moriarty will spend more time in Bangladesh working with the Alliance’s partners to support Bangladesh’s efforts to improve garment factories after the Alliance comes to a close in 2018. Moriarty comes aboard as Managing Director Rabin Mesbah transitions to lead the building and fire safety division of ELEVATE, the management firm responsible for designing, managing and executing all Alliance remediation and training efforts in Bangladesh.Under Mesbah’s leadership, we have made considerable progress in the past two and a half years, and I am looking forward to having even more active engagement with key stakeholders to help us achieve our shared vision of a safer RMG industry for Bangladeshi workers,” Moriarty said.“I am confident that together, we can catalyse progress toward our goal of ensuring that Bangladesh’s garment factories and workers remain safe after 2018, and I am proud to help chart the course on this effort.”“I now look forward to taking the learning and experiences from the Alliance to other countries and other industries as I support the work of ELEVATE globally,” Mesbah said.
