Better Work Bangladesh (BWB) held its second stakeholders and buyers forum in Dhaka on Tuesday to explore progress made by BWB, challenges remaining and ways to further improve working conditions in garment factories while increasing their competitiveness across the country.Some 300 national and international garment sector representatives attended the forum, including partners from government, employer associations and unions, as well as 80 members from international brands.Louis Vanegas, Programme Manager of Better Work Bangladesh – a partnership between the UN’s International Labour Organization (ILO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank Group – welcomed the audience, outlining the programmes of BWB. “We are here to unite diverse stakeholders, promote decent work for all and help the garment industry in Bangladesh thrive. We would like to see the sector attain the government’s own goals: for Bangladesh to become a middle-income country with a 50 billion USD export sector and good compliance conditions by 2021,” he said.Vanegas explained that the Better Work programme was currently engaging 120 factories and helping shift the mindset of garment employers in Bangladesh from seeing compliance as an obligation to being a business necessity that makes them more competitive.Srinivas Reddy, Director of the ILO Country Office for Bangladesh said that following its launch in 2014, Better Work Bangladesh had introduced an entirely new concept of supporting Ready Made Garment factories to boost their compliance while at the same time enhancing productivity.”I firmly believe that Better Work can make a valuable contribution to the working conditions and competitiveness of individual factories. It can also help take the industry to the next level, which is the theme of this second stakeholders’ forum,” he said.Bangladesh Employers’ Federation Secretary General Farook Ahmed said Better Work could help achieve the 2021 goals and elevate the country status to middle-income, but suggested that the programme needed to be flexible in adapting to Bangladesh’s on-the-ground reality to do so.
