Buyers, mainly the global brands and retailers, have been urged to maintain responsible buying practices when sourcing apparel from Bangladesh. The call was made at a panel discussion organised by Freedom Fund in London on Thursday last by Bangladesh Apparel Exchange (BAE) Founder CEO Mostafiz Uddin while he was representing Bangladesh at the panel discussion titled ‘Downward Pressures: Reforming the Apparel Sector by Tackling Purchasing Practices’. The Freedom Fund is an international non-profit organisation dedicated to identifying and investing in the most effective frontline efforts to end slavery. The Freedom Fund was founded in September 2013, by three leading anti-slavery donors, Humanity United, the Legatum Foundation and the Walk Free Foundation. The other speakers at the discussion were Jennifer Schappert, Policy Advisor, OECD Responsible Business Conduct Unit; and Aruna Kashyap, Senior Counsel for the Women’s Rights Division, Human Rights Watch. Jill Tucker, Head of Supply Chain Innovation and Transformation at C&A Foundation, moderated the panel discussion. Citing a true example Mostafiz Uddin, who is also the managing Director of Denim Expert Limite, illustrated how garment factories in Bangladesh often badly suffer due to lack of responsible purchasing practices and in the absence of any legal framework in Western world to hold the buyers responsible who are doing unethical purchasing practices. “Brands do have the responsibility to carry out indulgence on their own internal purchasing practices as much as they have the responsibility to follow OECD Guidelines or the UN Guiding Principles,” said Jennifer Scheppert. “Even in price negotiations buyers put every single code of conduct on the shoulders of supplying factories, but the basic commitment is missing in them to provide a fair price so that the factories can give legal minimum wages to their workers. This needs to be addressed and changed”, said Aruna Kashyap at the discussion.
