The country’s garment sector has been going through massive reforms to become more sustainable and safer for workers since the 2013 Rana Plaza building collapse that claimed at least 1,138 lives. The reforms, initiated after one of the deadliest industrial tragedies in the country, have drawn praises from international retailers, brands, rights groups and big conglomerates. For instance, last month, American management consulting firm McKinsey & Company in its flagship survey of the Chief Purchasing Officer (CPO) lauded Bangladesh’s achievements in the garment sector after the Rana Plaza collapse. “Today, Bangladesh’s RMG sector is a front-runner in transparency regarding factory safety and value-chain responsibility, thanks to initiatives launched in the aftermath of the disaster — including those of the Accord on Fire and Building Safety in Bangladesh, the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, and the RMG Sustainability Council,” the firm said. These measures led to the closure of hundreds of unsafe, bottom-tier factories and the scaling-up of remediation activities in many others. These steps helped restore Bangladesh’s spot in the global apparel-sourcing market, leading to a decade of rapid growth. Around 10 years ago, the sector forecasted a growth of 7-9 percent. Indeed, RMG exports from Bangladesh more than doubled, from $14.6 billion in 2011 to $33.1 billion 2019 — a compound annual growth rate of 7 percent. Over this period, Bangladesh’s RMG industry increased its share of global garment exports from 4.7 to 6.7 percent. “This is within the range of what we forecasted in our report; however, it also shows that the country has not captured the full potential we had foreseen 10 years ago,” the McKinsey report also said. Bangladesh will continue as a sourcing hotspot for international retailers and brands, the survey also said. The Rana Plaza building collapse was a wake-up call for Bangladesh. Just after the incident, the labour law was amended twice since 2013 and the labor rules were promulgated in 2015 with a major reform in the trade unionism. The sector also launched several national-level trainers and mid-management professionals on social dialogue and industrial relations in collaboration with International Labour Organisation and the government. A central fund for the welfare of the workers, where more than $10 million is being contributed annually from RMG exports, was established. Unionisation has been made easier and the formation of an elected participation committee has been made mandatory in the factories, which are important stepping stones to empower workers. Nearly 4,000 large, small and medium scale garment factories were inspected by three agencies, including Accord, Alliance and government initiatives to strengthen fire, electrical and structural safety. Of the total number of inspected factories, nearly 3,000 have so far remediated as per the recommendations by the Accord and Alliance. The remediation of more than 1,000 small garment factories, which are not members of Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) and Bangladesh Knitwear Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BKMEA), are yet to be completed. After the departure of the Accord and Alliance, a local RMG Sustainability Council (RSC) was formed in collaboration with ILO representation from the retailers and brands and the BGMEA for monitoring the progresses made in garment factory safety. Bangladesh’s preferential trade facility — Generalised System of Preferences (GSP) — was suspended by the US government in June 2013 after the Rana Plaza incident. Although Bangladesh applied twice to the US Trade Representative (USTR) upon fulfilling 16 conditions given by the then Obama Administration under the Bangladesh Action Plan for reinstating the GSP, the US government is still saying Bangladesh “needs to do more” to regain trade privileges. Meanwhile, Bangladesh has signed the Sustainability Compact with the EU, ILO, Canada and the USA to show responsible business behaviour in the global supply chain. The labour ministry has developed a publicly accessible garment factory database. Under the 16 conditions given by the US, the Department for Inspection of Factories and Establishments (DIFE) was established. The garment sector in Bangladesh has brought a revolution in green production. Being the world’s leader in green garment factories now, nine out of the top 10 positions of green factories are being occupied by the Bangladesh RMG industry, while the country can boast with 135 Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certified (39 Platinum) factories and 500 more factories in the certification pipeline. Bangladesh has joined the UNDP and Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) to conduct a survey on “Sustainability Reporting Study Mapping in 47 RMGs in Bangladesh” to develop a report highlighting the impact of Ready-Made Garment factories on Sustainable Development Goals. It has also joined the Occupational Safety and Health to upscale the industry capacity mainly to enhance efficiency of the readymade garments industry to make it more resilient and sustainable to ensure lives and livelihoods and complementing the growth and development of the nation. In the fiscal 2008-09, the share of non-traditional markets in the country’s export was 6.87 percent with the export value of $ 848.87 million, which has reached 17.10 percent with a value of $ 4.9 billion in 2019-20. Currently, more than 1,500 Bangladeshi companies are certified by the Global Organic Textile Standard — the second highest number in any country in the world. Among many reforms, the empowerment of women was one, said BGMEA’s immediate-past president Rubana Huq. As part of the measures, 60 female garment workers have been given a chance to pursue their graduation at the Asian University for Women (AUW) with assistance from their respective factory owners. Furthermore, considering the importance of enlightening the next generation with literacy, the BGMEA and Jaago Foundation have partnered in an initiative to provide online education for workers’ children who spend a large part of their time in factory day cares under the Pledge to Early Childhood Learning of Workers’ Children. Along with that, acknowledging the importance of mental health and wellbeing of our workers was one of the major concerns and that’s why, under the Pledge to Mental Health, the BGMEA has joined hands with “Moner Bondhu” — a platform for mental health and well-being services. “The safety has been strengthened in the garment sector in Bangladesh after the Rana Plaza incident. We need to continue the progress of security [of the workers] to stop recurrence of such a deadly incident,” said Nazma Akter, president of Sammilito Garment Sramik Federation. “Considering the fact that the RMG export of Bangladesh only occupies 6.38 percent global market shares, there are immense untapped opportunities ahead of us and all we need to do is to diversify our manufacturing,” said Rubana. “We have learnt a lot of lessons from the Rana Plaza building collapse. We did not know such details of the factory safety earlier. However, after the Rana Plaza incident, we have learnt how to ensure safety for the workers,” said Faruque Hassan, BGMEA President.
