Women play a vital role in the Bangladesh garment sector, a collection of photos to mark International Women’s Day highlights the actions of ILO’s RMG programme funded by Canada, the Netherlands and UK to empower women in the sector.

Pushpa Rani Shaha, gives a victory wave to fellow workers who recently elected her as a member of the factory Participation Committee (PC). ILO, through its Better Work programme has supported participation of women in PC elections.

Better Work is supporting female workers who are pregnant or have recently given birth. This can reduce absenteeism, boosts workforce morale and helps retain skilled staff.

A woman labour inspector travels to a factory on a motor scooty. With support from the ILO, the labour inspectorate in Bangladesh has become more gender responsive and recruited more women labour inspectors.

More women workers are now making the jump from the sewing line to supervisory positions as a result of Better Work Bangladesh’s skills development initiatives.

Trade unions have a vital role in ensuring workplace safety. The ILO RMG programme has placed emphasis on building awareness of women union members on occupational safety and health.

The ILO RMG programme through Better Work Bangladesh has worked with garment factories to create better awareness of sexual harassment issues and how to prevent it.

For survivors, the road to recovery following Rana Plaza has been long and hard. ILO’s RMG programme has supported survivors to gain new livelihoods skills as well as provided them with psychosocial and medical support.