The BGMEA/ILO/UNICEF Project in the Bangladesh Garments Industry
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Donor(s) |
Phase I
Duration: 2 years
Starting date: July 1996
Ending date: April 1998Phase II
Duration: 2 years
Starting date: September 1998
Ending date: July 2000
Phase III
Duration: 10 months
Starting date: May 2001
Ending date: February 2002
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US Department of Labour (USDOL)
Certain compoennts were funded by Norway and Italy
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In October 1994, the ILO and UNICEF received a written appeal from 53 Bangladeshi children who lost their jobs in garment factories. This was preceded by the introduction of the Harkin Bill in the United States in 1992 which proposed a boycott of the products of child labour. In response, the ILO, UNICEF and BGMEA (Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers' and Exporters' Association) concerned declared their commitment to withdraw all child workers below the age of 14 years from more than 2,000 garment factories in bangladesh and to provide them with education and a monthly stipend of about US$7 per child. The project that emerged from this agreement (monitoring and verification project in garment factories) is unique in that the employers in the garment industry had an active role and financially contributed to the education of their (former) under-age workers.
The five major achievements of the project are:
- It was successful in effectively containing child labour at BGMEA member factories;
- It led to the establishment of a credible and comprehensive child labour monitoring, verification and reporting system. A manual for child labour monitoring and verification was developed which describes the child labour monitoring, process, details the structure of such a system and defines stakeholders roles;
- The child labour incidence in the BGMEA member factories fell from less than 1 per cent;
- Access to social rehabilitation through basic education, stipends, and skills training for 8,338 working children;
- Close cooperation between two UN agencies, the BGMEA as the major business association, NGOs, and government institutions.
In addition, two project extended components, funded by Norway and Italy, supplemented these efforts by providing skills training:
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