Videos

  1. We open opportunities for persons with disability in the workplace

    16 November 2021

    ILO Chief Technical Advisor, Pauline Swagi, speaks from Nairobi about the Innovation to Inclusion (i2i) programme, which is developing, testing, and sharing effective ways to engage and retain persons with disabilities in waged employment in the private sector in Kenya. The programme is funded by the Department for International Development (DFID) UK and is implemented in Kenya and Bangladesh.

  2. A boost to skills training in Bangladesh

    25 August 2021

    Two million people join Bangladesh’s workforce every year. It is vital that workers can learn the skills that respond to the needs of the labour market. ILO technical specialist, Ligaya Dumaoang, introduces the Skills 21 project, a joint initiative of the Government of Bangladesh and the ILO, funded by the European Union. The project seeks to increase productivity and employment opportunities by strengthening the country’s skills development system.

  3. Skills training: Tayaba Khanam Era's testimony

    13 July 2021

    Tayaba Khanam Era learned from one of her friends that Khulna Mahila Polytechnic Institute was offering skills courses with support from the ILO’s European Union-funded Skills 21 project. Era chose a graphic design course, which was something she had always dreamed about.

  4. A Legacy of Rana Plaza: making employment injury insurance a reality for all

    24 April 2015

    Workers who were victims of Rana Plaza were uninsured and intensive efforts to compensate them had to be made after the fact. The ILO says the accident is a wake-up call to establish national employment injury insurance so all workers are protected when accidents happen.

  5. A new voice for garment workers

    24 April 2014

    Ruma Akter is one of Bangladesh's approximately four million garment workers. She is a working mother with a young son, and she is the leader of one of Bangladesh's newly-registered trade unions. Spurred on by the stream of horrific incidents happening in garment factories around her, and inspired by television talk shows watched in small tea stands, she started gathering workers together last year. It has taken about six months, but the Welltex Sromik (Workers) Union is now formally registered and has almost 500 members - and the changes in the factory are visible to everyone.

  6. Rana Plaza: Never again

    23 April 2014

    One year after the global garment industry's worst-ever industrial accident, the International Labour Organization together with the government of Bangladesh, employers, trade unions and the international community are working together to make sure it never happens again. More than 1,100 people died and more than 2,500 were injured when the Rana Plaza building collapsed in 2013. It was a wake up call heard around the world, and significant steps are being taken to address the root causes of the Rana Plaza disaster to ensure Bangladesh's garment industry can provide jobs in a safe working environment for its employees.

  7. © Syed Zakir Hossain 2022
    Rana Plaza: The road ahead

    17 April 2014

    ILO Deputy Director-General for Field Operations and Partnerships Gilbert Houngbo is in Bangladesh this week to mark the one-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza building collapse, which killed over 1,100 garment workers. ILO News spoke to him about the key challenges facing employers, unions, the government and the international community in the months and years ahead.

  8. Work in Freedom: Making migrant work safer for women from South Asia

    15 July 2013

    Millions of women are trafficked from South Asia each year into exploitative forced labour like conditions. The UK Department for International Development (DFID), the International Labour Organization (ILO) and the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine (LSHTM) have launched a new “Work in Freedom” programme to fight trafficking of women and girls from South-Asia.

  9. Promoting Fire Safety in Bangladesh's Garment Factories

    21 May 2013

    In March 2013 the tripartite constituents of the ILO - government, employers and workers - developed a National Tripartite Plan of Action on Fire Safety for the Ready-Made Garment Sector in Bangladesh. It came about after two devastating fires at ready-made garment factories in 2012 and early 2013 killed 120 workers and injured many others. One of the activities in the Plan of Action, is to develop and deliver mass worker education tools, such as this video, to promote safety and health in the ready-made garments sector.

  10. A green initiative brightens Bangladesh

    02 July 2012

    70% of all families living in Bangladesh’s countryside are not connected to the national electricity grid; the power lines either haven’t reached their villages or the cost of connection is too high for them. But now, with help from the ILO and Australia, and encouraged by the central government some villagers can get low cost solar power as an alternative energy source. And new skills are required to bring solar power to Bangladesh’s villages, which is creating the demand for “green jobs” to get the job done.

  11. Breaking the barriers

    29 June 2012

    This video documents the inclusion of people with disabilities in skills training programmes supported by the ILO through the TVET Reform Project in Bangladesh.

  12. Bangladesh: Minding her own business

    13 August 2004

    In tribal areas of Bangladesh, women generally follow a traditional way of life and it’s the men who go out to work or go into commerce. But increasing numbers of women are getting help from programmes supported by the International Labour Organization and setting up and running their own businesses, ILO TV now reports.

  13. BANGLADESH GARMENT WORKERS: A CUT ABOVE THE REST

    22 April 2004

    Millions of women in developing countries work in the garment industry, sewing clothes which are exported the world over. But the better paid jobs are often the preserve of men. The International Labour Organization promotes rights in the workplace and an end to sex discrimination. ILO TV now reports from a factory in Bangladesh where women are proving they, too, can be a cut above the rest.

  14. Shipbreakers

    22 October 2001

    On 20 kilometers of sloping beaches in Bangladesh, an army of men daily perform some of the world’s toughest work. Tankers that survived years of high-seasoned heavy loads are now dismantled as they were built, by hand.

  15. The Shipbreakers

    01 September 2000

    Few nations are willing to accept the dirty and dangerous work of dismantling a ship by hand. It is one of the world's most unregulated and hazardous industries, leaving a trail of debris, disability and death in its wake. At the same time, it is an industry that supplies much needed income to Bangladeshi workers who have few decent alternatives.