Improving Working Conditions in the Ready-Made Garment Sector Programme In Bangladesh (2017-2023)

The ILO’s programme on Improving Working Conditions in Bangladesh’s Ready-Made Garments sector Phase II (2017-2023) funded by DFID, Canada and the Netherlands is a US$24.5 million, six-year programme aimed at improving working conditions and safety standards in the sector.

This programme provides technical assistance (TA) to the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) to monitor remediation of safety non-compliances in factory buildings via the Remediation Coordination Cell (RCC) support towards improved labour inspection capacity and governance; and seeks to mainstream occupational safety and health (OSH) and gender across the sector.

The ILO’s RMGP-II builds on existing efforts aimed at continually improving the Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments (DIFE) inspection capacity and reporting systems that will lead to:

• Strengthened capacity of DIFE, under the auspices of the RCC, to monitor and report on the remediation of 1,549 National Initiative (NI) factories i.e. structural integrity, fire and electrical safety
• Improved transparency and accountability in the enforcement of local legislation and International Labour Standards (ILS) and in particular concerning labour inspections and OSH;
• Policy and legislative reform and facilitated implementation of occupational safety and health measure.
• Improved enterprise-level compliance under Better Work Bangladesh

The areas of work defined above aim to support the growth of Bangladesh's RMG sectory by improving safety and working conditions, international competitiveness and the creation "decent work" in the RMG sector and beyond.

On a broader level, RMGP-II contributes to the achievement of Sustainable Development Goal target 8.8 i.e. a safe and secure working environment for all workers by 2030 and is aligned to the country’s 7th five year plan, United Nations Development Assistance Framework (2017-2020) and Bangladesh’s Decent Work Country Programme (2017-2020).