Promoting Green Growth in the Ready-Made Garments Sector Through Skills (PROGRESS)

Promoting Green Growth in the Ready-Made Garments Sector Through Skills (PROGRESS) project envisions contributing to the development of an inclusive, environmentally responsible, and competitive RMG sector in Bangladesh that can offer productive, well paid, secured, and decent job opportunities to workers, mostly women, and at the same time, adapt to the evolving needs of the global market in terms of technological advancement and ESG standards. 
invalid
Chattogram
22.356851
91.7831819
invalid
Dhaka
23.810332
90.4125181
invalid
Gazipur
23.9999405
90.4202724
invalid
Narayangonj
23.7146601
90.563609
Project duration
2022 - 2026
Financed by
  • Swedish International Development Cooperation Agency (Sida)

With around 82% of the total export value, the RMG sector has continued to be the major driving force behind Bangladesh’s economic success story. There are still major areas of improvement on several fronts. Bangladesh still lags considerably in productivity, compared to the other RMG exporting countries. The major reasons behind productivity issues are the lack of skills among the production workers and limited adoption of modern industrial engineering principles, particularly in relation to automation and the green transition. The project aims to support RMG factories and implement sustainable skills training system the project aligns its objectives with Sweden’s aim of creating greater opportunities for productive employment with decent working conditions for RMG workers.

The Project

The primary challenges the PROGRESS project will address are the limited opportunities for workers, mostly women, to be employed in productive and well-paid jobs that are also secured and decent in nature. While limited opportunities for upskilling and reskilling prevents both existing workers and new labour market entrants from being either promoted or employed in secured and decent jobs, women workers suffer from this the most and are likely to do more so in future unless the underlying problems are addressed.

The underlying problems include lack of sustainable industry-driven technical skills development initiatives in the RMG sector resulting in lack of skilled labour force (particularly women). All these underlying and related challenges can be turned into opportunities by the factories, for themselves and for the workers (particularly women), with appropriate and timely interventions.

From the service market perspective, lack of local technical service providers related to skills development, productivity improvement, and ESG compliance of RMG factories is a problem that needs to be addressed sustainably as well. 

To tackle these needs, the PROGRESS project will support the factories to improve the technical skills of factory workers and overall productivity. Additionally, by supporting the factories improve their environmental and social compliance, PROGRESS will enable the factories to become more attractive to the large global buyers for large consistent orders. Also, the project will support the factories to run in-house training on technical skills of factory workers to upgrade their skills.

Project Goals

  • RMG workers (including 60% women) have better retention rates and increased income due to improved technical skills and productivity.
  • Tier-2 and Tier-3 RMG factories have improved productivity and environmental and social compliance and are offering decent employment to their workers.

Expected Results

  • 500 personnel of Tier-2* and 3* factory management will have an improved understanding of running in-house training system.
  • 40 factories of Tier-2 RMG factories will adopt the IBT (industry-based training) model.
  • 10 factories of Tier-3 RMG factories will adopt the IBT (industry-based training) model.
  • 9,000 workers (60% women) workers will demonstrate increased productivity after training completion.
  • 15,000 workers (60% women) workers will benefit with better working conditions due to improved productivity, and environmental and social compliance.

* Tier-2 factories are located outside the Export Processing Zones. They are both large and medium in size; mostly owned by domestic entrepreneurs but have direct long-term business relations with the international buyers. Tier-3 factories comprise of medium and small-scale factories that have no direct links with international buyers or no capability to open a letter of credit. These factories often operate in rented buildings and usually rely on subcontracted orders from the Tier-2 factories. Most of these factories have challenges in compliance with social and environmental standards.

All these underlying and related challenges can be turned into opportunities by the factories, for themselves and for the workers (particularly women), with appropriate and timely interventions including setting up inhouse industry-based training (IBT) models.