Business Partnerships for Global Goals COVID-19 Vulnerable Supply Chain Facility Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Learning Series
Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Improving occupational health and safety in ready-made garment factories during COVID-19 Learning Brief By Nicola Doody, Business Innovations Advisor, BP4GG and Rahul Malik, Garments Projects Lead, BP4GG Business Partnerships for Global Goals is a UKAid funded programme implemented by Mott MacDonald, with support from Accenture Development Partnerships and IIED. We partner with UK and international retail brands, not-for-profit organisations, farms, and factories to provide economic, social, and health benefits to around 1 million vulnerable women and men impacted by COVID-19 in Africa and Asia.
COVID-19 hit global garment workers and supply chains particularly hard as clothes sales fell and many countries implemented lockdowns resulting in factories closing. Many of these garment workers were already vulnerable, with no wage-protection schemes, household savings or government safety nets; COVID-19 put them even further at risk.
Learnings presented at BP4GG garments sector learning event on 21st April 2021, attended by the following Vulnerable Supply Chain Facility partners: • CARE International • Ethical Trading Initiative • GoodWeave International • Impactt • Marks & Spencer • New Look • Primark • Sainsbury’s • Tesco • VF Corporation
For garment workers in countries like Bangladesh and Myanmar, where 91%¹ and 24%² respectively of total exports are textiles, the impact has been devastating from both a livelihoods and health perspective. Many workers lost their jobs entirely whilst others were faced with late, reduced and in some instances no pay³. Garment workers face the health risks of COVID-19 in that if they do get sick, they may not have insurance or sick pay coverage⁴. The pandemic has also put a strain on other sides of workers’ health, with reports of increased physical abuse, increased mental pressure, and reduction of ante- and post-natal care services⁵.
Participants study a COVID-19 safety poster in a training session supported by ETI in Bangladesh. Photo credit: Ethical Trading Initiative
A GoodWeave/Awaj Foundation COVID-19 safety compliance trainee, Bangladesh. Photo credit: GoodWeave International
To respond to some of the challenges posed by COVID-19 on garment and agriculture sectors, the Business Partnerships for Global Goals programme’s Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility (VSCF) was established by the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Within this facility FCDO is partnering with UK and international businesses and civil society organisations to support a range of factory- and community-level operational safety and women’s health interventions. As a result of work conducted so far, there are four key learnings for brands, NGOs, and donors to consider when designing and implementing future Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) programmes for garment workers.
1. Both hardware and software is important For garment factory workers, the fixed heavy machinery on the factory floor can prevent proper social distancing. A key part of VSCF’s garment projects has therefore been providing immediate interventions to protect workers from COVID-19. Through our work with CARE International, hand washing facilities have been established within factories and COVID-19 Safety Management Plans put in place. The Plans ensure face masks are worn, encourage employees’ hand washing, and establish multiple entry and exit points. Similarly, through our work with the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI), OHS kits containing facemasks, soap, and hand sanitiser have been distributed to 19,156 factory workers and supervisors in six factories, with another 25,000 kits planned for another 14 factories. While such approaches are vital to protecting those in the garment supply chain, our work across 20 factories with ETI in Bangladesh determined that whilst factories may invest in required “hardware” such as wash basins, soap, and new factory floor outlines, they would likely not invest in the “software” such as training, monitoring, and ongoing OHS advice to further embed behaviour change. This was also seen through our work with CARE in Bangladesh and Impactt in Myanmar: whilst factories in these projects had put in place cleaning regimes, temperature checks, and there was a high level of awareness of COVID-19 safety measures required; compliance, knowledge, and understanding of these was more of a problem. Moreover, compliance was found to be an even greater issue once workers leave the factory setting, and where they are often reliant on public transport to get to and from work, as well as gathering in small areas for breaks and food. Our work is therefore focusing on the softer aspects of OHS, including emphasis on behaviour change, helping improve how factories and workers adopt better practices in personal lives and less formal work situations.
Workers at a factory in Bangladesh participate in a COVID-19 awareness session delivered by CARE. Photo credit: CARE International ¹ https://oec.world/en/profile/country/bgd ² https://oec.world/en/profile/country/mmr ³ https://www.ilo.org/asia/publications/WCMS_760374/lang--en/index.htm ⁴ https://www.careinternational.org.uk ⁵ CARE’s rapid gender assessment conducted for BP4GG VSCF project design
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2. Focus on the why not the how A key early learning was the importance of focusing on behaviours rather than rules and policy. Shifting to the ‘why’ not the ‘how’ of safe behaviors and considering employee involvement and personal responsibility. However, shifting behaviour takes time and resources, and recognising that VSCF projects only have a 12-month lifespan, a key focus across our projects, from the start, has been on how such behaviours continue once projects have completed. To enable such behavioural change, projects have delivered training material across multiple channels, and have considered how such training will be ‘left behind’ upon project completion. This has included a focus on: • • •
Digital: such as the digital tablet based OHS awareness raising training which will reach over 30,000 workers in 20 factories via our work with ETI. Physical: handing out posters and stickers within factories and across worker communities reaching over 16,800 beneficiaries through our project with GoodWeave International. Capacity building: increasing the number of factory master trainers to enable sustained training and proper monitoring with effective OHS awareness training for all workers through our work with CARE and ETI. In addition, 560 workers employed in subcontracted factories were trained on COVID-19 safety by Awaj.
Providing a consistent supply of information within factories and across communities is key. Regular reviews and engagements with and across all stakeholders within factories enable material to stay relevant, and can increase the level of participation, knowledge, and adoption, all leading to sustainable impact.
COVID-19 safety awareness poster distributed to factories supported by the ETI Garments project in Bangladesh
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3. Factory Engagement is critical This focus on working with garment factories and considering their needs is proving to be of huge importance in enabling the delivery of work at a time when factories are facing enormous financial pressure. Engaging factories across management levels as early as possible was quickly learnt to be key, with partners recognising that in future this should ideally be done in project design phases. For example, the close engagement with factory management by Impactt in Myanmar in late 2020 was crucial to the delivery of cash support to workers, but in a complex and everchanging environment the arrangements took several more months to put in place than was originally foreseen. Furthermore, consulting with factory management on how best to roll-out activities in a way that will be minimally disruptive or burdensome to production ensured their buy-in. Factory management buy-in is not only crucial for successful delivery of these projects but will also be crucial for on-going sustainability of practices. In addition, incorporating project delivery into existing factory systems can increase factory engagement. Examples include utilising existing training structures and systems, using factory staff as trainers/change models (in the case of CARE’s project), or incorporating the project’s best practices within an organisation’s management and business plan. Such alignment is believed to be crucial in ensuring factories feel OHS initiatives are good for business, rather than an additional “to do” on a long list of priorities.
4. Partnerships can be key drivers of sustainable change Our work with ETI found there is a huge value in bringing suppliers together to learn from each other. Through this project an Expert Support Network made up of factories and other stakeholders has been established to exchange information, innovate solutions, and provide further support and scale-up of activities. This is demonstrating that there’s a real need among suppliers to discuss ways to improve their COVID-19 response and is a network that will be in place once the project has concluded, helping drive sustained impact. The role of brands should also not be forgotten: building on existing partnerships and having brands, who are in it for the long haul, involved and investing in these projects is key. The importance of tri-party partnerships between brands, suppliers, and civil society organisations can help ensure appropriate incentives for change from all angles and build consensus for sustainable results. It also has the multiplying benefits of driving local business buy-in, ownership, and continued engagement, and is seen to be a key driver of longer-lasting sustainable change.
Conclusion The COVID-19 pandemic has placed some of the world’s most vulnerable workers in an even more precarious position. Projects such as those run through the Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility have supported some of these workers with both; immediate relief and interventions, and the tools to achieve sustained health and safety improvements. But more work is needed. Through the sharing of these key learnings it is hoped even more vulnerable workers will be resilient to future health shocks. Business Partnerships as a Force for Good Learning Series VSCF Vision “To enable vulnerable people and supply chains to recover from and remain resilient to the economic and social impacts of COVID-19, by leveraging the reach and influence of responsible businesses through partnerships.” VSCF Mission “To enable recovery and resilience from the COVID-19 pandemic by forming strategic partnerships with global businesses. Working within supply chains in Africa and Asia, we will test and scale approaches to provide additional health and safety support, increase incomes, safeguard jobs, and ensure continuing access to markets. We will support vulnerable people within supply chains to recover from COVID-19, and support responsible businesses to build on these experiences to become more sustainable.”
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