THE NORDIC CONNECTION Textile products make up for the bulk of trade exchange between Sweden, Norway and Bangladesh. How the industry develops affects all involved in it: companied, organisations, public agencies and those who work in the factories. Eighty percent of garment industry workers in Bangladesh are women, and dialogue on gender equality is therefore essential if the industry is to develop favorably. Nordic buyers place great value in ethical production, and in the Nordic context, gender equality is highly valued and often discussed. Gender equality has a prominent place in the policies and ambitions of Nordic foreign policies.
THE INDUSTRY’S COMMITMENT
Scandinavian companies are of importance to the RMG sector in Bangladesh, with significant purchasing volumes, and are willing to take responsibility for the social conditions they are a part of there. Since eighty per cent of the workers in clothing manufacturing are women, the gender perspective in crucial, and in a number of widely publicised reports Swedish organisations have identified it as a key to understanding and influencing development in Bangladesh. Dialogue on the need for greater equality in Bangladesh needs to start from the operations primarily involved – the garment factories. The assumption is that through theirs work in the production line, seamstresses develop skills of value to the company in terms of increased productivity and fewer deviations from quality. This strengthens the argument that professional mobility is both a gender equality issue and a potential competitive advantage vis-á-vis the production countries now competing with the RMG sector in Bangladesh by adopting a lower cost position.
THE CAREER TALK – AN EFFECTIVE WORKSHOP PROCESS The purpose of THE CAREER TALK is to collect a valid inventory of challenges and possible solutions to the specific issue of creating career paths for seamstresses in the RMG industry in Bangladesh. This is to be done through sharing background material, preparatory work and experiences from planned and on-going projects and initiatives by organisations and companies. To ensure that the discussion are concrete in nature, the workshop will specifically seek to identify methods and approaches that enhance professional mobility among seamstresses so that they can go from ‘operators’ to ‘supervisors’ and thereby acquire greater responsibility, greater influence and, by extension, higher pay. During the first CAREER TALK in Dhaka in November 2017, we focused on identifying why there are lack of career paths for women in the textile industry in Bangladesh.
RESULTS FROM 2017 The purpose of the workshop in November was to identify the main causes to lack of career paths for women in the textile industry in Bangladesh. Individual presentations were followed by a logical framework analysis (LFA) workshop, which aimed to create a joint understanding of the issue. The method is an efficient way to make all participants heard in a big group, which in turn increases participation and feeling of ownership. The participants of THE CAREER TALK identified three main causes for the lack of career paths for women: • Negative mind-set of management • Women’s overburden and mental health • Lack of confidence These problems were then turned into the following goals: • Stimulate a positive mind-set amongst management • Provide support to facilitate opportunities • Increase confidence amongst women All of the conclusions have several subgroups and underlying issues, they are all illustrated in the “LFA-tree” in appendix 1.
THE WAY FORWARD IN 2018 The second CAREER TALK, taking place in Dhaka in May 2018, builds on the results of the workshop in November. This time we will focus on identifying what effects gender inequality can have on different stakeholders and identify ways to strengthen cooperation between stakeholders involved. A clear conclusion from last year’s workshop was the stakeholders identified a need for cooperation and expressed will to participate in such. This participation will be taking place in the fields between the actors – and it is therefore crucial to further disseminate how gender equality affects different stakeholders. By applying LFA methodology to this topic, we will achieved a more detailed knowledge base, that stakeholders can use in their cooperative efforts.