Sweden will fund a five-year project in Bangladesh’s RMG industry. The new initiative, which will continue from November 2015 to December 2020, is aimed at enhancing labor relations through improved dialogue between employers and workers, particularly at the workplace level.

Conciliation and arbitration mechanisms will be strengthened to become a more effective, trusted system. The capacity of workers and employers will be enhanced to engage in social dialogue and collective bargaining as well as to make effective use of dispute prevention and resolution mechanisms.

The project will also engage international buyers and trade unions. Although initially it is targeting the garment industry, the impact of the project will eventually cover all sectors. Sweden will partner with Bangladesh and ILO in this project, especially as it focuses on a sector where 80 per cent of workers are women.

This is a new endeavor in a series of initiatives undertaken in the clothing sector following a factory disaster in 2013. Bangladesh’s clothing sector has grown rapidly since the 1980s and currently comprises some 3,500 export-oriented factories which generate over 80 per cent of the nation’s export earnings. The industry currently employs an estimated 4.2 million workers. The European Union and the US are Bangladesh’s main garment export destinations.