Towards decent work for all: Asia’s textile industry 10 years after Rana Plaza

Ten years ago, on 24 April 2013, the Rana Plaza building collapsed, killing over 1,000 people. Just a few months earlier, in September 2012, a fatal fire killed more than 250 workers at the Ali Enterprise textile factory in Pakistan. These terrible disasters cast a harsh spotlight on the dark side of the global textile supply chain. It generated a surge of action, with activist groups and civil society organizations lobbying for better health and safety conditions for garment workers. In Bangladesh, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety (ACCORD), a legally binding agreement aimed at ensuring that garment workers have safe workplaces, was established, succeeded by the Ready Made Garment Sustainable Council (RSC) being set up in May 2020. In Germany, the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) launched the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles as well as the state-run textile certification label Green Button.

The German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is hosting this event to highlight the improvements in Asia’s textile industry and to discuss remaining challenges. Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister for Economic Cooperation and Development Dr. Bärbel Kofler will be discussing these questions together with other high-level speakers.

You can find the agenda of the event here. 

You can access the live stream on 25 April here.