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Technical Cooperation Project Summary

Project Title

Mainstreaming the Verification and Monitoring System for the Elimination of Child Labor in the Garment Factories in Bangladesh, Phases 1 – 3

Region/Country

ASIA/Bangladesh

Project Duration

1995 – April 2004

Fiscal Year & Funding Level

FY 1995      USD 867, 273
FY 1996      USD 840,779
FY 2001      USD 375,572

Problem to be Addressed

A 1995 survey estimated that over 40% of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) factories were employing children under 14 years of age. 

Results

This project withdrew 27,923 children aged 5-14 from hazardous work in the BGMEA factories in Dhaka, Bangladesh.

Project Objectives

Contribute to the elimination of child labor in the Bangladesh garment industry.

Phase I intermediate objectives include:

  • Remove children under age 14 from the garment factories and provide them with educational opportunities;
  • Establish a monitoring and verification system; and
  • Raise awareness on the issue of child labor.

Phase II intermediate objectives include:

  • Continue to remove children from the garment factories and provide them with educational opportunities; and
  • Strengthen the monitoring and verification system.

Phase III intermediate objectives include:

  • Maintain and expand achievements of the monitoring system;
  • Include monitoring and verification system as an integral part of a new project covering labor relations and working conditions; and
  • Ensure that BGMEA and partners are prepared to handle the monitoring system without external technical assistance.

Summary of Activities

Phase I

  • Conducted a survey to identify children working in the garment industry;
  • Developed a monitoring and verification system and procedures;
  • Trained child labor monitors and labor inspectors from the Ministry of Labor to implement the monitoring and verification program;
  • Removed children from hazardous work in garment factories and linked them to educational opportunities;
  • Provided stipends to target children; and  
  • Prepared and distributed materials on project activities to key stakeholders.

Phase II

  • Established Child Labor Inspection Unit in the Ministry of Labor and Manpower and introduced a self-audit system with companies;
  • Continued to provide income replacement stipends to children;
  • Monitored factories and NFE centers;
  • Continued to identify and remove children from garment factories and coordinate with UNICEF to provide education and vocational training opportunities; and
  • Provided skills training to families.

Phase III

  • Continued monitoring visits to factories and NFE centers;
  • Identified working children and coordinated their enrollment in social assistance programs with UNICEF;
  • Re-trained monitors and BGMEA staff;
  • Developed a manual on child labor monitoring system;
  • Prepared a project document to cover labor relations and working conditions for BGMEA factories (maintaining child labor monitoring as part of the broader system);
  • Created an assistance cell in BGMEA to build the association’s internal capacity; and
  • Developed and tested pilot system to track the social impact on ex-child workers who have benefited from one or more components of the project.

Grantee

International Labor Organization’s International Program on the Elimination of Child Labor (ILO-IPEC)

Implementing Partners

Project based on Memoranda of Understanding, MOU 1 (July 1995) and MOU 2 (June 2000) signed between ILO-IPEC, Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA), and United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF) to jointly phase out child labor in the garment industry in Bangladesh.  Other partner agencies include Save the Children-UK;   Bangladesh Ministry of Labor; UNICEF in collaboration with local NGOs, Bangladesh Rural Advancement Committee (BRAC), Gonoshahajjo Sangstha (GSS) and the Social Investment Bank Ltd (SIBL).  Additional contributions from BGMEA, UNICEF, Italian Social Partner’s Initiative and the Norwegian Agency for Development Cooperation (NORAD).

Contact Information

Office of Child Labor, Forced Labor and Human Trafficking (OCFT)

(202) 693-4843