Gender and Development

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p. 2 of 35 BACK | NEXT Bangladesh Social Protection of Poor Female Workers in the Garment Sector in the Context of Changing Trade Environments Project, TA 4320, 2004 Cambodia Fiji Lao People's Republic Pakistan Viet Nam Indonesia Philippines Malaysia Nepal

Bangladesh

Social Protection of Poor Female Workers in the Garment Sector in the Context of Changing Trade Environments Project

TA 4320

The ADB has prepared a TA project to support the efforts of Bangladesh to mitigate the potential unemployment risks relating to the phasing out of the Multi-Fiber Agreement (MFA) quota restrictions. The TA will assist the country design and pilot-test interventions to contribute to social protection for female garment workers, to facilitate reemployment of those retrenched and develop options for those threatened by retrenchment.

The purpose of the TA is to reduce unemployment risks associated with the MFA phaseout and to improve job opportunities for female workers on the ready-made garment (RMG) industry. The TA will produce four major outputs:

1. a strategic report on possible approaches for post-MFA human-capacity development, employment, and social protection measures;
2. pilot projects to benefit female garment workers;
3. exchange of experiences; and
4. identification and documentation of lessons learned from the pilot projects, and scaling up of potentials.

The TA will build upon ongoing stakeholder activities to improve the RMG sector's competitiveness. Various pilot activities will be carried out through the private sector and NGO partners through the five key components and two phases of the TA.

1. Component 1: Strategy for Garment Workers. This will comprise the following:
   1. collection, analysis, verification, and synthesis of documents, data, and information;
   2. stakeholder interviews and focus group discussions with the target groups and development of methods to track the target group;
   3. elaboration of a clear vision about training needs and demands;
   4. identification of potential employers;
   5. elaboration of a set of post-MFA labor market and employment scenarios and strategies for workers;
   6. elaboration of possible measures in job creation, training and retraining, and social protection;
   7. identification of implementing partners;
   8. identification of necessary steps for scale-up and sustainability of services; and
   9. elaboration of terms of reference and detailed cost estimates for NGOs.
2. Component 2: Labor Market Pilot Programs. This component will carry out different types of women-friendly labor market programs to facilitate reemployment and social protection of retrenched RMG workers
3. Component 3: Social Protection Pilot Programs. This component will test different types of social assistance that could be scaled up.
4. Component 4: Identification and Documentation of Lessons Learned and Potential for Scale-Up.
5. Component 5: Exchange. The findings of component 4 will be shared with the key stakeholders in a national workshop, and further follow-up actions will be considered.

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