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UNDP, BGMEA launch RMG sector sustainability report
28 Jun '21
2 min read
Pic: UNDP/BGMEA
The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) and the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association (BGMEA) recently took the first step towards a consolidated industry approach to private sector sustainability reporting in association with the principal coordinator for Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) affairs in the prime minister's office and technical support from Global Reporting Initiative (GRI).
Amsterdam-based GRI is an international independent standards organisation that helps businesses, governments and other organisations understand and communicate their impact on issues like climate change, human rights and corruption.
While the Bangladesh Financing Strategy expects a 42 per cent contribution from the private sector to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) financing and the 8th Five-Year Plan envisions 75 per cent of the achievements to be supported by private sector, no impact on SDGs consolidated by the industry has yet been reported.
UNDP and BGMEA have launched a RMG sector sustainability report: ‘A Pathway To Manage Private Sector Impact on Bangladesh National Priority Indicators (NPIs) & SDGs’.
In the last few months, 47 BGMEA member units conducted sustainability self-reporting translating their impact into the language of NPIs and SDGs. The efforts of the 47 factories were consolidated in the report.
"In Bangladesh, the Readymade Garments sector not only contributes to economic development, but also to SDG achievement: it provides employment; supports healthcare of the workforce; invests in up-skilling the workforce; adopts resource recycling; increasingly uses renewable energy, and so on. While some individual factories produce sustainability reports, the appreciation of the magnitude of the impacts has so far remained outside of systematic studies and reporting making it difficult to understand industry trends and align private sector efforts to government goals," UNDP resident representative Sudipto Mukerjee was quoted as saying in a BGMEA press release.
"With this report we wanted to measure the RMG industry’s impact on SDGs to communicate with key stakeholders, such as the government, buyers, trade partners and communities so that together we can take action to support the country. We hope to inspire more RMG factories and other industries to undertake sustainability reporting in the future as it is a key step in the journey of translating the private sector contribution to SDG financing into concrete achievements and future actions." said BGMEA president Rubana Huq.
Amsterdam-based GRI is an international independent standards organisation that helps businesses, governments and other organisations understand and communicate their impact on issues like climate change, human rights and corruption.
While the Bangladesh Financing Strategy expects a 42 per cent contribution from the private sector to achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) financing and the 8th Five-Year Plan envisions 75 per cent of the achievements to be supported by private sector, no impact on SDGs consolidated by the industry has yet been reported.
UNDP and BGMEA have launched a RMG sector sustainability report: ‘A Pathway To Manage Private Sector Impact on Bangladesh National Priority Indicators (NPIs) & SDGs’.
In the last few months, 47 BGMEA member units conducted sustainability self-reporting translating their impact into the language of NPIs and SDGs. The efforts of the 47 factories were consolidated in the report.
"In Bangladesh, the Readymade Garments sector not only contributes to economic development, but also to SDG achievement: it provides employment; supports healthcare of the workforce; invests in up-skilling the workforce; adopts resource recycling; increasingly uses renewable energy, and so on. While some individual factories produce sustainability reports, the appreciation of the magnitude of the impacts has so far remained outside of systematic studies and reporting making it difficult to understand industry trends and align private sector efforts to government goals," UNDP resident representative Sudipto Mukerjee was quoted as saying in a BGMEA press release.
"With this report we wanted to measure the RMG industry’s impact on SDGs to communicate with key stakeholders, such as the government, buyers, trade partners and communities so that together we can take action to support the country. We hope to inspire more RMG factories and other industries to undertake sustainability reporting in the future as it is a key step in the journey of translating the private sector contribution to SDG financing into concrete achievements and future actions." said BGMEA president Rubana Huq.
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