The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH on behalf of the Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) is implementing the project “Sustainability In the Textile And Leather Sector” (STILE).
The objective of the project is to “strengthen Public and private sector actors’ capacity to fulfil their mandate and responsibilities to ensure compliance with social and environmental standards in the textile-, garment and leather industry in Bangladesh.”
The project consists of four outputs:

• Output 1: The institutional capacities of selected public institutions responsible for ensuring compliance with social standards have been strengthened.

Output 1 will focus on strengthening the institutional capacities of Bangladesh’s Labour inspectorate (Department of Inspection for Factories and Establishments, DIFE);

• Output 2: The prerequisites for the regulatory and organisational performance of selected public institutions in the area of the environment have improved.

Output 2 will focus on strengthening the regulatory and enforcement capacities of Bangladesh’s Ministry of Environment, Forests and Climate Change (MoEFCC) as well as the country’s environmental protection agency (Department of Environment, DoE);

• Output 3: Private sector measures have complemented public sector initiatives to improve compliance with social and environmental standards.

Output 3 will focus on aligning private sector initiatives to foster compliance with social and environmental standards with measures taken by the government to ensure better implementation of sustainability standards; and

• Output 4: Workers In the textile and leather industry have been actively advocated to increase compliance with social and environmental standards in their working and living environment.

Output 4 will focus on encouraging workers in the textile-, garment and leather industry to actively advocate for compliance with social and environmental standards in their working and living environment.
Within this context, GIZ has contracted Particip GmbH to implement Output 4.
Output 4 focuses on four areas of intervention:
(1) developing and implementing at least five awareness-raising and information campaigns and designing related communication materials regarding social and environmental sustainability and pandemic preparedness measures in the textile- and leather clusters,
(2) conducting capacity development measures for at least ten Women Cafés of selected Non-Governmental Organisations (NGOs) to support them with educating workers regarding their rights and duties at the workplace and fostering conflict-resolution services,
(3) developing and implementing capacity development measures, and providing advisory services for workers and employers to initiate measures to improve compliance with social standards together with the management in 100 factories using Worker Participation Committees (WPCs), and
(4) monitoring and evaluating workers' activities in actively advocating to increase compliance with social and environmental standards in their working and living environment.