RAGS projects

Project partners

The fund supports initiatives in poorer African and Asian countries supplying the UK market and is open to companies, trade unions and NGOs working to improve labour conditions in the garment sector.  The fund promotes ethical trading principles, but also includes some projects which work specifically in Fairtrade certified supply chains.

RAGS projects are led by:

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• ActionAid Bangladesh
• Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI)
• Global March Against Child Labour (Foundation)
• Impactt Limited
• Monsoon Accessorize Limited
• Self Employed Women's Association Bharat
• People Tree Foundation
• Social Accountability International
• Tesco Stores Limited
• Women Working Worldwide
• Skillshare International

Project locations

RAGS supports projects located in low-income and lower-middle-income countries in Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia (excluding China).  Projects supported to date are being implemented in the following four countries:

• Bangladesh
• India
• Lesotho
• Nepal

Projects

RAGS supports projects that aim to develop or scale up responsible labour practices beyond a single workplace.  The seven key areas of intervention that RAGS funds are as follows:

• Building skills in garment production management: building the capabilities of RMG garments managers and homeworkers in poorer countries in a variety of areas, including production planning, quality management, and the organisation of production lines.
• Adopting better people management skills: building the skills and capacity of managers in RMG factories in poorer countries to adopt better people management systems and better industrial relations.
• Harmonising codes and audit requirements: harmonising or standardising private and retailer codes so that one audit is recognised by many buyers.
• Building awareness of workers’ rights and the capacity to enforce them: empowering women and other vulnerable workers to claim their worker rights through a variety of ways including improvements in collective organisation and knowledge of relevant labour laws, and improved capacity to negotiate and mediate with management.
• Strengthening local audit capacity: improving the skills and capacity of labour inspectors in the countries of intervention to ensure factories and workplaces comply with national and international labour standards.
• Capacity building and reach on fair trade principles: building awareness of fair trade principles in the UK and in the country of intervention concerned by improving the quality and design of products made by women and vulnerable RMG workers.
• Developing of training tools to assist replication and expansion of effective approaches: designing and delivering of training and capacity building initiatives to workers and managers in order to replicate or scale up existing activities.

Details of the 11 projects currently supported by RAGS can be found on the menu on right.