Background – Bangladesh is a major supplier of ready-made garments to the world market. Unfortunately, garment workers often face difficult social and working conditions, and the industry has a poor environmental record. However, slow changes are beginning to take place. Today, many buyers demand goods produced by companies that respect certain social and environmental standards, goods that are produced with an emphasis on corporate social responsibility (CSR). To be able to meet these standards, managers need to understand these changing standards themselves as well how to achieve them.

Project – Lidl, a major department store chain in Germany, sources some of its textiles from Bangladesh. Noticing that many Bangladeshi producers lacked information on social and environmental standards, Lidl contacted the German Society for Technical Cooperation (GTZ), which subcontracted Swisscontact to implement a social-compliance training project for textile companies in Bangladesh. Swisscontact develops training materials and trains CSR experts to work in Bangladesh. These CSR experts then conduct workshops to introduce factory representatives to social-compliance issues. During factory visits, the experts advise compliance officers in strategies to improve social conditions at the factories in such areas as work schedules, salaries, safety, and the environment. After receiving training from CSR experts, the textile companies can develop strategies to help their operations meet social standards. They are able to continue this work long after the training has ended—without additional outside help.
In the framework of the project, CSR experts focus on companies that supply at least some of their products to Lidl. But once they have been trained by Swisscontact, these same experts can offer their services to any textile company, and so they can ultimately contribute to improving working and social conditions throughout the textile sector in Bangladesh. Price pressure in the textile sector is enormous, so customers in the countries where the textiles are sold must be willing to pay a premium for products that are manufactured in a socially responsible way.This project, initiated by leading retailer Lidl, shows that this is increasingly the case.