Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives

The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in April, 2013 resulting in the death and injury of more than 2,000 workers from the country’s export garment industry was one of the worst industrial disasters in recorded history. The tragedy galvanized a range of stakeholders to take action to...

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Main Authors: Kabeer, Naila, Haq, Lopita, Sulaiman, Munshi
פורמט: Working Paper
שפה:en_US
יצא לאור: BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD) 2022
נושאים:
גישה מקוונת:http://hdl.handle.net/10361/15845
id 10361-15845
record_format dspace
spelling 10361-158452022-01-10T21:01:50Z Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives Kabeer, Naila Haq, Lopita Sulaiman, Munshi Bangladesh CSR Garment industry Garment workers NGOs Rana Plaza The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in April, 2013 resulting in the death and injury of more than 2,000 workers from the country’s export garment industry was one of the worst industrial disasters in recorded history. The tragedy galvanized a range of stakeholders to take action to prevent future disasters. Prominent in these efforts were two multi-stakeholder agreements which brought together lead buyers, trade unions, and NGO’s in a concerted effort to improve health and safety conditions in the industry. These initiatives represent a move away from the buyer-driven compliance-based model that continues to dominate CSR to what is being described as a “cooperation-based” model which brings together multiple stakeholders who affect and are affected by the business operations of lead MNC’s in global value chains. This paper is concerned with the experiences and perceptions of workers with regard to these new initiatives. It examines competing interpretations of stakeholder analysis within the CSR literature and uses these to frame its key research question: has the shift from compliance to co-operation as the basis of CSR a promising way forward or merely a shift in rhetoric? We use a survey of garment workers to explore the extent to which these initiatives have brought about improvements in wages and working conditions in the garment industry, where progress has been slowest and why. The paper then provides recommendations, derived from its findings, to protect ‘the innocent’. 2022-01-10T04:01:15Z 2022-01-10T04:01:15Z 2019 2019-01 Working Paper http://hdl.handle.net/10361/15845 en_US https://bigd.bracu.ac.bd/publications/multi-stakeholder-initiatives-in-bangladesh-after-rana-plaza-global-norms-and-workers-perspectives/ application/pdf BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)
institution Brac University
collection Institutional Repository
language en_US
topic Bangladesh
CSR
Garment industry
Garment workers
NGOs
Rana Plaza
spellingShingle Bangladesh
CSR
Garment industry
Garment workers
NGOs
Rana Plaza
Kabeer, Naila
Haq, Lopita
Sulaiman, Munshi
Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives
description The collapse of the Rana Plaza building in Bangladesh in April, 2013 resulting in the death and injury of more than 2,000 workers from the country’s export garment industry was one of the worst industrial disasters in recorded history. The tragedy galvanized a range of stakeholders to take action to prevent future disasters. Prominent in these efforts were two multi-stakeholder agreements which brought together lead buyers, trade unions, and NGO’s in a concerted effort to improve health and safety conditions in the industry. These initiatives represent a move away from the buyer-driven compliance-based model that continues to dominate CSR to what is being described as a “cooperation-based” model which brings together multiple stakeholders who affect and are affected by the business operations of lead MNC’s in global value chains. This paper is concerned with the experiences and perceptions of workers with regard to these new initiatives. It examines competing interpretations of stakeholder analysis within the CSR literature and uses these to frame its key research question: has the shift from compliance to co-operation as the basis of CSR a promising way forward or merely a shift in rhetoric? We use a survey of garment workers to explore the extent to which these initiatives have brought about improvements in wages and working conditions in the garment industry, where progress has been slowest and why. The paper then provides recommendations, derived from its findings, to protect ‘the innocent’.
format Working Paper
author Kabeer, Naila
Haq, Lopita
Sulaiman, Munshi
author_facet Kabeer, Naila
Haq, Lopita
Sulaiman, Munshi
author_sort Kabeer, Naila
title Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives
title_short Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives
title_full Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives
title_fullStr Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives
title_full_unstemmed Multi-Stakeholder initiatives in Bangladesh after Rana Plaza: Global norms and workers’ perspectives
title_sort multi-stakeholder initiatives in bangladesh after rana plaza: global norms and workers’ perspectives
publisher BRAC Institute of Governance and Development (BIGD)
publishDate 2022
url http://hdl.handle.net/10361/15845
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AT haqlopita multistakeholderinitiativesinbangladeshafterranaplazaglobalnormsandworkersperspectives
AT sulaimanmunshi multistakeholderinitiativesinbangladeshafterranaplazaglobalnormsandworkersperspectives
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