Nicaraguan garment workers benefit from Better Work Programme
NSCAG News |
on: Tuesday, 5 August 2014
Nicaragua’s Better Work programme has benefitted more than 38 thousand employees of the textile and garment sector. The programme is a partnership between the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Finance Corporation (IFO) to improve both compliance with labour standards and competitiveness in global supply chains of the garment industry.
Currently, more than 52 percent of the textile and garment sector’s labour force has taken part in the programme. According to Elena Arengo, Coordinator of the programme, this represents around 38 thousand employees who have been trained to improve the working environment, and the programme is working with 23 of the 47 production plants in the country.
The garment industry is one of Nicaragua’s most important manufacturing sectors in terms of employment generation and national income. Production plants are located in four major areas of the country—mainly in Managua, Masaya, Granada and the Pacific coast; investors are mainly North American, Nicaraguan, Mexican, Korean and Taiwanese.
Nicaragua is one of the seven countries in the world that have implemented the Better Work programme, having joined in 2011. The other countries with Better Work programmes are Cambodia, Haiti, Indonesia, Jordan, Lesotho and Vietnam.
The Better Work programme has been operational since 2009 and aims to have a significant and direct impact through its own country-based programmes in the garment sector, as well as indirect impact through its influence, knowledge sharing and partnerships.
