The Gender Equality and Returns (GEAR) initiative was launched at a high-level International Women's Day reception, hosted by High Commission of Canada to Bangladesh Benoit Prefontaine at his residence, marking 2019 International Women’s Day.
Diplomats and representatives from UN agencies, development partners, donors, government bodies, civil society, private sector, employers’ organisations and unions attended the launching event, said a press release on Monday.
GEAR is a special initiative of Better Work Bangladesh – jointly implemented by IFC and the ILO. Rolled out in 2016, the programme has made significant strides in advancing women’s economic potential and improving access to better jobs and opportunities for women.
“I would slowly but surely like to rise from my current position as a supervisor to a line-chief, then an Assistant Production Manager and finally become a Production Manager,” said GEAR-trained supervisor Popy Aktar who works for Sparrow Apparels Ltd in Gazipur.
To date, GEAR has trained 144 female workers; 58 of whom are now in supervisory roles. Impact assessment shows that lines led by GEAR-trained females experienced an average increase of 5 percent in efficiency, according to ILO Bangladesh office.
The GEAR-promoted female supervisors also saw - on average - a 39 percent increase in salary.
After a successful pilot, Better Work is scaling up GEAR to train 700 female operators and their managers in 70 factories to promote career-progression opportunities for women in the RMG sector.
“Canada is advancing gender equality worldwide through Canada’s Feminist International Assistance Policy. It is not just about hiring or buying from women. It's about recognising talent, capabilities, and value that is too often disregarded due to gender bias,” said the Canadian High Commissioner.
Despite 80 percent of line-operators in the sewing sections of the garment sector being women, 19 out of 20 line-supervisors are male.
This means 90 percent of the managerial talent in factories comes from just 20 percent of the workforce.
Country Director, ILO Bangladesh Tuomo Poutiainen said, “Gender equality and gender empowerment was one of the core founding principles of the ILO in 1919. 100 years on and this is still central to our work. But much more needs to be done in advancing gender diversity - not just in the RMG sector but in every sector.”
Acting Country Manager, IFC Nuzhat Anwar said, "Increasing efficiency and broad-based employment is a key part of competitiveness for the RMG sector. There is a strong business case to have more females in leadership positions. Through the GEAR programme, we hope to actively work on increasing career-progression opportunities and promotion of women and addressing the gender imbalances in leadership roles in the garment sector."