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What financial inclusion obstacle are we supporting low-income people to navigate? What financial capability are we attempting to enable or develop? What – gives you access to MFO’s select publications organized around the content of a financial education curriculum or training manual. You can also gain access to the full set of Global Financial Education Program materials here.
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The EU’s HREDD Regulations: Potential Implications for the RMG Sector of Bangladesh
Over the next two months we’re happy to be sharing with you a series of Garment Worker Diaries blogs guest-written by our partner in the field, SANEM. For just under five years now MFO and SANEM have been collaborating in Bangladesh. In many ways these blogs are a culmination of where we have been together, and at the same time a glimpse into the future of the RMG industry.
This 1st blog post introduces the European Union’s Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) regulations, and discusses the potential impacts of the regulations to the RMG sector in Bangladesh (a Bangla language version of the blog can also be accessed here). The 2nd blog post will delve deeper into how the RMG sector in Bangladesh can comply with the HREDD directives. Two further blogs will in turn discuss worker well-being and the sustainability of the RMG sector in Bangladesh.
Each of these blogs has been informed by years’ worth of direct conversations with garment workers. And as the well-being of workers’ minds, bodies, the environments they live in, and corporate accountability within international supply chains take the lead in due diligence conversations, we hope the value of these direct conversations with workers will only keep increasing.
As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.
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Worker Well-Being
This week’s Garment Worker Diaries blog post sees us discussing different aspects of well-being with workers. We ask respondents to describe any physical and mental exhaustion they might experience at work, as well as their stress and energy levels. We also ask them to talk about more social aspects of well-being, such as respect in the workplace, feelings of financial security, and whether workers feel they have a good work-life balance. We think the insights workers have provided into their inner lives are important and we’re happy to be sharing their thoughts with you.
As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.
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Garment Worker Diaries Update in Bangladesh through September 2022
This week’s Garment Worker Diaries blog brings the project up to date in Bangladesh through September 2022, covering July and August as well. There were a few interesting developments to see, including the overall share of respondents reporting an illness in September dropping to some of the lowest levels yet.
As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.
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Living Wage, Living Planet: September 2022 Update
The Garment Worker Diaries initiative is happy to share with you the third part of our “Living Wage, Living Planet” series. In part one, we talked about how paying garment workers in Bangladesh a higher wage would be good policy not just for workers but also for the environment. In part two, we reported the results of our living wage calculations and showed how much garment workers in Bangladesh would need to be paid just to have a minimally decent life. In this blog, we present updated calculations based on new data related to food and housing collected 6 months later. In addition to presenting our new living wage numbers, this blog provides information about workers’ housing preferences and what they believe constitutes “good” or “bad” housing.
As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.
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Automation, Workload, and Wages
In this week’s Garment Worker Diaries blog we return to the subject of automation. After we published our first blog on workers and automation, we heard from folks at Remake who suggested we ask workers who had experienced automation some follow up questions related to changes in workloads and wages. It was a great suggestion, so in June we put together a set of follow up questions.
The results provide a nuanced picture of the ways in which the benefits of automation are shared between workers and their employers. Our questions also revealed the toll old machines take on the bodies of workers.
As always, you can send any questions you have for MFO, SANEM, the workers or about the project to questions@workerdiaries.org.
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