Changing the image of UK
fashion: Government launches fund to make fashion industry more ethical
DEPARTMENT FOR
INTERNATIONAL DEVELOPMENT News Release (Trade) issued by COI News
Distribution Service on 9 June 2009
A pioneering
initiative to help clothing manufacturers improve working
conditions for their producers in developing countries was today
launched by Minister for Trade and Development Gareth Thomas.
The RAGS (Responsible and Accountable Garment Sector) fund will
make £3.5 million available over three years for bids from
companies who want to make their clothing business more ethical
and contribute more strongly to development in poor countries.
A Challenge Fund will be set up that invites bids for work that
will make a real difference - which might include companies
working with unions and others to explore responsible business
practices, projects to raise workers' awareness of their
rights, and ways of generating more viable and decent jobs in
garment making in poorer areas.
The fund will support and encourage "ethical pioneers"
in the fashion industry - people and companies who have innovative
ideas with the potential to drive change in the garment sector.
Gareth Thomas launched RAGS with a group of models wearing
ethical fashion items as part of the first ever World Trade Week
UK; an event to highlight the importance of trade as a tool for
recovery from the global economic downturn.
Speaking at the launch today, Trade and Development Minister
Gareth Thomas said:
"RAGS is a fun name but it carries a
serious message. The garment sector has for too long been
associated with abuse and exploitation of workers in developing countries.
"I am therefore pleased to be able to launch this new
initiative, which will help to make a real difference to how
retailers in this country work with producers in developing
countries. The benefits of the garment sector for development are
huge - particularly for women - and it's important that we
encourage producers here to take more action to make a positive impact.
"Responsible, ethical production should be the norm in the
fashion industry, not the exception, and RAGS will help to change
the image of the fashion sector."
RAGS is the first initiative of its kind from the Department for
International Development (DFID) and will help to improve the
lives of people working in the garment sector, which employs some
20 million people worldwide.
The UK garment industry is heavily dependent on products from
developing countries - only 10 % of UK clothing is manufactured
here - but the sector comes under a lot of criticism for worker
abuses such as unfair pay and forced labour. RAGS responds to
calls for action for an end to such practices in the sector.
Notes to Editors
* RAGS will take the form of a Challenge Fund open to bids for a
range of ethical efforts in clothing, across large and small
businesses, labour and fair trade organisations.
* RAGS responds to calls for action towards more ethical
production and trade in this sector - an end to worker abuses such
as unfair pay, discrimination and forced labour.
* RAGS will help address these social dimensions of
'sustainable production' as part of the wider UK
Sustainable Clothing Action Plan, launched by Defra in February 2009
* DFID provides a range of other support to private sector
development and capacity to trade in poorer countries.
Please contact Stacey Vickers, s-vickers@dfid.gov.uk on 020 7023
0513 for further information.
DFID, the Department for International Development: leading the
British government's fight against world poverty. One in five
people in the world today, over 1 billion people, live in poverty
on less than one dollar a day.
Information Department 1 Palace Street, London SW1E
5HE.
Website: http://www.dfid.gov.uk
Public enquiries 0845 300 4100 (overseas +44 1355 84 3132)