The UK government has partnered with businesses and launched a £6.85 million programme to protect supply chains of some developing countries including Bangladesh.
The new ‘Vulnerable Supply Chains Facility’ will help to ensure the steady supply of products like vegetables, coffee and clothes to the UK high street, the British High Commission in Dhaka said.
The facility, made up of £4.85 million UK aid and £2 million from businesses, will focus primarily on supply chains and workers in Myanmar, Bangladesh, Kenya, Uganda, Ethiopia, Tanzania, Rwanda and Ghana.
“These countries provide huge proportions of the world’s food, flowers and clothes. Ghana alone produces a quarter of the world’s cocoa and Bangladesh is the world’s second largest garment exporter.”
The scheme will support workers in developing countries during the coronavirus pandemic and help keep some of the UK’s favourite products on high street shelves
Programme will help nearly a million people in developing countries, including workers and their families.
The high street businesses, including Marks & Spencer, Sainsbury’s, Tesco, Morrisons, Co-op and Waitrose, will strengthen their global supply chains by supporting workers in developing countries during the coronavirus pandemic.
The new funding announced by International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan includes investment from UK businesses to keep vulnerable workers in their supply chains in safe and secure employment.
The UK imports 20 percent of its food and drink from developing countries.
The coronavirus pandemic has put many of these supply chains at risk as factories and farms worldwide have been forced to close temporarily.
The UK aid fund will partner up UK businesses including Morrisons, Tesco, Marks & Spencer and Primark with expert organisations such as CARE UK, the Fairtrade Foundation and the Ethical Trading Initiative to improve working conditions and support greater access to healthcare and health information for workers in some of the world’s poorest countries.
This is will help make workplaces safer, meaning employees can return to work and supply chains can keep moving and become more resilient.
“We want to ensure people in Britain can continue to buy affordable, high quality goods from around the world,” International Development Secretary Anne-Marie Trevelyan said.
“This new fund will strengthen vital supply chains for UK consumers, while supporting some of the most vulnerable workers in developing countries. It will make a real difference to people in the UK and abroad.”
The new facility will fund programmes to improve coronavirus preparedness in workplaces, help famers diversify the crops they produce to meet demand, and provide support so farms and factories can put processes in place to keep production going and make sure help is getting to the most vulnerable workers.
As part of the scheme, the Ethical Trading Initiative will improve workplace health and safety for vegetable, coffee and flower suppliers to UK brands such as Sainsbury’s, Co-op, Waitrose and Tesco.
It is estimated that 10,000 workers in African countries, mainly women, will benefit from safer working environments.
Overall, more than 200,000 workers in agriculture and nearly 120,000 garment workers are expected to benefit from the facility.
The improvements to these people’s working lives will indirectly benefit a further 650,000 people, including workers’ families and children, taking the total number of people in developing countries helped by the scheme to nearly 1 million (970,000), the British government said.
