New Governance: The Next Step for Bangladesh’s RMG Industry

Bangladesh’s ready-made garment industry has changed significantly since the Rana Plaza disaster in 2013. The collapse of the building exposed serious weaknesses in factory safety and raised difficult questions about the responsibility of factory owners, government agencies and international buyers. In the years that followed, factory inspections, safety programmes and compliance requirements increased considerably.
These changes were necessary. However, as the industry moves forward, Bangladesh needs to ask a broader question: is inspection alone enough to make the RMG sector safe, ethical and sustainable?
The answer may lie partly in what is known as New Governance. At its simplest, New Governance means bringing different actors together to deal with problems that cannot be solved effectively by government alone. In the case of the RMG industry, these actors include government agencies, factory owners, workers, trade unions, international brands, civil society organisations and other stakeholders.
This is different from the traditional approach, where government is expected to make the rules, inspect factories and take action when those rules are broken. Government regulation remains essential, but the nature of the garment industry has changed. Bangladesh’s factories are part of global supply chains, and decisions made by international buyers can have a direct impact on what happens inside a factory.
The Rana Plaza experience itself demonstrated the importance of bringing different stakeholders into the process. Following the disaster, the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety brought international brands and retailers into factory safety initiatives. These arrangements demonstrated something important: factory safety could not be treated simply as a matter between a Bangladeshi factory and a government inspector.
The establishment of the Remediation Coordination Cell and later the RMG Sustainability Council also reflected attempts to bring different stakeholders into the process of workplace safety and remediation. This does not mean reducing the role of government. The government must continue to set labour standards, enforce legislation and ensure that workers are protected. But government agencies cannot be present everywhere and no inspection system can identify every problem. Workers themselves can often provide information that an inspection team may never see.
This is why whistle-blowing deserves greater attention in Bangladesh’s RMG sector. A well-designed whistle-blowing system could allow workers and managers to report serious misconduct, safety concerns or other violations without fear of losing their jobs or facing retaliation. But simply creating a hotline or complaint box is not enough. Workers need confidence that complaints will be treated seriously and investigated independently.
There is also a role for people outside the factory and government system. Independent professionals, researchers, civil society organisations and other qualified groups can provide additional scrutiny of companies’ social and environmental performance. Their role can provide another layer of oversight and help identify issues that may otherwise remain unnoticed. For some businesses, sustainability can still become a matter of completing an audit, satisfying a buyer or obtaining a compliance certificate. A genuinely sustainable factory needs to consider its workers, its environmental impact, its relationship with suppliers and buyers, and the communities in which it operates. It also needs to be transparent about its performance.
This is where New Governance can make a practical difference. Rather than asking only whether a company has complied with a particular requirement, stakeholders can become involved in asking whether the company is actually behaving responsibly.
Bangladesh’s RMG industry is no longer competing only on the basis of production costs. International brands and consumers are paying increasing attention to labour conditions, environmental performance and responsible sourcing. If Bangladesh wants to retain and strengthen its position in the global apparel market, sustainability will increasingly become part of competitiveness. This should not be viewed simply as pressure from foreign buyers. It can also be an opportunity. A factory with good working conditions, effective employee relations, transparent reporting and strong internal controls is likely to be better prepared for the expectations of international buyers.
 
But achieving this will require a change in mindset. The industry needs to move away from seeing compliance as something that happens when an inspector arrives. Instead, responsible behaviour should become part of normal business practice.
This is the real potential of New Governance. Government can establish the legal framework and enforce minimum standards. Factory owners can improve internal systems and working conditions. Workers can report problems and participate in decisions affecting their safety. International brands can use their influence responsibly rather than simply transferring compliance responsibilities to suppliers. Trade unions and civil society can represent workers and provide independent scrutiny.
There are, of course, challenges. Collaboration can be slow. Different stakeholders have different interests, and disagreements are inevitable. There is also a risk that multi-stakeholder initiatives become symbolic rather than effective if participants are not held accountable. For this reason, New Governance should not mean replacing regulation with voluntary cooperation. It should complement regulation. Bangladesh needs strong laws and capable regulatory institutions alongside meaningful stakeholder participation. It also needs transparency so that workers, buyers, policymakers and the public can understand whether commitments are actually being fulfilled.
The RMG industry has already shown that major change is possible. The improvements in factory safety since Rana Plaza should not be underestimated. But safety is only one part of sustainability. The next phase should be about building an industry in which ethical behaviour, worker participation, transparency and environmental responsibility are treated as part of doing business rather than as requirements imposed from outside.
The question is no longer simply whether the government can inspect enough factories. It is whether all those who influence the RMG industry are prepared to share responsibility for its future. For Bangladesh, New Governance provides a way of thinking about that responsibility. It does not offer a quick solution, nor does it make government regulation unnecessary. What it offers is a more inclusive approach in which government, business, workers and other stakeholders have a role in solving problems and improving the industry.
Bangladesh built its RMG success through hard work, investment and integration with the global economy. Protecting that success will require more than producing garments at competitive prices. It will require an industry that the world can trust. New Governance could be an important step in making that happen.