Supplementary Award for RAGS Project to Benefit Suppliers

SAI is pleased to announce that its RAGS (Responsible and Accountable Garment Sector) Project in India has received a supplementary award from UK aid from the UK Government. This support is important for increasing opportunities for more supplier factories to participate in the program through subsidizing training costs.  

"Over the past year, we've experienced positive feedback from suppliers about their desire to participate, but lacked the means to cover the training costs," said SAI India Project Director Rishi Sher Singh. "Through this supplemental award, we are able to eliminate barriers to participation by making training more affordable to supplier factories."

In 2011, the RAGS project focused on scaling up the impacts and participation of brands and suppliers. As a public-private partnership, it includes the participation and support from PGC Switcher, Timberland and Gap Inc. The three key activities of the project are to build local capacity through 'training of trainers,' convene multi-stakeholder advisory committee (MAC) dialogues on gender discrimination, and strengthen local audit capacity to ensure ongoing compliance.  

In November 2011, SAI convened MAC dialogues on gender discrimination in Tirupur and New Delhi, engaging key stakeholders - NGOs, trade unions, companies, factory managers. The MAC dialogues focused on stakeholders' experiences and challenges in the garment sector and gender discrimination. In 2012 and 2013, the RAGS project will carry out training for supplier factories with curricula that integrates the findings from the MAC dialogues.  

Registration is now open - learn more at www.sa-intl.org/indiarags and contact SAI India Project Director Rishi Sher Singh - Rishi@sa-intl.org.