Promoting Decent Work through Productivity and Workplace Cooperation interventions in South Africa’s clothing manufacturing sector

In order to address the challenges facing the clothing manufacturing industry in South Africa, the project seeks to improve the support ecosystem to help SMEs and their workers improve productivity and working conditions through two complementary components. First, the project will seek to improve the capacities of government and national institutions and sector organisations that are already providing support to the clothing manufacturing sector to deliver high quality and accessible services to SMEs in the sector. This is to ensure that they have improved technical capacities to continue to support the sector beyond the lifetime of the project. Specifically, the project will strengthen the capacity of relevant government departments that oversee the sector including the National Bargaining Council for the Clothing Manufacturing Industry (NBCCMI) and Productivity SA, as well as improve the performance of Business Support Organisations (BSOs). Second, the project will focus on improving enterprise competitiveness in the sector through the implementation of productivity focused interventions in at least 45 textile and clothing manufacturing firms. A special emphasis will be given to social and environmental sustainability in order to also address the critical challenges of climate change and the need for greener and more resource efficient and cleaner production. This will be done in close collaboration with the selected BSOs. The project will assess the current state of overall export competitiveness in each enterprise through baseline assessments across several KPIs covering areas of workplace cooperation, quality management, resource efficiency and cleaner production, occupational safety and health and human resources management, pre-and post-production capabilities and capacities of enterprises, as well as the state of gender equality.

Project symbol

ZAF/23/01/FLA

Admin unit

DWT/CO-Pretoria

Start date

02/05/2023

End date

01/05/2025

Total allocation

397257

Total expenditure

Status

Active

373938

Development Partners

Belgium, Government of Flanders, Department of Foreign Affairs

Country/Countries

South Africa

Outcomes

Outcome 4: Sustainable enterprises for inclusive growth and decent work
Outcome 3: Full and productive employment for just transitions