Terms of Reference (TOR)
for
Conducting the Research on Occupational Health and Safety, Workplace Accidents, and the Situation of the Rana Plaza Survivors, and Critically Review the status of the RMG industry in the last 10 years on effective operationalization of the decent work agenda.

Background

Despite the existence of national and international laws that protect workers’ right to safe and healthy working environments, factory conditions remain unsafe across the garment industry. Many of these safety and health hazards are longstanding. Some factories have lacked proper safety equipment for workers or exposed them to dangerous chemicals. Others have had unsafe electrical wiring, which increases the risk of fire—a danger often compounded by a lack of adequate alarm systems and escape routes.

The Rana Plaza building collapse incident in 2013 was one of the largest and deadliest industrial tragedies in the world. The Rana Plaza building, which housed five factories that produced garment products for the European and North American international fashion brands, fully collapsed killing over one thousand workers and injuring – causing permanent disabilities in many cases- to an additional one thousand people. What became the largest industrial accident in the country’s history brought national and global attention to the lack of governance and humanitarian crisis plaguing the ready-made garments (RMG) sector, which is a key driver of socio-economic development of Bangladesh. The Rana Plaza building collapse remains a symbol of poor compliance in workplace safety and appalling working condition in the RMG sector.

ActionAid Bangladesh is working to ensure that factories have healthy and safe working conditions as part of the decent work agenda. ActionAid Bangladesh and ActionAid Australia have been awarded an Australian NGO Cooperation Programme (ANCP) funded project named Decent Work for Garment Workers in Bangladesh with the aim to improve workplaces and ensure decent work for garments workers, and upskill people with disabilities (including those injured in Rana Plaza and Tazreen Garments incidents) and link them to job opportunities.As part of this project ActionAid Bangladesh planned to commission research to analyse the real scenario of the occupational health and safety of the garment workers along with the current status of the Rana Plaza survivors. The research will also  analyse the status of policies and measures,  in terms of institutional changes, legal and policy reforms, and structural modifications that have been adopted or implemented to address the workplace issues and challenges in the RMG sector in the last 10 years following the tragic incident.

Objective

Aims of this research project are:

• To find out and recognize the invisible occupational health and safety concerns of garments workers and to analyse the opportunity cost of these health and safety concerns.
• To understand the progress around rehabilitation and reintegration of Rana Plaza survivors and the policy architecture and progressive reforms around workers’ rights and safety. Critically review the status of the RMG industry in the last 10 years on effective operationalization of the decent work agenda.

Rationale

World-wide attention on worker safety in the garment industry has grown enormously since three devastating accidents that killed thousands of workers and shook the world: the factory fires of Ali Enterprises in Pakistan and Tazreen Fashions in Bangladesh in 2012, and the Rana Plaza collapse in 2013 in Bangladesh. But workers are not only threatened by unsafe buildings. Dangerous practices such as the unprotected use of chemical substances or sandblasting continue to be common in the industry. Even workers behind the sewing machine are exposed to health hazards such as noise, high temperatures, and repetitive motion. Fainting is common in factories where workers work long hours without proper ventilation or air conditioning and are paid too little to properly support themselves. Workers are also regularly subjected to verbal and psychological harassment and violence. The female workers, who make up most of the workforce in the industry, additionally are potential targets for gender-based violence and sexual harassment.¹

According to a study by the Asian Centre for Development (ACD), the average age of workers in the RMG sector in Bangladesh is 25.9 years.² We have also found that women people over 30 cannot work in garment factories as owners throw them out for different reasons. Baseline study report titled "Improving Working Conditions in the RMG Sector" published by the International Labour Organisation (ILO), the research for which was conducted by South Asian Network on Economic Modelling (SANEM), shows that 85% of the workforce are aged between 18 and 30 years.³ Also, workers aged 18-35 years make up 94.4% of the workforce.⁴ Moreover, they face lots of health issues. Moreover, due to long working hours workers also face lots of health hazards. The most common workplace hazards leading to health vulnerabilities in RMG workers are (a) ergonomic hazards; (b) physical hazards; (c) psychological hazards; (d) mechanical hazards; and (e) chemical hazards.⁵ Through the research, we want to explore the invisible hazards of garment workers and develop case studies to establish the invisible occupational health and safety concerns of garment workers.

In addition to the occupational health and safety hazards and ensuing challenges faced by garments workers, we also wanted to examine the progress and reforms addressing these issues over the last 10 years. Following the collapse of the Rana Plaza building, considered as one of the deadliest industrial tragedies, the RMG sector in Bangladesh saw comprehensive reforms and improvements in different areas such as workplace safety, occupational safety and health, law and policy reforms among others. Considerable efforts have been made by the government, non-government organizations, local manufacturers, international fashion brands and individual stakeholders to ensure compensation, rehabilitation and reintegration of the affected people and workplace safety. The collective effort of the stakeholders has driven institutional changes, legal and policy reforms, and structural modifications to address the challenges that afflicted the RMG sector prior to the incident. Given that 10 years has passed since the incident, it is time to to critically review the status of the industry and progress made so far and analyze what more is left to be done in order to collectively devise a future road map for further progress.

Description of task:

Conducting in-depth research to reflect on the current status and issues pertaining to the RMG industry in a post Rana Plaza era and also to analysis the current situation of the Rana Plaza survivors and present the last ten years trends⁶:

• Conduct KII and FGD 
• Prepare the survey questionnaire 
• Collect two separate sets of data ( One to analysis the situation of Rana Plaza Survivor and another to establish the invisible occupational health and safety concerns of garment workers)
• Analyzing the data and report writing it must include (Survivors’ physical and psychosocial well-being and Survivors’ overall economic condition)
• Critically review the status of the industry and progress made so far by analyzing the policies and measures taken in the last 10 years.
• Conduct enumerator/surveyor training.
• Contribute to Quantitative and Qualitative Analysis Plans and Patterns
• Analyze quantitative data, tables, graphs, and qualitative scripts.
• Develop case studies. 
• Prepare the presentation & summary of the research. 
• Presenting the research findings at different platforms 

Competency Required:

• Excellent technical knowledge of the development context in Bangladesh
• At least 5 years of previous research experience on garment worker's rights and policies –in particular, the experience of participatory and action-orientated approaches
• Significant professional background in conducting quantitative & qualitative research using participatory tools and methods.
• Significant professional experience  in worker's rights, laws & policies, and research
• Experience in developing participatory research tools and ensuring the quality of data collection.
• Experience in developing case studies. 
• Experience in running participatory training and workshop processes.
• Relevant academic background (Masters/Phd. in relevant subject)
• Excellent analytical, interpersonal, communication, and reporting skills.
• Excellent organizational skills
• Ability to work collaboratively.
• Commitment to feminist research principles
• Understanding of gender, power, and intersectionality, and the practical application of this to women and girls' lived realities

Rate or Task based (amount): BDT 800,000 (Including VAT & TAX)

Duration: 2 Months (February – March 2023)

Ownership: ActionAid Bangladesh would have ownership on the entire output of the research including all data, research report, case studies and any other information generated in the process of this study. ActionAid Bangladesh will use the data and information for purpose of research, academic publications, policy advocacy among others.

Reference and intellectual Property: All written work must be authorized to the current sources. Copyright of all information in findings and final report will remain with ActionAid Bangladesh.

Termination: Both the parties have right to terminate the agreement subject to 15 days’ prior written notice to the other party and upon such termination, payment will be made for the completed portion of the work.

Plan for disseminations: The consultant team will be responsible to disseminate the findings to the key stakeholders including ActionAid staff. ActionAid Bangladesh will organize aa multi-stakeholder dissemination workshop where the consultant team will be responsible for presenting the findings in.

Ethical Considerations: The research/study will make clear to all participating stakeholders that they are under no obligation to participate in the study. All participants will be assured there will be no negative consequences if they choose not to participate. Research/study will obtain informed consent from the participants.

Submission of the Proposal

Interested Consultant(S)/Consultancy Agencies are requested to submit their Technical and Financial Proposals through e-mail.  aab.jobs@actionaid.org

Interested Consultant(S)/Consultancy Agencies should include the name and detail contact address of the consultant/team. Detailed CVs of the team members should be included in the annexure of the technical proposal. 

The deadline for submission of the Proposal is Saturday, 04 February 2023