Accounting for 60% of its exports, the Pakistan textile sector is of utmost importance to the country`s economy. Germany is Pakistan's largest trading partner within the European Union, accounting for 20% of Pakistan`s total exports to the EU. Such close economic ties also imply a certain degree of sharing responsibility about the underlying international supply chains by all partners involved, particularly with regard to adherence to environmental and social standards within these supply chains.
The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) is working with its partners in Pakistan towards addressing social, occupational health and safety as well as environmental sustainability issues in the country's textile and garment sector. To enhance the active involvement and process ownership by the concerned stakeholders at various levels in the industry, GIZ and their local partners have jointly developed a methodology called “Dialogue for Sustainability” (DfS).
DfS is a participatory change-management process at factory level that combines positive change management and supporting capacities building in the participating factories. The idea of DfS is to create conditions for an effective dialogue where top management, middle management, and workers (at all levels of hierarchy)work collectively towards sustainable solutions at both a strategic and an operational level. The DfS process also foresees fostering peer-learning within the sectors through moderated knowledge exchanges.
Building on previous experiences in supporting the implementation of the DfS methodology on environmental issues, adelphi together with its Pakistani partner Espire Consult work with 25 factory change management teams in five Pakistan textile clusters to address "Productivity & Quality" as well as "HR & Labour Standards" issues.
