Juliane Schröder, consultant for international cooperation and new markets at t+m, successfully conducted a “Code of Conduct awareness raising workshop” in Yangon. The aim of this workshop was to create awareness for the purpose and the utility of Codes of Conduct (CoC) with a view of developing an industry-owned code of the Myanmar garment industry at a later stage.

Production conditions in the clothing industry - especially in developing countries – are increasingly moving in the focus of public attention. Both in buyer and in supplier countries, responsibility tends to be assigned to corporations. Thus, when striving to successfully perform on European markets, compliance with social and environmental minimum standards is an inevitable prerequisite for Myanmar garment manufacturers. The development and thorough implementation of an own CoC is a first important step into this direction.

Through the two days’ workshop, the participants were made familiar with key concepts of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Codes of Conduct (CoC). The workshop succeeded to raise awareness among the participants (mainly MGMA board members and factory owners) for the fact that adopting a CoC signalizes in the first place a voluntary self-commitment to align business conduct with certain environmental and social minimum standards. Beyond that, the workshop succeeded to expound that a well implemented CoC can contribute to trustworthy and long-term business relationships with responsible contract partners and therefore can act as a tool to meet international buyers’ demands. With a view of jointly establishing a CoC with the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA) at a later stage, the common structure and contents of CoC as well as possibilities for implementation and monitoring were outlined. Finally, attendees had the opportunity to discuss relevance of CoC and compliance with social and environmental standards with an international buyer and manufacturer.

The workshop succeeded to sensitize participants for the fact that a Code of Conduct, rather than imposing a strain, will create valuable opportunities for businesses on the European market. T+m has offered to MGMA to assist in jointly developing a CoC throughout the coming year. As a next step, a CoC taskforce consisting of the leadership level of MGMA as well as factory owners should be developed in order to discuss contents of a potential CoC as well as to develop a first draft