Bangladesh Accord: Brief Progress Report and Proposals for Enhancement

[April 2017] Founded in 2013, three weeks after the deadliest disaster in the history of the global apparel industry, the Bangladesh Accord on Fire and Building Safety has made factories safer for more than two-and-a-half million garment workers. The improvements in structural, fire, and electrical safety accomplished under the Accord have helped avert further factory fires and building collapses in an industry long plagued by grossly unsafe working conditions. As witness signatories to the Accord, we offer in this memorandum a concise assessment of the Accord's performance to date and our concrete recommendations for the continuation of the Accord for another five years, beyond its current 2018 expiration date.