The Bigger Picture
Better Factories Cambodia’s (BFC) long-term objective is to focus on sustainability of factory-level services and increased engagement with partners and stakeholders to find solutions for garment sector issues. We have seen through our interventions over the years improvements in labour compliance in Cambodia, but there is still room for growth.
BFC’s newly launched ‘Factory Ambassador’ programme aims to accelerate these improvements. Our focus today is on collaborations with manufacturing groups and factories to drive change in the garment sector. We believe that through these partnerships and by embedding and driving ownership in factory, we can maximise our positive impact.
Programme Details 
Factory Ambassadors are factory compliance staff and workers’ representatives who are empowered to have greater ownership in the factory’s improvement process. In the current context when BFC cannot make in factory visits, ambassadors will play a key role alongside our team to ensure BFC’s support to factories continues. Participants of this programme are coached and trained to strengthen their knowledge, competencies and skills to bring long-lasting changes to their workplace, using tried and tested BFC tools and techniques.
Last month, the programme kicked off with a 6 days virtual induction to over 200 registered participants from over 90 factories on 6 main topics:
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- Session 1: BFC Assessment Process and Techniques & Factory Cooperation
- Session: 2: Interviewing Skills and Occupational Safety and Health (OSH)
- Session3: Cambodian Labour Law and Compliance Clusters
- Session 4: Freedom of Association, Industrial Relations, Discrimination, Facilitation Skills
- Session 5: Child Labour, Problem solving skills and self-assessment checklist
- Session 6: Roles and responsibilities of labour inspectors
The Factory Ambassadors
“I gained a new level of confidence in how I communicate and have learned many new lessons for my factory” said Factory Ambassador Khan Lyna – a single mother of two children who has worked in the garment sector for over 25 years, first as a sewer before becoming a factory production leader. As a mother herself, Lyna was most excited to learn about Child labour law, she wants to ensure this is a priority for her factory. “I was surprised by the number of factories and participants who joined the 5 days training, I have learned not only from the trainings but also from the discussions and lessons learned shared by other factories during this induction”.
Next Steps 
BFC will continue to guide, coach and support Factory Ambassadors, while also ensuring we continue to learn and track the impact of the programme over the coming months and years. Similar to all BFC’s interventions, continuous commitment from senior factory management will be important for the success of the Factory Ambassador Programme, particularly in ensuring ambassadors are delegated authority to undertake their new role.