(First published in December 2017)
They number around sixty million worldwide – 80 per cent of them women – all employed in the global garment industry. The factories they work in provide valuable jobs that can improve livelihoods and lift communities out of poverty. Yet, poor working conditions remain a challenge across the sector.
Better Work – a joint International Finance Corporation/ International Labour Organization flagship programme – mobilizes global brands, governments, workers and factory owners to improve working conditions across the sector.
This collection of portraits, taken in Better Work factories by ILO photographer Marcel Crozet, features the stories of garment workers and employers, told in their own words.
The exhibition provides a unique glimpse into the world of apparel production, from Lesotho to Indonesia, Bangladesh to Jordan, Cambodia to Haiti and Nicaragua to Vietnam. What you see here reveals the diverse faces behind a global industry, highlighting the positive and the negative, the improvements already seen and the work still to be done.
Share your reactions using the hashtag #FromTheFactory, and tell us what you would like to ask the women and men who make your clothes. We’ll ask them for you.