Global Fairness Initiative heralded in Bill Clinton’s new book Giving

PRLog (Press Release) - Oct 03, 2007 -
Global Fairness Initiative heralded in Bill Clinton’s new book
Former President & Human Rights Leader Bill Clinton singles out International Non-Profit

Washington D.C. -- GFI’s groundbreaking labor rights program in Cambodia is featured in former President Clinton’s new book, Giving: How Each of Us Can Save the World, released September 4th 2007.  Giving singles out GFI’s leadership in helping the Cambodian government transform fair labor practices into a competitive advantage for the garment sector.  

“In Cambodia we found a way, by getting all parties to work together, to both capitalize on increasing consumer demand for fair trade products and to create over 100,000 new jobs. It’s an honor President Clinton feels the Cambodia model is something that other countries can emulate.”
 - Stan Byers, Executive Director Global Fairness Initiative

GFI became involved with the project after the 2005 expiration of the World Trade Organization’s Multi-Fibre Arrangement. There were concerns that the country’s garment industry was in danger of losing its share of the global garment market. By employing a process known as the multi-stakeholder approach GFI created new partenerships by bringing together representatives from major apparel companies, local industry, government, labor groups, and the World Bank. GFI helped to facilitate an agreement among the parties of how fair labor practices could be turned into a source of comparative advantage for Cambodia’s garment industry and an engine of economic growth.

The process resulted in a net gain of jobs in the industry and additional investments from global apparel brands concerned about brand identity and responsible sourcing. World Bank President, Robert Zoellick recently traveled to the region where he highlighted the success of the Cambodian model and acknowledged the important connection between labor standards and poverty reduction.

As a result of GFI’s success,  the U.S. Department of State invited GFI to apply its multi-stakeholder approach to Central America and the Dominican Republic as a way to  improve the region’s competitiveness and labor rights compliance in the garment sector. GFI is currently implementing a similar program of generating partnerships between producers, workers, and U.S. brands in El Salvador and Guatemala. For more information visit www.globalfairness.org.

Contact:

Whitney Simon
Program Officer, Global Fairness Initiative
wsimon@globalfairness.org
202-479-7156