Dhaka Dialogue Calls for Brand Funding and Worker Protection
02 November 2026: Speakers at the Dhaka Dialogue on 26 October 2026 called on global fashion brands to help finance Bangladesh’s garment-sector energy transition. The meeting in Dhaka urged buyers to pair renewable power and electrification with fair purchasing terms, accessible funding and worker protection, rather than leave factories and employees to carry the costs.
Stand.earth, Oxfam in Bangladesh and Breaking the Silence organised the dialogue, titled “From Framework to Action: Advancing a Multi-Stakeholder Initiative for a Just Transition in Bangladesh’s Fashion Industry”. According to the organisers, policymakers, fashion brands, manufacturers and trade unions attended alongside the International Labour Organization and Cornell University’s Global Labor Institute.
Dhaka Dialogue puts workers at the centre
Chief guest Kazi Rafiqul Islam said cleaner production should not come at the expense of employment, fair wages, safe working conditions or social security. He described the energy transition as an economic, social and humanitarian transformation, rather than merely a change in technology.
Rumana Rashid, a director of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, called for training and opportunities to develop new skills as factories adopt cleaner energy, machinery and production systems.
“Their voices and practical experience must be part of the decisions that affect them,” Rashid said of workers.
Brands urged to share financing costs
Rachel Kitchin, Stand.earth’s senior campaign manager, urged brands to pay a fair share of decarbonisation and efficiency costs. She cited collective, shared and grant-based project financing as possible approaches, and advocated nationally or globally administered funding pools for climate action.
Oxfam in Bangladesh’s Atwar Rahman said climate justice and economic justice should go together. He argued that vulnerable communities should not bear the costs of climate action.
Pact discussed at the conference
Stand.earth presented the Clean Fashion Investment Pact and coordinated two panels on a sector roadmap for women workers, financing the transition and working together on climate adaptation.
The pact was not a new launch at this meeting: Stand.earth had announced it in September. The October dialogue brought the discussion back to funding and worker protection as factories change their energy and production systems.
The calls and quotations above come from the organisers’ 26 October conference statement. They describe the action speakers sought from brands, rather than completed investments or funding commitments secured at the meeting.
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