The 4th Annual Gender Platform 2025, co-hosted by LABS and GIZ in collaboration with CARE, the Responsible Business Hub (RBH), and EuroCham, brought together over 100 stakeholders to advance efforts toward eliminating gender-based violence and harassment (GBVH) in Cambodia’s garment, footwear, and travel goods (GFT) sector. This year’s platform highlighted strengthened government commitments, deeper multi-stakeholder collaboration, and the launch of the Women Empowerment Network — marking a significant step forward in building safer, more equitable workplaces for Cambodia’s predominantly female GFT workforce.
You can download the full briefing paper here.
Welcome to the Annual Report 2024 for the Life and Building Safety Initiative!
As we reflect on 2024, the Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative continues to make meaningful strides toward creating safer, more resilient workplaces across the apparel, footwear, and accessories sector. Building on the momentum of previous years, this annual report captures our progress, learnings, and partnerships that have shaped our journey over the past year.
This report offers a comprehensive overview of program execution across our focus countries – India, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Indonesia – highlighting the scale of engagement, remediation achievements, and the critical collaborations that have enabled us to reach over a million workers. From factory-level improvements to sector-wide knowledge sharing, our work this year reflects a deepening commitment to fostering a culture of prevention and safety in the sector.
We thank our brand partners, associated firms, factories and industry stakeholders who have contributed to the LABS mission.
We invite you to explore this year’s report and learn more about the impact we’ve created –through partnerships, operational excellence and a shared vision for safer workplaces.
The Life and Building Safety (LABS) Initiative launched the ‘Platform for Safety in Apparel and Footwear Industry (PSAFI)’ (the “Platform”) as a collaborative program to promote safety and sustainable development in the apparel, textile, footwear and accessories industry in India.
The Platform was launched in 2023 to provide a trusted, neutral space for industry stakeholders to unite, discuss, and exchange ideas and insights on addressing safety issues in the sector.
The Platform aims to accelerate actions on safety and facilitate coordination and alignment across initiatives while focusing on the promotion of a preventative safety culture and the collaboration between governments, employers, workers, and associations.
PSAFI held its second event in Bangalore, India on October 4, 2024, with 140 participants representing multiple brands, factories, and industry experts. The report provides a summary of the discussions and proceedings for the day.
This report presents the findings of the outcome evaluation of the LABS Program in Vietnam, Cambodia, and India between September 2023 to January 2024. The evaluation was undertaken by Mekong Economics in association with Tomorrow’s Market Innovators Pvt. Ltd and Educational Development Institute.
Welcome to the Annual Report 2023 for the Life and Building Safety Initiative!
This year marked a pivotal chapter in our journey as we expanded our operations to include Indonesia, alongside our existing presence in India, Vietnam, and Cambodia. This expansion not only broadened our reach but also deepened our commitment to fostering safer workplaces across key apparel-producing countries.
In collaboration with associated firms, we worked with over 500 factories, addressing pressing safety concerns and prioritizing the well-being of workers. Through concerted efforts, we achieved significant milestones, driving positive impacts for over a million workers employed within these factories.
By the close of 2023, our collective endeavors yielded tangible results, with approximately 80% of identified safety issues remediated in India and Vietnam. Almost 85% of these addressed issues were classified as high-priority, indicating potentially life-threatening hazards that were effectively mitigated.
We invite you to read the report and explore how the Life and Building Safety Initiative is driving positive impact in the industry.
The Life and Building Safety Initiative (LABS) recently launched the ‘Platform for Safety in Apparel and Footwear Industry (PSAFI)’, a collaborative platform designed to promote safety and sustainable development in the Apparel, Footwear, Accessories and Home Textiles industry in India.
This report provides a background of LABS and PSAFI, captures the highlights of the April 28, 2023 roundtable, including speakers and discussion topics, survey feedback, actionable outcomes, and next steps.
The Life and Building Safety Initiative (LABS) today launched ‘Platform for Safety in Apparel and Footwear Industry (PSAFI)’, a collaborative platform aimed at promoting safety and sustainable development in the apparel and footwear industry in India.
PSAFI aims to provide a trusted, neutral space for industry stakeholders to come together, discuss, and exchange ideas and insights on addressing safety issues in the sector.
It seeks to accelerate action on safety and facilitate coordination and alignment across initiatives with a focus on promoting a preventative safety culture and cooperation between governments, employers, workers, and their organizations.
In a keynote address at the launch event, Smt. Prajakta L Verma, Joint Secretary, Ministry of Textiles, Government of India, said, “We are glad that LABS has initiated the Platform for Safety in Apparel and Footwear Industry. Textile industry is one of the largest employers in the country, and it is important to take care of our human resources. There are a lot of challenges around worker safety, and specially safety of women workers, which also present an opportunity to make improvements. We look forward to PSAFI helping stakeholders in coming together in a collaborative manner and addressing issues together in a steadfast way, for providing safe and healthy environment to workers in the sector”.
“We are excited to launch PSAFI as a collaborative platform that will bring together key stakeholders to engage on worker safety and contribute towards improved safety in the apparel, footwear and home textile industry in India,” said LABS Spokesperson Pramit Chanda. “For us, some of the key objectives of the Platform include identifying opportunities to scale interventions, improving management of building safety risks, transparency in reporting, promoting gender empowerment and driving positive changes in safe working conditions in factories and industrial parks across the country and the manufacturing sector.”
PSAFI was launched in an event on April 28, 2023 in New Delhi, India, with discussions on topics such as “How Various Stakeholders in the Supply Chain Look at Worker Safety” and “What more needs to be done for providing safer Working Conditions”. The event brought together experts, stakeholders, and representatives from the industry, government, and workers’ organizations to chart a path towards a safer and more sustainable future for the apparel and footwear industry in India.
PSAFI invites all interested parties, including industry professionals, policymakers, workers’ representatives, and other stakeholders, to join the platform and contribute to the collective efforts in improving safety in the apparel and footwear industry in India.
The Platform for Safety in Apparel and Footwear Industry (PSAFI) is a collaborative platform established by the Life and Building Safety Initiative, aimed at promoting Fire, Electrical and Building safety in the apparel and footwear industry in India. PSAFI provides a neutral space for stakeholders to come together, exchange ideas, and drive coordinated actions on safety issues. PSAFI aims to foster a preventative safety culture, enable effective consultation and cooperation among stakeholders, and improve the management of building safety risks in the industry.
We are excited to present our Annual Report for 2022, showcasing our achievements and lessons learned for the year
Since the program’s launch in September 2019, it has made significant progress. On the ground, we have collaborated with over 400 factories in India, Vietnam, and Cambodia to address pressing safety issues. Resulting in a positive impact on the lives of over 843,000 workers. As of December 2022, we had successfully remediated 77% of issues identified in factories (up from 66% in 2021).
We hope you enjoy reading the report, and we look forward to any comments you may have!
This briefing paper outlines the overall goal and provides the outcomes from the “Platform for Gender Equality in Apparel and Footwear in Cambodia” (“The Platform”). Relevant data, opportunities, and challenges within these sectors will be provided based on the tracking of direct risks (impacting business operations) and indirect risks (impacting the value-chain flow and the wider ecosystem and communities).
Since its launch, LABS has reached over 564,750 workers in India and Vietnam to provide safer working conditions and collaborated with factories to remediate pressing safety issues. As of December 2021, approximately 63% of the issues identified across 265 factories in both countries were remediated because of LABS’ intervention.
Operating in a complex and dynamic value chain, LABS Initiative recognizes upcoming challenges. The program, with its strong coalition of global brands, will continue to convene key industry stakeholders and decision-makers including the private sector, governments, Civil Society actors, and NGO’s to unlock resources and work jointly towards preventing and mitigating fire, electrical, and structural risks in the apparel and footwear industry.
The goal of this report is twofold; as we approach the end of the second full year of LABS operations, we aim to present an introduction to our approach and methodology followed by program achievements and our learnings to date.