The International Labour Organization (ILO) Garment Sector Working Conditions Improvement Project came into being in May 4, 2000 as a result of the US-Cambodia Textile Agreement. That agreement provided increased access to the US market in the form of a quota bonus for textile and apparel products made in Cambodia in exchange for industry and government efforts to improve compliance with ILO Core Conventions and national labour law.

Under this unique program, the ILO, in consultation with a Project Advisory Committee made up of representatives of the Cambodia government, manufacturers and trade unions, carried out monitoring of registered factories. The actual factory inspections were done by local people contracted and trained by the ILO.

While participation in the project was voluntary, the Cambodia government encouraged participation by passing regulations limiting access to the quota bonus to those companies taking part in the factory monitoring program.

• Visit the ILO’s Better Factories Cambodia website