Bangladesh’s readymade garment (RMG) sector, which transformed the country from one of the world’s poorest nations into a global apparel powerhouse, is deepening efforts to enforce fire, electrical and structural safety standards across factories supplying major American and European retailers.
The industry, whose exports to the United States and the European Union have surged in recent years, credits much of its growth to a workforce built substantially around women, a shift that has helped lift millions of households out of poverty while expanding the country’s industrial infrastructure.
Central to the safety push are two initiatives formed after Bangladesh’s worst industrial disasters exposed systemic gaps in factory oversight: the Accord on Fire and Building Safety and the Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety. Though structured separately, the two bodies have coordinated efforts to raise safety standards across factories supplying Western brands.
Accord’s mandate centers on life-safety fire protection, built around prevention systems such as sprinklers and fire hydrants that allow workers to fight fires as they break out. Early-warning systems are designed to alert workers throughout a facility so evacuation can begin immediately, while fire compartmentalization — achieved through fire-resistant walls and floors — helps contain blazes before they spread between floors.
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Multi-story factories are required to install fire barriers separating floors, enclosing high-risk rooms and protecting exit stairwells, according to Accord standards. Sprinkler systems serve a dual purpose, detecting fires early enough to trigger evacuation while also suppressing them at their source.
Facilities must maintain at least two unobstructed exits, with stairwells kept free of smoke, fire and locks, ensuring workers can leave the building quickly during an emergency.
The Alliance for Bangladesh Worker Safety, formed alongside Accord, has pursued a broader mandate extending beyond fire protection into factory upgrades, training and institution-building. Its stated vision is to substantially improve working conditions across the RMG sector by strengthening enforcement mechanisms, training both workers and management, and empowering female employees, who make up the majority of the industry’s workforce.
The Alliance organizes its work around five pillars: standards and inspections, remediation, worker empowerment, training and sustainability. Together, the pillars are intended to build a self-sustaining safety infrastructure that outlasts the initiatives themselves, embedding oversight capacity within Bangladeshi institutions rather than relying solely on external monitoring.
Facilities across the sector are required to maintain documented fire, electrical and building safety procedures designed to prevent accidental fires, electrical short-circuits and related structural hazards, with adequate controls in place to guard against their introduction in the first place.
The safety overhaul comes as Bangladesh’s garment exporters continue competing for orders from Western brands increasingly scrutinizing supply-chain conditions, making compliance with Accord and Alliance standards a critical factor in maintaining access to the U.S. and EU markets that anchor the industry’s growth.