Changes in the governance of garment global production networks. Lead Firm, Supplier and Institutional Responses to the Rana Plaza Disaster.

The April 2013 Rana Plaza building disaster in Bangladesh was a focusing event triggering major international and national policy initiatives aimed at improving labour and environmental standards in global garment production. The project analyses changes in lead firm policies and practices relating to these standards across four countries - two liberal market economies (Australia and the UK) and two co-ordinated market economies (Germany and Sweden). It complements this analysis with an examination of changes in actual labour and environmental standards in Bangladeshi factories that supply garments to these lead firms. The assessment of the local situation in Bangladesh includes factory managers' and workers perceptions of changes in standards since the Rana Plaza disaster in the context of current institutional reforms.