USAID's Women Thrive in Bangladesh Activity organised a Suppliers' Roundtable and Champions Award Ceremony at Hotel Le Meridien, Dhaka yesterday.

The event brought together attendees to share lessons learned and best practices from the activity implementations as well as recognizes factories for their achievements in providing life and professional skills training to women workers in Bangladesh's ready-made garment (RMG) sector.

A total of 25 PVH supply chain factories received Thrive Champions Awards for demonstrating significant, measurable, and evident achievements in implementing the Personal Advancement and Career Enhancement (PACE) training programme.

The PACE training programme provides women workers with market-oriented soft skills, like negotiation and communication, to support career advancement while also helping them overcome social norms and gender barriers.

USAID's Women Thrive in Bangladesh Activity presented these awards to not only recognise the factories' efforts in empowering women workers but also to inspire others, promote positive competition, and strengthen accountability in implementing the PACE programme.

Blair King, Deputy Director of USAID's Office of Democracy, Human Rights, and Governance graced the occasion as chief guest. Najeeb Sayed, Senior Director and Country Manager of PVH Bangladesh, and Ram Das, Country Director of CARE Bangladesh, also spoke as special guests.

Bushra Binte Baten, Corporate Responsibility Manager at PVH Corp., Sazzad Kamal, Project Management Specialist at USAID; and Aamanur Rahman, Chief of Party for USAID's Thrive Activity contributed to the discussions. Senior officials from PVH Corp. and its leading supply chain factories, CARE Bangladesh, and partner NGOs, among others, attended the event.

Implemented by CARE Bangladesh, USAID's Women Thrive in Bangladesh activity collaborates with the global brand PVH to empower women in the ready-made garment sector.

The activity provides a combination of professional skills and leadership development training for women ready-made garment workers in PVH Corp.'s supply chain factories and in the communities.

The activity aims to train more than 100,000 women workers in RMG factories and adjacent communities by 2026.