ABSTRACT
Since the last decade, the textile industry in Ethiopia has been growing fast and steadily, due to the increasing investment from China, which has also raised concerns in improvement in performance and stakeholder engagement in ESG issues of the Chinese invested companies. The multi-stakeholder, triangular project “Sustainable Textile Investment and Operations in Ethiopia” project, as initiated by the Chinese, German and Ethiopia governments, and implemented by UNIDO, GIZ and the Chinese and Ethiopian textile business associations, CNTAC and TgiRDc, systemically adopted Meaningful Stakeholder Engagement in project interventions, including baseline study, capacity building and knowledge management. Such practices are a testimony to the fact that integrating the involvement of a diverse group of stakeholders, including vulnerable and affected ones, can provide legitimacy and inspiration to the purposes and design of responsible business-related projects for transnational value chains, while underscoring the constant need for awareness of ESG standards, especially those on working conditions and workers’ rights, when it comes to labour-intensive sectors such as textile and garments, and the meaningful engagement of workers and their representatives in unions in the design and implementation of invested industry projects.
