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ABOUT DfS

GIZ has been active in Pakistan since 1963, working across three priority areas; Governance, Sustainable Economic development, and Energy. Interventions by GIZ in Pakistan’s textile sector started in August 2014 and subsequently evolved overtime.


The textile and fashion industry plays a key role in modernisation processes and in the transition to an industrial society. It is here that essential entrepreneurial and management skills are developed, which form the basis for diversification of the economy, increase in value added and competitiveness through efficiency gains and technological progress associated with industrialisation.

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The textile and garment industry is Pakistan's most important manufacturing sector. In 2022 it accounted for about 57% (SBP 2022) of export earnings and contributed 8.5% of total GDP (BOI/IFC 2022). Being a major exporter, the sector faces, increasing pressures to follow international best practices, vis-à-vis labour, social and environmental standards. In this regard, third-party audits have proven to be ineffective to ensure compliance of national and international laws and regulations. One of the reasons is that third-party audits do not contribute to sustainable development because of a lack of involvement of workers and line managers in the decision-making process. Thus, there is no ownership for sustainability measures, especially at the shop floor of the factory.

To address this problem, GIZ developed a "Dialogue" approach, which is a change management methodology based on the concept of process consultation. This methodology was, jointly developed by GIZ and PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) with support of leading international brands namely Adidas®, Tchibo® and C&A®. It has been successfully implemented by GIZ in several industries in Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and other countries.

In 2014 the methodology was introduced in Pakistan as "Dialogue for Compliance" and by end of 2022 supported more than 100 companies from the textile and associated sectors successfully. It is now known as the “Dialogue for Sustainability (DfS)”. DfS is a is a self-help approach based on process consultation, designed to bring together various representatives throughout the organisational hierarchy, to work as a "Change Management Team (CMT)" towards achieving common goal of sustainability (social, economic, environmental) in organizational operations.

EVOLVING
FOR THE BETTER

Change is always good and ‘Dialogue for Compliance’ evolved from DFC to ‘Dialogue For Sustainability’ after the environmental component
was added. This evolution was reflective of the inclusion of all three sustainability pillars:

DfS METHODOLOGY

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step1.

IDENTIFY PROBLEM

step 2.

CAUSE ANALYSIS

step 3.

GOAL ANALYSIS

step 4.

FIND SOLUTIONS

step 5.

AGREE ON SOLUTIONS

step 6.

ACTION PLAN

HOW DfS WORKS?

Baseline/GAP analysis provides a true picture of existing practices and identifies gaps against best practices. Following this assessment, the industrial partner and it's C-Suite assembles it's Change Management Team (CMT) having representation from all organizational tiers.

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Members of the CMT are invited to a two day thematic area CMT workshops

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Day one focuses on value added trainings (VATs) on agreed technical topics, day two of each CMT workshop is standardized and dedicated to following the six step approach from problem identification to action planning

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In addition to CMTs, regular site visits (mini-CMTs) are conducted with a frequency ranging from once a week to once a month. The purpose of these visits is to monitor implementation and provision of VATs at the factory's shop floor

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Post addressing agenda items on the action plan, the engagement comes to an end and with a third party end line assessment

RESULTS & WINS

Item 1

52%

Average reduction in Worker’s Turnover

Item 1

31%

Average reduction in Absenteeism

Item 1

 

Improvement in two-way communication

Item 1

46%

Average reduction in order lead time

Item 1

24%

Average improvement in efficiency

Item 1

7%

Average reduction in DHUs

Item 1

61%

Average reduction in machine downtime

Item 1

45%

Average reduction in work in process

Item 1

13.4 kWh/kg to 12.8 kWh/kg

Reduction in power consumption per kg of fabric

Item 1

13.1 kg to 9.7 kg

Reduction in steam production per kg of fabric

Item 1

163.4 l/kg to 126.8 l/kg

Reduction in water consumption per kg of fabric

Item 1

ZDHC has been implemented and appropriate KPIs developed for partner factories

Item 1

Improved environmental management practices at partner factories including regular EMS risk assessments and other best practices

DfS SUCCESS STORIES

CONSORTIUM of
DfS PRACTITIONERS

FAQs

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