Abstract
In 2013, significant improvements were made in a specific factory in Phnom Penh, Cambodia. 38 out of 47 violations related to labour rights were rectified in areas that had been non-compliant with laws and standards over several years. The factory had been assessed thirteen times by Better Factories Cambodia’s (BFC) monitors over a period of more than 10 years. The onset of BFC’s transparency programme provided an incentive for the factory to implement many positive changes in anticipation of the factory’s conditions being publicly disclosed. This factory represents just one example in the global garment industry of where monitoring alone over many years does not result in change. Public disclosure in the form of Better Factories Cambodia’s transparency programme is providing an additional lever to accelerate improvements.