Pandemic Management Guideline for Ghanaian garment sector launched

The Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, on behalf of the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ) has launched a Pandemic Management Guideline for the Ghanaian garment sector, in Accra.

The document will serve as a guide for the Ghanaian apparel and garment factories in implementing various pandemic management strategies.

A release issued to the Ghana News Agency, on Tuesday, in Accra, said the guide, which was the first of its kind in the Ghanaian apparel sector, contained recommendations for health and safety practices and approaches to COVID-19 and other virus or infectious disease prevention, based on materials developed by many organisations globally, including the World Health Organization (WHO).

It also provided general guidance and information to factory workers on how to prevent the spread of COVID-19 and other viruses in the workplace, to enable workers work safely while keeping risk of contamination as low as possible and the need to maintain proper hygiene.

The release said, “the guide also provides ideas on business continuity planning, and how to protect workers’ mental and financial well-being during pandemics.”

Mr. Christian Wollnik, A Team Leader, GIZ-develoPPP programme, said the Pandemic Management Project was one of the various initiatives GIZ Ghana was implementing in the emerging Ghanaian garment sector, always focusing on its job creation potential.

He urged factories to remain committed to the fight against COVID-19 and future pandemics, adding that, international buyers were not only concerned about quality of products but factories that had good compliance management system, including pandemic management strategies in place.

Technical Advisor, GIZ-develoPPP Programme’s Pandemic Management, Mr. Joshua Mwinkuu, summarised activities rolled out under the Pandemic project.

He said 10 apparel factories had already been trained in pandemic management and supported with incentives to help fight pandemics.

The factories were trained in basic hygiene concepts, how to prepare business continuity plans according to ILO standards, emergency preparedness and response procedures and pandemic risks assessment.

According to Mr. Mwinkuu, an awareness on Covid-19, Monkeypox, Marburg and measures to deal with similar outbreaks was also carried out and it had helped achieve lower infection cases among factory workers, adding that a second batch of factories had registered and would be trained accordingly.

Participants at the launch included Professor Kwasi Torpey – Dean of University of Ghana School of Public Health, Dr. Florence Chambas – AGAM General Secretary, Nana Poquah Adiamah – AGAM National Secretary and representatives from the health component of develoPPP GIZ Ghana.

Source: GNA

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