On November 28th, 2018 SMART Myanmar's partners, associates and project staff came together to discuss and chart key actions for 2019 during the project annual planning and steering committee meetings. Attendees included representatives from sequa gGmbH, the Myanmar Garment Manufacturers Association (MGMA), the Foreign Trade Association of German Retailers (AVE), the Association of Development Financing Institutions in Asia and the Pacific (ADFIAP), fashion retailer H&M, the Detusche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ), and the Netherlands Center for the Promotion of Imports from Developing Countries (CBI).
During the course of the day successes and challenges from 2018 were reviewed and discussed, as well as major focus areas for 2019. During 2018 SMART Myanmar conducted on-site factory assessments and/or training modules for 55 garment, textile and footwear factories. Particularly noteworthy, the project continued to push work and assessments with factories outside of Yangon Division. Factories in Mandalay Division, Shan State, Magway Division, Ayeyarwaddy Division, Kayin State and Bago Division participated in assessments or programs during 2018. As well, the project conducted over 40 workshops and conferences with thousands of managers, technicians and workers from many other factories and industry service providers.
Among SMART's on-site factory training programs, the SMART Management Systems Program and SMART Environmental Managment Program continued to prove popular. In particular, the project's technical experts further refined the "chemical management & detox" module of the environmental program and created a new "workplace communications & dialogue" module for the management systems program.
SMART Myanmar continued to support the Sunday Cafe II, a community center for women garment workers in Hlaing Thayar Township. The Sunday Cafes I and II both succeeded in meeting all attendance targets for 2018. The project's smartphone app, Shwe Job, enjoyed a steady increase in user numbers and a 2nd "edutainment" app, Satyone Superstar, was launched on May 1st, 2018. Activities continued with local banks and SMEs, promoting green finance and blended financial products and services. SMART took advantage of the opportunity presented by the DANIDA Responsible Business Fund's small grants program to link several SMEs with grant opportunities and to help guide banks in offering bridge loans to help more local companies upgrade their production to safer and more efficient operations.
Implementing partner AVE continued close cooperation with the MGMA to train and further professionalize their association staff. In particular, together they launched MGMA's new training center - the Garment Training Institute (a public-private cooperation with the Ministry of Education) – as well as an extensive 2-month ToT for 28 sewing operator trainers, conducted by BuildTek from Sri Lanka. AVE also took MGMA's Executive Committee members on a study tour in Germany to visit with European retailers and business associations, and to conduct pop-up consumer awareness "labs" with European consumers in two German shopping malls.
