Staff Reporter, Dhaka : Laudes Foundation announces the appointment of Naureen Chowdhury as head of its labour rights programme. She will lead Laudes Foundation’s work to protect and promote workers’ rights, including in the context of just transitions, strengthen worker and community agency, and advance an inclusive economy.

Chowdhury is an established authority on delivering innovations that address working condition challenges. Based in Dhaka, she joined the foundation in 2016 and was previously a Senior Programme Manager. She brings over two decades of experience within the apparel sector, having established and co-led the International Finance Corporation (IFC) Partnership for Cleaner Textiles (PaCT) programme. Naureen replaces Jill Tucker who leaves the foundation following a six-year tenure.

Welcoming the appointment, director of industry transformation, Amol Mehra says: “Naureen has a honed background and expertise on labour rights and brings sectoral depth from the fashion sector into our foundation. As we look to broaden our Labour Rights Programme across our work, including on promoting just transition efforts more broadly, her expertise and insights will be invaluable.”

Chowdhury says: “I strongly believe that philanthropy has a unique role in addressing how workers are valued in the economic system, and I am delighted to lead our incredible team of programme staff to build on the strong legacy of the foundation’s work in this space.

My focus will be to advance our work on accelerating the adoption of transparency and accountability within supply chains, ensuring social protections are firmly embedded in the climate issues and solutions of our time, and strengthening cross-sectoral narratives and movements to build support for just transitions for workers.”

Complex global supply chains, such as the apparel industry, foster conditions for labour rights violations such as forced labour, poor wages and gender-based violence. Laudes Foundation’s labour rights team works to support transparency and accountability efforts on corporate supply chains, worker agency and collective action and policy reforms, including around social protections and just transitions