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Global Alliance Ends Operations After Five Years
The Global Alliance, created in 1999, has ended operations as of December 2004. The five year initiative of the International Youth Foundation, Nike and the World Bank was launched to improve the lives and prospects of workers within the global supply chain. Shortly after its creation, Gap Inc. joined the effort. GA was an innovative program going beyond brand or factory codes of compliance, to intervene at a critical juncture, where the issues of human rights, codes compliance, and worker development intersect. It's challenge was to bring these three distinct yet interconnected aspects together through a new kind of partnership that would benefit workers, factories and companies and that would strengthen the civil society sector. GA placed particular attention on capacity building and sustainability so that local vendors and NGOs could continue to address workplace and developmental issues in the future.
Active in more than 60 factories in China, India, Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam, the GA delivered health services and training, improved health clinics, offered management training in inter-personal skills, and established worker savings cooperatives, benefitting the lives and working conditions of some 335,000 workers and their families, Beyond the individual benefits to workers, there were also indicators that showed GA was positively impacting local suppliers, through improved attendance, worker/manager relations, and overall productivity. As a result of this five-year effort, GA's impact can also be seen in improved business practices of the companoes that supported GA from the beginning.
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