Tashkent, Uzbekistan (UzDaily.com) -- In November 2022, the official launch of the BCI program in Uzbekistan took place. The program aims to improve cotton growing practices in the country through the development and implementation of a system of sustainable cotton production standards with market incentives to eliminate the risk of forced labor practices in cotton growing.

So during the visit on 27 March - 7 April, the delegation of the BCI program led by Chelsea Reinhardt met with representatives of the Federation of Trade Unions of the Republic of Uzbekistan, IFC, Control Union to discuss the results of the assessment of licensing and monitoring of decent working conditions by the BCI program during the cotton season 2022-23. Also, the delegation visited 6 pilot cotton-textile clusters in the framework of the BCI program for the purpose of monitoring.

In particular, on 3 April, 2023, a meeting was held at the Uztekstilprom association with the leadership of the association, at which the results of the 2022 assessment and the main priorities for future cooperation and development of the BCI program in Uzbekistan were discussed. Chelsea Reinhardt, Director of Standards and Quality Assurance at BCI, said the Better Cotton V2.0 standard has been updated and significant progress has been made in agronomy and irrigation system efficiency, but added that work needs to be done to improve the transparency and credibility of self-assessment clusters (self-assessment).

In addition, Chelsea Reinhardt presented plans to build the capacity of clusters (capacity - building) together with the ILO, create new verification capacities in Uzbekistan (building new verifying capacity) and diversify decent work monitoring.

Following the meeting, the parties agreed to participate in the Better Cotton Supply Chain webinar in May 2023.