Our impact
The frontier of apparel manufacturing is shifting to Africa. It has the potential to create millions of jobs for women and young people, jobs that are acutely needed. Each year, ~12 million young Africans enter the workforce but only ~3 million jobs are created.
We founded Ethical Apparel Africa to help get it right from the start as this industry grows: embedding operational excellence, not exploitation. We partner with local, women-owned factories and help them make the leap to export. Through leapfrogging technology and lean management practices, factories can create a virtuous cycle of productivity improvements and investment in people.
In 2021, EAA acquired a majority stake in Maagrace Garment Industries in Koforidua, and grew it into the second-largest garment factory in Ghana. We run Maagrace as a model factory and learning lab, open to the wider industry. Our decisions are driven by data, with learning partnerships with entities such as the Levi Strauss Foundation, UN Foundation, and the Ethical Trading Initiative.
By 2030, we aim to create 10,000 sustainable jobs, while catalyzing rapid job growth in the region and inspiring the wider industry to adopt people-first and green practices.
Here is our impact, measured across four areas:
Gender Equity
In a sector known for all-female operators and all-male management, we are building a new paradigm for gender in our industry.
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70% of our workforce and 50% of managers are women
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Proactive upskilling programs for women including in non traditional high skill areas (mechanics, cutting, digital patterns)
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Centering of women's voices through democratically elected workers' committees
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Benefits designed with a gender lens, including 16 weeks paid maternity leave
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Every factory in our pipeline that we support to scale is woman-owned
LIVELIHOODs
Ghana has potential to create 250K jobs in this sector (see commercial benefits here). We are currently the second largest garment factory nationally and we are working to catalyze exponential job growth over the next 5-10 years.
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1,000+ stable jobs created to date at ~4x prior income, in a region with 85% unemployment
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90%+ of senior managers promoted from the floor, with career ladder and upskilling support
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Roadmap to creating 10,000 direct jobs by 2030, while also supporting other local factories to scale and catalyzing ecosystem growth
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For every direct manufacturing job, on average 2.2 indirect jobs are created
Worker wellbeing
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Provision of extensive benefits and wraparound support for our workers (daily meals, subsidized transport, on site healthcare, family health coverage, wellbeing center for recreation)
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Effort to measure link between wellbeing and productivity / absenteeism / turnover including in partnership with the Levi Strauss Foundation
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Extensive focus on democratic, structured opportunities for every employee to have their voice heard
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Strong job satisfaction, including 94% proud of their work every day
SUSTAINABILITY
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Our model factory is Ghana's largest solar-powered apparel manufacturing plant, avoiding 120K kg of CO2 emissions every quarter and feeding green energy back into the local grid
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Our factory expansion is being built to EDGE standards (World Bank green certification), the first in the region
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Modeling daily green practices (waste minimization and recycling, on site borehole) and sharing solar roadmap with other firms
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Helping bring a circular, regenerative vision to the region (trash to fiber to clothing)
our contribution towards the SDGs
Building good jobs in West Africa, and helping a whole industry grow responsibly, moves nine of the UN Sustainable Development Goals. These are the ones we move most:
