GENEVA, Switzerland — July 16, 2025 — Better Cotton, the foremost global initiative dedicated to cotton sustainability, has revealed significant strides in its Uzbekistan program, highlighting its commitment to enhancing due diligence and promoting decent work practices within the region’s cotton industry.
Katerina Gorbunova, who oversees Better Cotton’s initiatives in Uzbekistan, stated, “In collaboration with our Programme Partner, the German Agency for International Cooperation (GIZ), we have strengthened the programme’s framework and the services we offer to accelerate change across the country’s cotton sector.”
The improvements to Better Cotton’s program in Uzbekistan focus on bolstering the verification processes for licensed clusters. This has been achieved by empowering independent civil society organizations and engaging third-party auditors, alongside the deployment of an updated due diligence methodology that ensures thorough local oversight.
The refined approach entails detailed interviews and comprehensive questionnaires directed at both cluster management and workers. It also involves assessments of financial stability, ethical conduct, and governance practices, offering a deeper understanding of risks and performance metrics within the participating enterprises. The insights gained from these evaluations are leveraged to guide targeted interventions.
In light of Better Cotton’s recent transition to a certification scheme, the organization has updated its decent work-related initiatives. They now conduct initial assessments of newly integrated clusters prior to the commencement of the growing season to evaluate their readiness for certification. If these clusters fall short of the established requirements, their audits are deferred to the subsequent season.
For those clusters already holding active licenses, Better Cotton staff carry out second-party checks to identify any potential issues related to decent work. If necessary, this may lead to a more exhaustive review by external labor rights monitoring bodies.
Since August 2024, Better Cotton and GIZ have broadened their training programs to encompass not only innovative and regenerative agricultural techniques but also principles of social sustainability and decent work, reflecting recent modifications to labor laws in Uzbekistan.
This initiative employs a cascading training model aimed at cotton cluster managers, enabling them to educate their workforce, who in turn can assist their colleagues.
Gorbunova remarked, “The Uzbek cotton sector has tremendous potential to be a leader in the production of more sustainably produced cotton. This can only be achieved through collaboration, robust and transparent processes, and perseverance. Better Cotton is uniquely positioned to help unlock this potential and will continue to engage stakeholders across the country to make our vision a reality.”
Paul Schumacher, the Cotton Project Manager at GIZ Uzbekistan, emphasized, “Today, sustainable agricultural methods, trade facilitations, and decent work are no longer parallel efforts; they are parts of one sustainable system. With the right networks and shared effort, as we created within the frame of Better Cotton, we turn individual action into systemic change.”
