Workers sew clothes inside the Indochine Apparel PLC textile factory in Hawassa Industrial Park in Southern Nations, Nationalities and Peoples region, Ethiopia REUTERS/Tiksa Negeri - Exports of African textiles and garments have grown rapidly over the past decade, but US and European orders for African garments have dried up as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. As we have argued in a recent paper , there are three main options to protect African workers who face the prospect of extreme hardship. These are: to subsidise wages for workers, a subsidised training package to retain manufacturing capabilities a retooling of garment factories to produce garments for medical needs Each option requires different commitments from buyers, factories, workers, the public sector and donors. In Kenyan, each garment firm on average needs $400,000 per month to pay workers. This could be financed through a combination of commitments from buyers, factories, workers, the pub