- May 17, 2016
- 4:09 pm
- John Caltagirone
- no comments
Collaboration and Technology are Keys to Improving Human Rights in Global Supply Chains
The World Economic Forum’s Global Agenda Council on Human Rights report Shared Responsibility: a New Paradigm for Supply Chains discusses the ways that large global buyers have worked together and with host country governments to affect measurable improvements in human rights challenges that are too big and/or too deeply entrenched to be addressed unilaterally.
In this paper the authors recognize the work that underway led by organizations such as the G7, Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), and the International Labor Organization (ILO) and proposes building upon it with a “shared responsibility model” that would pool interests of the industry players, government, and philanthropic organizations. They also built upon elements of existing shared responsibility models such as the apparel industry did in Bangladesh, the soccer ball industry, and Detroit’s Blight Removal Project. To their credit, the authors call out and begin to address a number of very practical considerations such as how costs get divided, how do you ensure the benefits get to the intended parties, etc.
Supply Chain visibility was identified in the report as a key enabler in helping buyers understand what is occurring in their supply chains and in holding multiple tiers of suppliers accountable to their expectations. Humanity United and government agencies including the State and Justice Departments recently demonstrated how government and NGOs can work with business to support their objectives. Together they sponsored a contest with a $250,000 award; Trace Register and the human rights advisory firm Sustainability Incubator joined forces to win the award for jointly developing a service that helps companies evaluate their suppliers to determine potential risks for slave labor.
-Harry Haney, Assistant Director, Supply & Value Chain Center