Five Reasons Why Businesses Should Prioritise Supporting Women in Global Garment Supply Chains
As governments, businesses, civil society and NGOs take stock of global progress towards to UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), it is important to recognize that investing in women in global garment supply chains can act as a lever to achieving the SDGs. RISE: Reimagining Industry to Support Equality is an initiative to support collaborative industry […]
Improving Human Wellbeing in the Coffee Supply Chain
Improving Human Wellbeing in the Coffee Supply chain: The Need for Better Data and Benchmarks Ahh a freshly-brewed cup of coffee…if just the smell of it brings you comfort at the promise of a caffeine-hit each morning, you’re not alone. Globally, we consume over two billion cups of coffee every day. And yet, how often […]
Why Investing in Informal Women Workers is Critical to Maintaining Resilient Supply Chains
Over 60% of the world’s employed population make their living through informal work, with no access to formal contracts or protection. Women make up a disproportionate percentage of informal workers, with 740 million women’s livelihoods dependent on the informal economy globally. Lack of secure employment contracts or social protection for these workers means that when […]
Engendering Regeneration for Supply Chains that Last
In a decade marked by climate shocks, pandemia, and global interconnection, the call to #InvestInOurPlanet is top of mind for individuals and companies – not just for Earth Day but for the future of life and business as we know it. Food and beverage corporations sense the urgency to transition to more renewable sources for […]
Spotlighting Fairtrade and Aldi UK’s ‘Dignity for All’ – a programme for female flower workers
“Women have the potential of taking up leadership positions and roles, unlike in previous years when women were considered irrelevant and/or unable to lead and work equally as men”. This sentiment may seem like a given to most readers, but for the 25-year-old flower farm worker from Ethiopia who said these words it was a […]
Six Actions Businesses Can Take To Reduce Negative Impacts of Purchasing Practices on Human Rights
Companies’ purchasing practices can have a profound impact on human rights. Businesses are under mounting pressure to take responsibility for the wellbeing of the women and men working in their supply chains, with mandatory human rights due diligence legislation approved or underway in several countries. While Corporate Social Responsibility and sustainability teams are working hard […]
Four lessons for businesses wanting to build more equitable supply chains through sustainable sourcing
Approximately 78 percent of the world’s poor, or 800 million people , live in rural areas and rely on agriculture for a living. Most of those smallholder farmers are operating at extremely low levels of productivity and are excluded from formal markets. Meanwhile, there is a growing demand for locally-sourced food, particularly in growing urban hubs […]
Evaluation gaps, challenges and implications: Responsible business initiatives for sustainable supply chains?
Internally, many companies are already innovating on sustainability to a greater or lesser degree. Some make strategic changes with respect to sustainability performance, but the competitive pressures of globalized value chains remain very strong. Hence, becoming more responsible is not a straightforward task for brands and retailers, especially those in mainstream and/or highly competitive markets, […]
Three Promises Lidl Has Made to Protect its Food Workers
But there is another group of frontline food workers doing the same, hidden from view, those who produce the products we are all trying to buy, such as tea, coffee, prawns, fruit and vegetables. Even before Coronavirus, Oxfam research highlighted workers’ vulnerability, earning low wages on insecure contracts, often with poor sick pay and hygiene arrangements. In 2018, we launched the Behind the […]
Large Companies Have a Key Role in Strengthening Small Supplier Integrity
The project, run by Business Fights Poverty, has sought to find out how to encourage small and medium-sized enterprises to take business integrity issues more seriously and adopt meaningful anticorruption compliance. They conducted an extensive literature review and complemented it with an online survey, 24 interviews, and two business roundtables in which we gathered […]
