Engaging Driver Unions through Cross-Border Collaboration in Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire
Building on the 2016 joint declaration between Ghana and Côte d’Ivoire to combat human trafficking and child labor, Verité’s Forced Labor Indicators Project (FLIP) is strengthening collaboration between these two West African nations.
Since 2018 in Ghana, and 2021 in Côte d’Ivoire, Verité has fostered coalition-building through Technical Working Groups (TWGs), uniting diverse stakeholders to raise awareness of forced labor and human trafficking, influence policies, and drive national-level change through collaborative expertise.
Dear Sustainability Director
Andrea Galvez, Verité’s First Mile Due Diligence Lead on why brands need to take supplier engagement seriously.
In today’s rapidly evolving global business landscape, due diligence is no longer just a buzzword it’s a critical component of sustainable and ethical business practices. As directors of Sustainability, CSR, or Supply Chain Management for multinational brands, you’re likely grappling with a significant shift: the transition from voluntary to mandatory due diligence.
What Does It Mean to Embed Human Rights in Business Management Systems?
Embedding human rights means integrating them into your company’s DNA, its culture, strategy, and daily operations. It’s about placing human rights on par with other core business priorities like efficiency, quality, cost, and environmental sustainability. This requires a fundamental shift in how businesses perceive their role and responsibilities in the global economy, moving beyond mere compliance to proactive engagement with human rights issues.
Webinar: Launch of Verité’s Farm Labor Due Diligence Toolkit – Demystifying Human Rights Due Diligence for Companies, Suppliers, and Traders Sourcing Agricultural Commodities
This webinar is for companies, suppliers, and traders seeking to understand and implement human rights due diligence in agricultural supply chains. Join Verité for the launch our new Farm Labor Due Diligence Toolkit, a groundbreaking, free resource to help companies tackle challenging human rights issues – including on farms and in the “first mile.”
Worker Participation as a Catalyst for Supply Chain Transformation
As companies look to uphold ethical labor practices in their supply chains, a major challenge arises – how to promote worker freedom of association (FoA) rights in places where union rights are legally restricted? Furthermore, the corporate accountability landscape is shifting toward government regulation of supply chain compliance via transparency and due diligence mandates and trade sanctions. Considering this, how must companies reassess the prevailing practices in their supply chains that create obstacles and suppression of rights, even in countries where union rights are less restrictive on pape
Shedding Light on the Financial Burdens of Migrant Workers through Worker-Led Data Collection
As new and emerging human rights due diligence (HRDD) legislation, such as the recently passed EU Corporate Social Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD), gains traction, the demand for transparent and accurate information regarding labor recruitment costs has escalated. As global supply chains grapple with the pervasive issue of debt bondage, a deeply rooted manifestation of forced labor, the urgent need to shed light on the hidden financial burdens shouldered by migrant workers has become critical.
The Fostering Fee Accountability and Cost Tracking (FFACT) project, a collaborative effort between Verité and over 10 other civil society organizations (CSOs) in India, Bangladesh, and Malaysia, is addressing the need for transparent, accurate calculations of recruitment costs through worker-led digital
STREAMS Holds Workshop in New Delhi, India to Validate Findings from Traceability Field Pilots
Companies face mounting pressures from consumers, regulators, and their own ethical and sustainability commitments when it comes to upholding workers’ rights. Through two pioneering field pilots in the Indian cotton supply chain, Verité’s U.S. Department of Labor-funded Supply Chain Tracing and Engagement Methodologies (STREAMS) project is testing innovative approaches that combine supply chain traceability with robust labor rights due diligence. These pilots represent efforts to develop an evidence-base and resources that will help companies strengthen human rights due diligence efforts proactively, rather than reactively.
Register Now: Webinar on Building Management and Worker Capacities to Advance Worker Participation
Worker participation is often overlooked as a strategy for building a competitive, sustainable business that can keep up with rapidly evolving social and legal standards in global supply chains. Even in countries where workers’ rights to freedom of association (FOA) are extremely limited due to national laws or the lack of government enforcement, corporations can still ensure workers in their supply chain have access to effective grievance mechanisms and systems that ensure workers have a say in workplace matters.
Webinar on Forced Labor Risks in Construction Supply Chains
The construction industry, with its reliance on low-skilled, low-pay manual jobs often filled by migrants, has long faced significant forced labor risks globally. We’ll discuss these risks, the challenges of monitoring the sector’s long and complicated supply chains and how our new due diligence tools set can help. Customized to the sector, the tools are one feature of our fully refreshed ResponsibelSourcingTool.org (RST), which has been updated and expanded with the support of the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons.
Breakthrough on Historic EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive
The European Union (EU) reached a historic deal on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (EU CSDDD). For the first time, large companies and those in high-risk sectors will be required to implement risk management systems to address their adverse impacts on people, communities, and the environment if they wish to do business in the EU market.
