Monitoring Supply Chains: An Ongoing Challenge Heather White President, New Standards

Factories are looking better…

As violations become more hidden

Multi-Stakeholder initiatives are growing…

But workers see little benefit considering the $$ spent

Groups Potentially Influencing Social Compliance, not exercising bargaining power Consumers Media NGOs Labor Unions Students Business partners Investors (owners) International Organizations Church/religious groups

The Case for Worker Empowerment Workers can sharing responsibility for social compliance (even pushing it and enabling it) Empowered workforce sustains the workplace  develops community Healthy community averts economic displacements

“ Audit Fatigue” in absence of achieving compliance Factories with multiple buyers Licensees or agents serving multiple brands with same info Shared auditing Cost reduction means factories pay How to Minimize audit ‘fatigue’

Movement Toward Standardization Growing consensus –Respect for human rights –Int’l labor standards –Coming together of governments - - Nafta, Asean, APEC, US- Jordan trade Cooperation bet. brands Better info management Access to information

Collaborative Initiatives among brands generate learning..

Role of Transparency in Reporting…

is a new trend, and a good one Users have ability to validate and disseminate reports - still early Growing number of ‘learned’ workers Growing number of civil society organizations

but weekly reports of child labor continue …