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WIEGO Joints Ethical Trading Initiative

WIEGO has become a member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI). The ETI is a tripartite membership organization made up of companies, trade union organizations and NGOs. It was established in 1998 with the mission to improve the lives of workers in global supply chains by promoting responsible corporate practice that supports this goal. ETI specializes in developing innovative approaches and tools for implementing voluntary codes of practice that address supply chain labour conditions, and is widely recognized as a global leader in this area. The membership is composed of a large number of High Street retailers such as Marks and Spencer, The Body Shop International, The Gap, Next, Monsoon, Boots and others as well as the big supermarkets such as Sainsbury’s, Tesco and Asda. The global trades unions are represented as are the international development NGOs such as Oxfam, Save the Children, Traidcraft and other network organisations that are concerned to promote the rights of workers. For a full list of members of the Ethical Trade Initiative, please click here.

WIEGO’S Global Markets Programme has the promotion of international labour standards for informal workers as one of its key planks. The ETI undertakes pilot work and research in sourcing countries, many of which are home to WIEGO members. WIEGO’s entry into the ETI offers a great opportunity to combine the forces of two organizations that share common goals and common constituents amongst their respective membership. Initially, WIEGO will participate in two of ETI’s pilot activities: Home-workers in India which has already benefited from the involvement of SEWA (Self-Employed Women’s Association), a founder of WIEGO, and the development of training tools on labour standards for supervisors in the wine industry in South Africa. The presence of two WIEGO Programme Directors in South Africa - Francie Lund (Social Protection Programme) and Chris Bonner (Organization and Representation Programme) - will place them well to provide inputs there. We are confident that by working in collaboration, we shall continue to raise the labour standards of informal workers in global supply chains.