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Social Accountability International (SAI) is a non-profit, multi-stakeholder organization established to advance the human rights of workers by promoting decent work conditions, labor rights, and corporate social responsibility through voluntary standards and capacity building.
SAI is headquartered in the United States with field representation in Brazil, China, Costa Rica, India, the Netherlands, Nicaragua, Philippines, Switzerland, and UAE.
SAI- Human Rights at Work
For newsletter inquiries contact: SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong, jong@sa-intl.org |
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 Fire Safety & Prevention: Interview with Dundar Sahin
After visiting 17 factories in Pakistan, Mr. Sahin discusses his experience on the ground to assess the risk of fire and disaster readiness
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Snapshots from Pakistan (from left): 1) It is recommended that aisles be clear and wide enough for two people (120 cm) in order for evacuation routes to be adequate; 2) Dundar Sahin stands in front of fire extinguishers in a factory in Faisalabad; 3) In the SITE industrial area in Karachi, the AKUT team had to rely on a hand drawn map on a wall to determine the locations of four factories. For more photos and videos from the AKUT assessment, visit facebook.com/socialaccountabilityinternational
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Dundar Sahin is an emergency and disaster relief specialist, who joined the Turkish volunteer organization AKUT Search & Rescue Association in 1997, when he was a student at Istanbul University. In 1999, AKUT was lauded as a national hero for its effective relief efforts after the earthquake in Turkey, and has continued on to support disaster relief efforts in Greece, India, Thailand, Haiti, Pakistan and Japan.
Fast forward to 2012, Mr. Sahin and AKUT continue to play an important role in this space. At the time of the interview, he had just wrapped up a ' Supply Chain Emergency Management' training course on behalf of a major UK clothing retailer for over 1,000 workers and 250 managers in New Delhi. In March 2011, he conducted an SAI fire safety and prevention training course in Dhaka, Bangladesh.
After the tragic fire at Ali Enterprises in Karachi, Mr. Sahin was asked by SAAS to conduct two important investigations on the ground in Pakistan. He first investigated Ali Enterprises in October, and then in November, he led a four-person group from AKUT to assess a sample of 17 SA8000 certified facilities in Karachi, Lahore, Sialkot and Faisalabad. The assessment looked at the factories' fire and disaster risk based on five categories -- 1) evacuation; 2) fire safety; 3) documentation; 4) management; and 5) health and safety -- to help find the incidence of safety fire hazards, root causes, and as a basis for SAAS to decide changes and improvements in the overall SA8000 system and share these findings with SAI as it undertakes a revision of SA8000, adds to its guidance documents, and expands its OSH trainings and projects.
SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong interviewed Mr. Sahin to discuss his experiences in Pakistan during his November investigation. The final report from his visit is being reviewed by SAAS, and will be publicly reported in the first quarter of 2013.
Joleen Ong: Emergency and disaster relief can be emotionally and physically tough - how did you first get involved with AKUT?
Dundar Sahin: "I'm interested in this work because it touches people's lives- it gives me great motivation. In 1997, I was a student at Istanbul University. I liked the outdoors, especially climbing and diving. However, if you had an issue or got stuck, there were no professionals in Turkey who could help you. At best, maybe the military would send someone, but they might not have the skills you need to get out safely. I joined AKUT to be part of a network. AKUT had just been established a year earlier, and at the time, it was more like a network of university students - if something went wrong we just called each other up.
That same year, a university professor recommended that we focus on earthquake rescue training since Istanbul is prone to them. That idea had not even occurred to us. After that we started to get trained by professionals from the UK, US and Wales. Then in 1999, the big earthquake hit Turkey and killed 20,000 people. AKUT's network was small, only 60 people, but we were able to save 220 lives under collapsed structures. AKUT became a national hero after that, and after we joined the UN's International Search and Rescue Advisory Group [INSARAG], and helped with the recovery efforts after disasters in Greece, India, Thailand, Haiti, Pakistan and Japan.
Later, I trained at the SOLO Wilderness and Disaster Medicine School in New Hampshire, and then worked for the Azerbaijan International Operating Company as their Emergency Coordinator. In 2007, I became AKUT's Training Manager and set up an institute for emergency and disaster management, where we focus on training and research for emergency planning in various industries, including steel, glass, telecommunications, textiles and aviation."
JO: You were in Pakistan in November doing an assessment of 17 SA8000 certified factories in Lahore, Sialkot, Karachi and Faisalabad. Can you tell us more about your experience on the ground?
DS: "People were surprised of course because it was unannounced, but we had to let the factories know that it wasn't an audit, it was an assessment for fact finding purposes. But whether it is announced or unannounced, health and safety standards cannot be complied with overnight, for example you can't re-do a fire escape in one day. We saw everything as it occurs normally, it was just a snapshot.
It was sometimes hard to get around - we got lost in the SITE industrial area in Karachi [Sindh Industrial Trading Estate (SITE)]. We had to visit four factories in that area. The addresses were a mess and the map we were using kept bringing us to the wrong place. So we spoke with some local people, and they showed us a map that had been drawn on a wall with charcoal that was near a bus stop. It was the most innovative map I have ever seen and it helped us to locate the factories. All of the numbers on the map were of the different factories." [See photo above]
JO: Tell us one situation that stood out for you
DS: "At one factory, I passed two individuals sitting on a table. I stopped and asked them who they were, and it turns out they were the electrical technicians in the factory. They were fixing a lamp and the electrical circuits. Electrical circuits are a huge problem in these factories in Pakistan, they can be so weak and dangerous - usually the main cause of fires, so this was an important discussion we came across.
We spent some time with them and explained how flecks of dust in electrical circuits can cause sparks and can start huge fires in a second. They didn't know that, neither did the management! One of my team members from AKUT is an expert on logistics, and showed them how to do safe wiring and how to make safe connections. We saw that they started to fix things that way."
JO: Based on your experience - in general, what are the top three ways that fires could be prevented?
DS: "The biggest problem is awareness at all staff levels in a factory. Second is control - such as government to enforce laws- it is quite weak. These two are huge - knowledge and control. If you can just establish awareness - for example at the executive level you have awareness trainings and commitment, mid-level managers you train on technical skills [such as the example in the previous question about safe wiring], and workers you train on awareness and disaster planning. This is really important.
The third is a design problem. Push-bar fire exit doors like you see in the U.S. are not common in Pakistan, and doors are often locked with padlocks. The exits can also act like a chimney in a house, so if there is a fire, the air will feed in from the ground and make the fire even bigger. The good thing is, with occupational health and safety, compared to the other elements of SA8000 such as remuneration, it is the least expensive to prepare for, and these can all be resolved faster than other issues."
JO: What about the government? Has the Ali Enterprises tragedy spurred any changes in the labor laws?
DS: "Earlier this month on December 6, the ILO convened a meeting that included government officials and stakeholders to set up new roles and regulations, it focused on health and safety. I was in Bangladesh at the time, so I could not attend but the joint action plan that came out of it is due for release next month." [Ambreen Waheed, Executive Director of the Responsible Business Initiative in Pakistan attended the event on behalf of SAI.] |
Bangladesh & Pakistan: Tragic Fires Underscore Urgent Safety Needs
The recent fire at the Tazreen Fashions & Ali Enterprises draws further attention to dangers for workers in the South Asian garment industry
On November 24, in one of the worst industrial disasters in the history of Bangladesh, a deadly fire at a Dhaka garment factory claimed the lives of more than 110 workers. Reports say there were no fire escapes and that the exit door was locked. SAI expresses our heartfelt sympathy for the victims and their families. These dreadful disasters, the latest in a long series of fires in the South Asian apparel industry, call for broad international cooperation and rapid reforms in Pakistani and Bangladeshi enforcement of their labor laws. Business, civil society and government must work together to minimize industrial fires in the future and to ensure that workers always have safe egress and adequate training to escape should a fire occur. That will require an effective anti-corruption program as well as extensive training at all levels, capacity building, and a central role for workers and their freely elected representatives.
The ready-made garment sector in Bangladesh, as well as across South Asia, continues to be a precarious occupation, and most of its workers are women. Since 2006, more than 600 workers have perished in fires at garment factories in Bangladesh. Since the fire at Tazreen last Saturday, there has been yet another fire at a garment factory in Bangladesh. On Monday, November 28, in the suburb of Uttara, the Euro-Bangla Garment building caught fire, injuring at least eight workers.
These tragedies are grim reminders of the need to ensure adequate health and safety measures including fire evacuation procedures, with proper communication channels between workers and managers on actions to take in the event of a disaster and active involvement of workers in identifying and remediating hazards.
Two months ago in Karachi, Pakistan, a deadly fire at the Ali Enterprises garment factory on September 11 claimed the lives of nearly 300 workers. SAI has initiated a thorough investigation to determine the circumstances surrounding RINA's initial SA8000 audit of the factory and the reasons for the grim loss of life and encompassing on the ground in Pakistan 17 SA8000 certified facilities; it is being carried out by Social Accountability Accreditation Services (SAAS) and AKUT Search and Rescue Association. In addition, fire inspections at every SA8000 certified factory in Pakistan are being carried out by the accredited audit bodies active there. The findings will be followed up with an in-depth analysis to determine what changes are needed in the overall system and with a public report.
We are thoroughly convinced that workers must be able to exercise their rights to participate fully with managers and owners to identify and prevent hazardous conditions and to assure safe and adequate egress at the workplace. This must be a fundamental principle of any initiative to address the continuing endemic problems in fire safety in the garment industry.
There are numerous opportunities to address this challenge comprehensively. Among these are some in which SAI has partnered. In 2013, SAI's "Pillars in Practice" program with the Danish Institute for Human Rights will build the capacity of civil society organizations in Bangladesh, Nicaragua and Zimbabwe to engage and train on the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. In Bangladesh, the CSR-Centre will build upon its experience in the ready-made garment sector by providing local stakeholders with tools to apply the "Protect, Respect and Remedy" Framework to address human rights challenges in the sector, beginning with fire safety and prevention and gender discrimination. This will also build upon earlier SAI training on fire safety and prevention in Bangladesh in 2010 with the ITGLWF (now IndustriALL) and in 2011 with Dundar Sahin from AKUT.
For more information, contact SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong - JOng@sa-intl.org.
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'The Human Price': Responses to the New York Times
The two-part series reported on some challenges of implementing voluntary standards & the complexities behind supply chain management- SAI & SAAS board members & peers respond
The New York Times' two-part series, "The Human Price," on December 7 and 8 examined the tragic circumstances surrounding the fires at Ali Enterprises on September 11 in Karachi, and at Tazreen Fashions on November 24 in Dhaka. These tragedies inevitably echo the Triangle factory fire in 1911. The Triangle fire horrified the nation, and it catalyzed the widespread introduction of workplace safety and fire prevention measures, and served as the impetus for U.S. worker protection laws and their enforcement. This watershed moment in South Asia can present an opportunity to push for the equivalent changes so urgently needed.
From the New York Times article on December 8, 2012:
"[An] SA8000 certificate, issued under the auspices of Social Accountability International, a respected nonprofit organization based in New York, proves [a factory is] running a model business."
"The [SA8000] certificate... is considered the most prestigious in the industry."
On December 11, SAI President Alice Tepper Marlin was a panelist on NPR's 'The Diane Rehm Show' - "The People Who Make Our Clothes and the Conditions they Face" along with New York Times reporter Steve Greenhouse and the Worker Rights Consortium (WRC) Executive Director Scott Nova. A full recording and transcript is available @bit.ly/TlO0Fc.
In response to the December 8 New York Times' article, SAI & SAAS Board members, as well as the voluntary standards membership organization, the ISEAL Alliance, sent in Letters to the Editor and/or posted public commentary:
- Dana Chasin, Economic Policy Fellow, U.S. Senator Jon Tester
Member, SAI Board of Directors - Ivano Corraini, Secretary General, The Italian General Confederation of Labour
Member, SAI Advisory Board - Jan Furstenborg, Founder-Responsible Productivity & former Head, UNI Commerce Global Union
Member, SAI Board of Directors - Karin Kreider, Executive Director - ISEAL Alliance
SAAS is a member of the ISEAL Alliance - Dr. Morton Winston, Professor of Philosophy, the College of New Jersey
Member, SAAS Advisory Board
To read the responses, visit sa-intl.org/humanprice. For more information, contact SAI Communications Manager Joleen Ong - JOng@sa-intl.org.
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Spotlight: 'Pillars in Practice' Local Partners
SAI asks its local partners in Bangladesh, Nicaragua & Zimbabwe about the program's significance and potential human rights impact
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'Pillars in Practice' Local Partners (from left): Shahamin Zaman- Executive Director & CEO, CSR Centre Bangladesh; Alberto Legall Lopez- Project Director, Professionals for Corporate Social Auditing (PASE) Nicaragua; Mutuso Dhliwayo - Executive Director, Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA)
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SAI's joint 'Pillars in Practice' (PiP) program with the Danish Institute for Human Rights (DIHR) designed to promote the UN Guiding Principles for Business and Human Rights works in 3 countries and 3 sectors: ready-made garments in Bangladesh; agriculture in Nicaragua; and mining in Zimbabwe. To read about the launch, see the November issue of SAI's newsletter. We are pleased to introduce the 3 key local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) we will work with and their leaders who will be working with SAI and the DIHR:
Bangladesh: Shahamin Zaman, CEO & Executive Director - the CSR Center
Sector: Ready-made garments
"One of the unique contributions of this project is that it looks into the human rights aspects across three countries in three specific sectors that are of national priority... [for Bangladesh] the project comes at a time when fire safety and prevention is the number one priority of the ready-made garment sector of Bangladesh, and a national as well as global concern as it is Bangladesh's main export industry, employing over 3.4 million workers." - Shahamin Zaman Established in 2007, the CSR Centre's goal is to promote sustainable development through responsible business practices. Its chief objective is to become the primary source of information, resources, and advisory services on CSR in Bangladesh, and its operational principle is to contribute to achieving the human development targets set in the MDGs through private sector led growth. Ms. Zaman is an economist and has over 20 years of development experience with various international organizations, including Harvard Institute for International Development (HIID), Ashoka Foundation, CIDA, Actionaid, UNDP, and DFID. Her professional experience spans a wide range including private sector development, agriculture, gender, health and population, and education. She has also led teams on fundraising, partnership development, international communication, resource mobilization, child sponsorship and research monitoring and evaluation. In her current work, she is a leader in stakeholder dialogue with development partners including donors, local NGOs, INGOs, CSOs, private sector firms and government bodies. As the focal point of UNGC in Bangladesh, Ms. Zaman was one of the facilitators for the UN Secretary General's private sector engagement event on the global initiative "Every Woman Every Child." She is also a founding member of SANSAR (South Asia Network for Sustainability and Responsibility), a platform which works with the private sector to engage in sustainable value chain development by linking CSR activities with the MDGs. Nicaragua: Alberto Legall Lopez, Project Director - Professionals for Corporate Social Auditing (PASE)Sector: Agriculture "[The PiP program] will allow PASE to promote a sense of social consciousness in the agricultural export sectors so that the companies that meet with trade unions and the government can seek a better way to produce and export in a just and humane manner." - Alberto Legall LopezPASE is an NGO dedicated to the promotion of decent social conditions in Nicaragua through independent monitoring, training, mediation and capacity building programs on compliance with codes of conduct and labor laws. PASE and its team of lawyers work to improve labor practices in Nicaragua's manufacturing and agriculture industries. It was established in 2003 with help from the respected women's NGO Movimiento de Mujeres "Maria Elena Cuadra" (MEC). Mr. Lopez is a lawyer by training. He has conducted numerous trainings on occupational health and safety in the garment and agricultural sectors. He also wrote a diagnostic study on labor conditions in the banana and sugarcane industries in Nicaragua for SAI's Project Cultivar. He studied at the Universidad Nacional Autónoma de Nicaragua and Universidad Centroamericana (UCA).SAI and PASE have previous experience working together in SAI's Project Cultivar, during which PASE secured the participation of all six banana farms operating in Nicaragua, representing 100% of the country's banana production. PASE also trained a technical team of trade union leaders on occupational health and safety and national labor laws under Project Cultivar. This technical team has since replicated the training for 78 union leaders and 100 general workers, a third of whom are unaffiliated to the unions. Over the course of the four year U.S. Department of Labor funded Project Cultivar, PASE developed training manuals and delivered training workshops on occupational health and safety and labor laws for workers and managers.Zimbabwe: Mutuso Dhliwayo, Executive Director - Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association (ZELA)Sector: Mining"In Zimbabwe, there is no possible [current] platform for a beneficial relationship between business and civil society organizations in relation to human rights...[the PiP Program] will provide a platform for engagement and not confrontation." - Mutuso DhliwayoEstablished in 2000, ZELA is a public interest NGO that seeks to promote environmental justice, sustainable and equitable use of natural resources, democracy and good governance in the natural resources and environment sector through policy and legal research, advocacy, conflict resolution, impact litigation, education, training, and publications.Mr. Dhliwayo previously served as Legal Officer at Environment Africa, one of Zimbabwe's leading environmental organizations. He has a passion for the management of shared resources and heads ZELA's Trans-Boundary Natural Resources Management (TBNRM) program. Thanks to his law background from the University of Zimbabwe and experience with ZELA, Mr. Dhliwayo is well aware of the human rights issues that characterize the mining sector in Zimbabwe. He explains the country's historical democratic deficit results in the fact that "there is no possible platform for a beneficial relationship between business and civil society organizations in relation to human rights." One of the reasons he cites is that "CSOs are generally perceived as anti-government and out to spread western concepts of regime change."Historically, stakeholder relations in Zimbabwe's mining sector have been strained by the country's struggle to balance social and economic development. Mr. Dhliwayo and ZELA believe that the PiP program "will provide a platform for engagement and not confrontation", which is crucial at a time when Zimbabwe is undergoing a pivotal political transition.This article was written by SAI Development Intern Tina Baboyan. For more information, contact SAI Development Manager Eliza Wright -EWright@sa-intl.org. To follow the project in real time 'like' us on Facebook - facebook.com/pillarsinpractice.
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Implementing the UN Guiding Principles for Business & Human Rights
Two-day Training Event - January 28-29, Utrecht, The Netherlands
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Group photo from the SAI UN Guiding Principles course in Bangalore, India - Nov. 27-28. Register now for the upcoming course in Utrecht, The Netherlands. |
June 2011, the UN adopted the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights, written by UN Special Representative John Ruggie. One of the implications of the principles is that businesses are expected to respect human rights in their companies internally and in their supply chains. But what does this mean and how do you accomplish this?
To assist with the Guiding Principles' goals, SAI and ICCO developed tools for business and started a new training course centered on their recent Handbook & Toolkit. November 27-28 the course was delivered in Bangalore, India. Priyadarshini Sharma, Senior Manager, Office of the Vice President, Corporate Services, Tata Steel, attended the course:
"Tata Steel works with the SA8000 in upholding labor and human rights principles. We seek to expand the Management Review for SA8000 to include the human rights context going beyond the workplace. Attending the course was a step in the direction of structuring approaches to develop an integrated framework for salient risks."
Register now for the upcoming training course in Utrecht, The Netherlands on January 28-29, 2013. The training course builds understanding on: - Content, Scope and Implications of the Guiding Principles and the Corporate Responsibility to Respect
- The critical issue of whether a company caused, contributed to or is linked to negative human rights impacts in its supply chain and as a result what action is expected of a company
- Avoiding negative impacts in the supply chain by adding a collaborative approach to supplier codes of conduct
- Insights in what human rights need to be respected and on how to prioritize between these rights
- The business case for human rights
Additionally the course will introduce a six-step method on how to implement a supply chain management system that integrates the respect for human rights. The six steps are: - Committing to a human rights policy
- Assessing human rights impact
- Integrating human rights in policies, procedures and responsibilities
- Tracking human rights implementation
- Communicating human rights impact
- Remediating adverse human rights impacts
Expected Participants: The Training is applicable to companies in any industry and size. It is designed for use by senior management, as well as professionals in the human resources, corporate social responsibility, compliance and sourcing departments. In addition, the Training is also intended for CSR experts and consultants who train or advise companies, as well as for NGO, trade union and government representatives to learn about the implications of the Guiding Principles on their work.
Trainer for the Jan. 28-29 course in Utrecht: The training will be carried out by Edwin Koster, SAI´s European Representative. Mr. Koster has broad experience in sustainable supply chain management and is the co-author of the Handbook and Toolkit used in the Training.
For inquiries and to register, visit www.sa-intl.org/unguidingprinciplescourse or contact SAI Training Coordinator Stephanie Wilson - SWilson@sa-intl.org. Back to top |
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SA8000 Auditor Training in Karachi
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Group photo of participants from the SA8000 Basic Auditor training course in Karachi, Pakistan on November 12-16, 2012. [Photo credit: Richard Rowe]
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On November 12-16, SAI convened a Basic SA8000 Auditor Training course in Karachi, Pakistan. The course was led by SAI Lead Trainer, Richard Rowe. To see more photos from the SA8000 auditor training courses, check out SAI's Facebook page @on.fb.me/U53MGK.
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Upcoming SA8000 training courses:
Location: Shanghai, China
Date: January 14-18, 2013
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SAI training courses are designed to encourage proficiency in social compliance and emphasize the implementation of management systems in combination with performance elements. These courses are required for all SA8000 and BSCI auditors, and are just as valuable to internal auditors, buyers, managers and workers for auditing to any labor code or standard. The courses are open to all. Complimentary places are available for NGO and trade union participants.
For more information, contact SAI Training Coordinator, Stephanie Wilson at SWilson@sa-intl.org.
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Highlights & Announcements
Siemens Integrity Initiative In early December SAI Executive Director Eileen Kohl Kaufman participated in the Advisory Board Meeting for the Transparency International-USA Verification of Corporate Anti-Corruption Programs. She also took part in the Steering Committee of Business Principles for Countering Bribery, and the Meeting of the UNGC Working Group on the 10th Principle. Rapid Results Institute - Foreign Policy's Top 100 Global Thinkers Congratulations to RRI's President Nadim Matta for making the list! Mr. Matta and the RRI developed the 100-day plan for development. RRI is a key partner in SAI's Brazil Worker Engagement Program. Read more @atfp.co/Wh78ox 1st UN Forum on Business & Human Rights SAI Representative Steven Oates participated in the Forum in Geneva on Dec. 4-5. The Forum was established as part of a Working Group to enable stakeholders from all regions to strengthen engagement towards the goal of the UNGPs. Learn more @bit.ly/UUhjw0 GOTS Certified Training on Social Criteria On Nov. 29, and Dec. 7 & 13 SAI Field Services Director Doug DeRuisseau and Lead Trainer Shirley To presented a webinar for GOTS on auditing for labor standards, specifically focusing on management systems and child labor.EILEEN FISHER & California Transparency in Supply Chain Act In partnership with CAST (Coalition to Abolish Slavery and Trafficking) and Not for Sale, EILEEN FISHER hosted a discussion about business' collective responses to SB657, the California Transparency in Supply Chain Act. SAI Advisory Board member Amy Hall, Director of Social Consciousness at EILEEN FISHER, was elected to the board of directors of the American Sustainable Business Council (ASBC). Ms. Hall also spoke at two apparel industry events in New York City: the Oeko-Tex Next 20 Event on November 14 and the Women's Wear Daily Global Sourcing Summit on October 2. "A Window to the Future/Uma Janela Para o Futuro" SAI Advisory Board member Helio Mattar, President of the Akatu Institute for Conscious Consumption, wrote an article on the need to change consumer awareness for sustainability. Read it in Portuguese @bit.ly/UKRkcB. USDOL Toolkit to Combat Child & Forced Labor in Global Supply Chains On December 14, the USDOL introduced 'Reducing Child Labor & Forced Labor: A Toolkit for Responsible Business,' a guide to help businesses combat child labor and forced labor in their global supply chains. Read it @1.usa.gov/SABo0f.
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