NATIONAL & GLOBAL FORUMS
Issara's annual Global Forum is a three-day multi-stakeholder forum convening workers, leaders, and innovators in the field of ethical supply chains to critically analyse current practices and approaches to addressing labour exploitation and human trafficking in global supply chains. The forum aims to build understanding and consensus around the most promising and proven approaches that should be promoted, encouraged, and invested in over the next several years.
The Issara Global Forum is convened in November each year, then national multi-stakeholder meetings are convened periodically through the year to maintain momentum, focus, and solidarity on local conversations and collaborations aiming to advance more ethical sourcing and recruitment.
Issara's multi-stakeholder engagement is unique in how worker voices lead. No conversation on business and human rights proceeds without workers and survivors first setting the scene, tone, and their expectations.
In order to find sustainable solutions for labour conditions in supply chains, suppliers have to have a voice: what are their pain points? How are global brands and retailers really incentivizing them to make improvements and investments toward more ethical supply chains?
Most companies try to solve their human rights problems within supply chains - meaning through engaging with their suppliers. Issara continuously highlights how working with civil society can lead to more reliable identification and resolution of labour issues in their supply chains, and, more long-term solutions to labour risks in key producing countries.
Issara's multi-stakeholder engagement is unique in how worker voices lead. No conversation on business and human rights proceeds without workers and survivors first setting the scene, tone, and their expectations.
AGENDA outline 2023
Worker-led films, speed networking, and meet-ups will occur throughout the three-day event to help connect you to the people, organizations, and information you are interested in!
Booths and marketplaces for organizations, tech, research, and even a bit of shopping will be available over the three days as well.
The theme this year focuses on partnership and innovation. If you are interested in organizing or presenting on a panel, or setting up a booth, please have a look at the agenda outline below and contact Issara at globalforum@issarainstitute.org with your ideas!
See you there!
day 1
LEADING WITH WORKER VOICES: POLICY & PARTNERSHIP IN PURSUIT OF ETHICAL SUPPLY CHAINS
-
Opening worker-led film, with discussants from the worker community
-
Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD) and the changing legislative landscape: Pathways and obstacles to shifting focus from risk to business to risk to workers and rights holders
-
Highlighting the dynamics and effectiveness of public-private partnerships: examining emerging models at the grassroots, cross-border, and industry/commodity level
day 2
LEADING WITH DATA: EMERGING DATA & TECH THAT MAKE WORKERS' LIVES BETTER
-
What's really working? Reviewing the evidence and the politics behind good (and bad) practice in ethical supply chains
-
Worker voice: What is on the market, who is running it, and implications for worker power
-
Future thinking sessions and primers
-
Case studies, tech lightning rounds, and a tech marketplace
day 3
RESPONSIBLE RECRUITMENT IN GLOBAL SUPPLY CHAINS: EMERGING MODELS, LESSONS LEARNED
-
Ethical recruitment from policy to practice: Evidence from Asian supply chains, 2019-2023
-
Who should be paying back excessive or unallowed recruitment fees charged to workers? A debate
-
Supply chain engagement down to the first mile of labour recruitment: examining promising models of preventing exploitative recruitment, and pathways to broader engagement by business
-
Collective engagements, emerging technologies, and other innovative approaches to responsible recruitment
issara global forums 2017-2019
This three-day multi-stakeholder forum convened leaders and innovators in the field of responsible sourcing to share and critically analyze current practices and models to address labour exploitation and human trafficking in global supply chains.
Issara's multi-stakeholder engagement is unique in how worker voices lead. No conversation on business and human rights proceeds without workers and survivors first setting the scene, tone, and their expectations.
In 2019, Issara Institute introduced the wireframes of the Golden Dreams Job Marketplace, a new feature on the Golden Dreams application that allows job seekers to apply to jobs posted by vetted, legally registered businesses.
This three-day multi-stakeholder forum convened leaders and innovators in the field of responsible sourcing to share and critically analyze current practices and models to address labour exploitation and human trafficking in global supply chains.
Worker representatives from different industries shared their recruitment and working experiences with employers, global buyers, recruitment agencies, and organizations and they shared their expectations on improvements to guarantee ethical and fair treatment for workers.
Workers representatives, global brands, and recruitment agencies shared their views and experiences with the implementation and validation of no-fees and employer-pays labour recruitment models in Southeast Asia
Migrant workers and trafficked persons shared their views on what has been achieved, what has improved and what areas still need more attention from different stakeholders working to combat forced labour and human trafficking
Worker representatives from different industries shared their recruitment and working experiences with employers, global buyers, recruitment agencies, and organizations and they shared their expectations on improvements to guarantee ethical and fair treatment for workers.
From the start, the Issara Global Forum aimed to ensure that suppliers and importers - not only prominent brands and retailers - had a voice regarding the state of human rights and responsible sourcing.
Simultaneous translation helped workers and survivors to engage with business and government stakeholders throughout the entire 3-day forum.
The Issara Global Forum's focus on equitable multi-stakeholder participation enabled mutual understanding to grow in ways that had never been tried before - as seen here in a chat between a senior Myanmar Government official and a senior Walmart representative.
From the start, the Issara Global Forum aimed to ensure that suppliers and importers - not only prominent brands and retailers - had a voice regarding the state of human rights and responsible sourcing.