In June 2024, the World Benchmarking Alliance (WBA) convened its second Social Collective Impact Coalition (CIC) with a focus on addressing violence and harassment in global supply chains. The CIC has been building momentum over the last few months and is now made up of a diverse group of 17 members, including investors and civil society organizations. In mid-July the founding group launched its first multi-stakeholder Call to Action. We are now calling on investors to adhere to this statement to signal that companies and governments need to urgently take action to address violence and harassment in global supply chains.

Violence and harassment at work is a pervasive global issue. The International Labour Organization’s (ILO) global survey estimates that at least one in five people have experienced violence and harassment at work. The ILO Convention on Violence and Harassment (C190) was designed to address this issue and entered into force in 2019. It includes, for the first time in international law, specific recognition of the right of everyone to a world of work free from violence and harassment, and sets out the obligation to respect, promote and realise this right. 

This groundbreaking convention set a clear, common framework to address violence and harassment at work. The convention turns 5 in 2024, and both governments and companies still have much to do to translate C190’s goals into a reality. To date, only 45 countries have ratified it. Many others, including most of the countries that host the largest numbers of people working in global apparel and agricultural supply chains, as well as some of the world’s most influential corporations, have yet to do so. And while many companies have policies and commitments about violence and harassment, most lag behind when it comes to implementing these in practice, as evidenced by the findings of  WBA’s Gender Benchmark. The results specifically emphasise the need for companies to secure top-level commitment to address violence and harassment in their supply chains, identify and assess related risks and impacts, and act on those findings. 

We are therefore inviting investors to sign this statement as this will send a strong signal to companies and governments to take action. The statement is open for sign-up until Tuesday January 31st and the link to the sign-up form can be found below. After filling in the form, you will be asked to send a copy of your institution's logo, which will be added to statement ahead of publication of the Investor Statement in early February.  

Link to the Investor Statement

Link to Sign-up Form
 

By signing the statement, you are not committing to join the WBA Alliance or the CIC, but if you are interested in doing so you are welcome to. Linked to this, as a coalition, we have also identified an initial list of high priority companies and we are now building a well-resourced plan to engage with these companies. This will be informed by WBA’s company assessments and significant expertise from CIC members. We are therefore also inviting investors who are interested to do so, to join this collective investor-company engagement, please also find the option to signal interest in this in the sign-up form above.

If you have any questions regarding the statement or the CIC, you can reach out to Talya Swissa (Engagement Manager, Social)  t.swissa@worldbenchmarkingalliance.org for more information.