On this year’s Human Rights Day, we are celebrating nearly two decades of promoting human rights and improving labour conditions in global supply chains and looking ahead to our 20th anniversary in 2017. In the past ten years alone, we have reached some 1.38m workers, and we aim to improve the lives of 6m workers by 2020.
Our 50 strong team works across 17 countries, including the UK, China, Bangladesh, India and Vietnam. Together, we apply innovation, creativity and a deep understanding of commercial and ethical issues to creating ‘win-win’ solutions that benefit workers and businesses.
“Impactt has always had a profound commitment to upholding human rights and improving workers’ lives,” says Impactt founder and director Rosey Hurst. “Humanising the supply chain is a vital step towards building resilience and improving productivity. It’s integral to companies’ future success.”
Here are some of our human rights highlights to date:
Putting Worker Voice at the Centre of the Agenda
Over the last 8 years we have spoken to over 29,000 workers in the food, garment, extractive, service provision (domestic, security, childcare), ICT and construction sectors across 28 countries representing workplaces employing 1.3 million people. We have found that there are 3 key things which workers want out of their jobs: money, of course, but just as importantly, a sense of feeling safe, respected and able to provide better life for their children. We are now working with Sedex and the AIM-Progress group on a set of indicators to measure worker voice and put worker sentiment at the centre of programme development.
Rehumanising Workers
RESTART is a training programme that helps re-build respect and understanding between diverse groups, whether that be workers from different ethnic groups, workers and supervisors, managers and workers, or brands and suppliers. RESTART uses the principles of social psychology to get people to see each other in a new and positive light which enables mutual respect and effective and sustainable problem-solving.
Building the Business Case for Human Rights
Benefits for Business and Workers is a human resources and productivity training programme for garment factories in developing countries which demonstrates the business case for better work.
- Across Bangladesh, India and Myanmar, some 188 factories have learned that happier workers who feel valued are more productive and generate more profits. So far nearly 280,000 workers have reported increases in satisfaction and have gained an additional £6,129,751 annually in wages.
Empowering Women
UP! is a community-based training programme, delivered by Impactt and Awaj Foundation, and supported by C&A Foundation designed to empower female leaders in the Bangladesh RMG sector through and develop Bangladesh’s ecology of empowered worker leaders;
- The programme will reach 15,000 workers through the community.
Measuring Compliance with Labour Standards
Impactt has been appointed by NYU Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates and by the Supreme Committee for Delivery and Legacy in Qatar to provide external third-party independent monitoring of labour and worker welfare standards. Our compliance programme offers advisory services and large-scale auditing with a focus on understanding worker experience.
2017 is our 20th Anniversary
To celebrate our 20th anniversary, we will be offering you the opportunity to take part in a dynamic programme of events across 2017, including seminars, workshops and our annual conference which will take place in the autumn.
To read more about our change-focused initiatives, please visit our website. For more information on how Impactt could help you achieve ‘win-win’ solutions for your business and workers in your supply chain, please contact us.
