March 2001 Insights Issue #36

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A good place to start would be DFID's Ethical Trading Initiative, www.ethicaltrade.org, which includes ETI's baseline code. Other core baseline standards on which many audits are being based are the ILO standards at www.ilo.org/public/english/standards/index.htm and SA 8000 set by Social Accountability International at www.sa-intl.org/. The NRI has a comprehensive site on ethical trade at www.nri.org/NRET/nret.htm of which VINET is dedicated to horticulture.

Business forums developing ethical trade strategies include the World Business Council for Sustainable Development's Sustainable Business Network at sbn.netforchange.com and the Prince of Wales Business Leader Forum at www.pwblf.org. The New Academy for Business, www.new-academy.ac.uk, has a database of relevant documents. For research links, have a loo at the New Economics Foundation's www.neweconomics.org/Default.asp and Warwick University's Corporate Citizenship Unit at users.wbs.warwick.ac.uk/ccu. The Sustainable Markets Group at the IIED has projects on sustainable trade and supply chains at www.iied.org/smg/index.html .

Campaign sites are prolific. Focussing on the garment industry are Oxfam's Clean Clothes Code site at www.oxfam.org.uk/campaign/clothes/clocodh.htm and the Clean Clothes Campaign International Network, www.cleanclothes.org, with links to European groups and a focus on Asia. The Asia Monitor Resource Centre at www.amrc.org.hk has focuses on labour movements and ethical trade in its Asia Labour Update. Corporate Watch, www.corpwatch.org, has excellent links and a guide for researching corporate conduct. For information on labour standards in export processing zones, check out www.maquilasolidarity.org. Check out Christian Aid's supermarket campaign at www.christian-aid.org.uk/campaign and Sweatshop Watch at www.sweatshopwatch.org/swatch/index.html.

Women and gender: Women Working Worldwide, www.poptel.org.uk/women-ww, part of an international network of women worker and consumer organisations, promotes the rights of women garment workers whilst www.homenetww.org.uk focuses on home-based workers.

Child labour: www.ilo.org/public/english/comp/child, www.oneworld.org/guides/chld_labour/index.html, and www.savethechildren.org.uk/labour/index.html all feature useful information.

Ruth Essex
Institute of Development Studies
University of Sussex
UK
Ruthe@ids.ac.uk