Supply Chain Tracing and Engagement Methodologies

About the Project

Project Goal

Working at the nexus of traceability and due diligence, STREAMS aims to help companies, advocates, and government officials leverage innovative approaches to increase the downstream and upstream tracing of goods made by child labor and forced labor in order to combat labor abuses throughout global supply chains.

Read the U.S. Department of Labor Bureau of International Labor Affairs’ project description.

Read Verité’s project announcement.

What does traceability have to do with combating child labor and forced labor?

Traceability can help companies, policy makers, and advocates understand a supply chain’s footprint, the actors involved at all levels of production, and the impact that upstream sourcing practices have on workers.

When companies know where goods in supply chains are made and where they’ve traveled, they can take concrete steps to improve the lives of workers and offer customers and regulators assurances that their products are supporting ethical labor.

    The STREAMS Project is building an evidence-base and resources for new approaches at the intersection of supply chain traceability and labor rights due diligence, including:

    Puzzle icon

    The development of a Supply Chain Traceability Matrix for categorizing intersections between types of supply chain segments and types of tracing methodologies. See Resources and Tools

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    The implementation of two pilots to test novel combinations of due diligence efforts and tracing approaches in the base and middle tiers of extended apparel supply chains in India (focused on cotton, cotton yarn, and textiles) and one open-source data-based pilot to test a new method of supply chain tracing.

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    The development of practical, informative resources and the facilitation of capacity building initiatives to help stakeholders improve the lives of workers. See Resources and Tools

    Implementing Organizations

    Verité Logo

    Verité is a global, independent, non-profit organization with a mission to ensure that people worldwide work under safe, fair, and legal conditions. As a pioneer in social auditing, training, research, advocacy, and consulting on labor and human rights in global supply chains, the organization collaborates with companies, civil society groups, governments, workers, unions, and international organizations to promote genuinely sustainable workplace practices.

    Verité is leading the STREAMS project with support from numerous implementing partners with expertise in:

    Due-diligence Standards for Supply Chain Actors

    Responsible Sourcing Network logo

    Responsible Sourcing Network (RSN) is a non-profit for-benefit corporation dedicated to ending human rights abuses and forced labor associated with the raw materials found in everyday products. RSN’s Yarn Ethically & Sustainably Sourced (YESS) initiative aims to eliminate the market for cotton produced with forced labor and increase the use of ethical and sustainable cotton.

     

    Multi-stakeholder Sustainability Initiatives

    Better Cotton is a multi-stakeholder cotton sustainability initiative that aims to promote measurable improvements in the environmental and social impacts of cotton cultivation worldwide to make it more economically, environmentally, and socially sustainable. Better Cotton’s mission is to help communities (including smallholders and farm workers) survive and thrive, while protecting and restoring the environment.

     

    Supply Chain Mapping and Visualization

    Sourcemap logo

    Sourcemap is a pioneer in supply chain transparency, providing a suite of software, advanced analytics, and services to assist supply chain stakeholders on the road to transparency.

     

    The project will also be working with partners who bring expertise in diverse approaches to product tracking and validation within supply chains.

    Funding for the Supply Chain Tracing and Engagement Methodologies (STREAMS) project is provided by the U.S. Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL‐35805. 100 percent of the total costs of the project or program is financed with USG federal funds, for a total of 4,000,000 dollars. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.