LUPC has signed up to Electronic Watch’s Knowledge Building Series of webinars and workshops focusing on modern slavery and human rights risks in public sector supply chains. 15 places are available via LUPC for its full members on each 1.5-hour webinar.

What is the Knowledge Building Series?
The Knowledge Building series will give public buyers an overview of labour rights violations and risks in several high-volume, high-cost purchasing categories. It will provide information and guidance to help public buyers comply with regulatory requirements and uphold their own policy commitments, using public procurement leverage.

There are seven 1.5-hour webinars and workshops covering different topics, taking place over the year and accompanied by slides and guidance notes. Five of the webinars cover purchasing categories that carry high risks of human rights violation and two webinars focus on evaluating the quality of evidence from suppliers to improve reporting and verification with legal and contract compliance requirements, including:  

• Modern Slavery or Human Rights Statements by suppliers: how to assess them
• Certifications and labels: what level of assurance do they provide?
• Self-Assessment Questionnaires: what information matters most?
• Third-party risk assessments: what are they based on?
• Indexes ranking countries, products, and businesses: what you should know
• Worker-generated data (including tech-based apps): how reliable is it?
• Membership of industry associations: what do they do, and how do they operate?
• Tech-based systems (e.g. blockchain, AI): what can they tell you?

Webinars and Workshops 2025 Timetable

Who is it aimed at?
LUPC member organisations who want to strengthen their responsible procurement policies and practices. It will help those who want to know more about modern slavery risks and other human rights violations that may be occurring in their supply chains, and what they can do about mitigating and preventing them.

Why should I attend?
Many public buyers rely on supplier self-reporting, ESG risk ratings or certifications to assure their compliance requirements. These tools may be a good first step for responsible procurement, but they often provide a false sense of assurance. They do not usually reflect the realities for workers in supply chains. Even where risks are identified, they do not usually offer practical solutions. The Knowledge Building Series aims to deliver:

• Professional development to advance your socially responsible procurement capacity, focused on human rights and modern slavery;
• Increased awareness of how to prevent and manage human rights risks in specific purchasing categories and supply chains;
• Improvements in compliance data and evidence provided by suppliers, which could improve your tendering, contracting systems and decision-making;
• Better supplier engagement based on increased knowledge of risks.

Webinar 1: The Construction Industry 29 January 2025 - 10.00-11.30

Register here

The construction industry contributes to economic growth and creates employment for around 220 million workers globally. But it is also known for its negative impacts on the environment and poor human rights record. Construction jobs are among the most dangerous and exploitative in the world, carrying high risks and incidence of modern slavery. What can be done to mitigate these risks?

Governments and public sector bodies are by far the largest customers of construction projects and have enormous leverage that could drive improvement for workers and reduce harm to the environment and communities

Learn from a panel of experts sharing information and insights about standards, projects, collaborative initiatives and specific high-risk building materials, and hear examples of what other public buyers are doing.

The webinar will provide recommendations for key actions and organisations to contact for support and will address:

• The biggest challenges facing construction workers;
• Key modern slavery risks at site level/project level/country level;
• What you can do to manage these issues in your contracts;
• Success stories where worker rights violations have been prevented and safeguards put in place;
• Reliable certifications and standards in the construction sector;
• Key recommendations (do's & don'ts) for public buyers.

Following the webinar, you will receive a briefing note with critical information that will help you manage human rights risks in your construction supply chains.

For more information, contact Cindy or Haëndila at Electronics Watch.

Download Flyer for Full Webinar Details

NB Only 15 places are available, once full, registrees will be added to a waiting list. If you are no longer able to attend, please contact Suzanne Picken as soon as possible, so your place can be allocated to someone on the waiting list.

Register here by 21 January 2025.