Introduction

This working group was launched in early 2020 responding to companies’ commitments on human rights, and growing concerns about the need to work together to find ways to address systemic and often complex social issues in the sector. The working group was established to foster collaboration to address human rights issues on the ground. 

The group is also creating linkages with the other POCG working groups.

Who is involved?

• 32 companies. 

• Convened by Unilever and PepsiCo.

• Coordinated by Proforest.

Relevant implementing partners and civil society organisations are invited to engage as and when each subgroup considers it appropriate.

Objectives

The overall focus of the Social Issues Working Group is:

• to identify opportunities for company collaboration to address systemic challenges.

• to facilitate collaborative action to address these issues.

The objective of the topic subgroups is:

• to share knowledge and put forward initiatives to join or to scale up: focusing on creating positive impact on the ground.

Current focus areas

This working group is currently working via three thematic subgroups:

1. Human Rights Due Diligence (HRDD)​ in Management Systems: The group workplan for 2022 focuses on identifying shared approaches on: 1) categorisation and monitoring of Supplier HRDD Management Systems and alignment on criteria/KPIs to measure supplier HRDD systems; 2) increase company capacity on KPI development to measure impacts; and 3) training for mills.

2. Responsible Recruitment in Malaysia: The priority for 2022 is to identify and engage in collaborative action on the following key priority areas - sectoral alignment to operationalise zero fee commitments in practice, and building knowledge on responsible recruitment (e.g. developing and standardising training programmes/modules, introducing incentive mechanisms, and improving transparency in recruitment processes).

3. Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ (IPLC) rights: Areas of focus for 2022 are aligning on common approaches to addressing IPLC grievances and holding webinars and workshops on selected issues to share existing work, tools and/or best practice (e.g. community based monitoring, protecting human rights defenders).

How the working group began

The working group began with a phase of identifying convergence around prioritised social issues, and mapping of existing collaborative initiatives among participating companies. This led to the identification of five specific tops for more in-depth work by the companies. For two of them – worker voice approaches, and scaling up the Decent Rural Living Initiative (DRLI) in Indonesia – meetings were convened to share information on both of these, and they are now moving forward outside of this group. Three of the topics have been taken up by subgroups within the social issues working group. These are: Human Rights Due Diligence in Management Systems, Responsible Recruitment in Malaysia, and Indigenous Peoples and Local Communities’ Rights. These are now the focus of the group’s work (see ‘Current focus areas’).

Further information

This forum is currently only for companies.  For further information or to provide input or comments go to our contact us page.