Supply chain due diligence and public procurement - social & sustainability issues in regulation and practice

Session recording

Session overview

Governments, including public buyers, have been paying increasing attention to harm in supply chains, such as (but not limited to) forced labour, child labour, health and safety issues, and environmental harm.

We are seeing a rise in regulation related to supply chain due diligence across the globe. Countries have been taking diverse approaches. Several countries, including Germany, France and Norway, require companies to conduct supply chain due diligence on human rights and environmental impacts, and to work to prevent or mitigate issues. Others require companies to issue statements about their exposure to harms like bonded labour, such as the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Australia. Recently, the European Commission has proposed a draft Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence.

These regulatory efforts also differ on the role they foresee for public procurement. Some countries, like Germany, require that companies that do not comply with the due diligence requirements be excluded from public contracts.

In this POGO session (29th November), an expert panel will explore what increasing due diligence regulation means for public buyers. The panel will examine the nexus between regulation and public procurement as a strategic tool to incorporate responsible business conduct, including environmental and social issues such as human and labour rights concerns. During the session, we will hear of practical examples where this has been undertaken, including the OECD Pilot on Due Diligence in the Public Procurement of Garment and Textiles and the work of Electronics Watch in guiding public procurement demand for decent working conditions within electronics supply chains.

Take a look at our panelists and co-chairs under the Speaker tab.

Agenda

Note: The session will be recorded and posted on the Oxford POGO Club webpage. Following the session's formal end, we will stop the recording and invite participants to remain online and chat. 

• Opening by Chair: Anne Davies, Professor of Law and Policy, Law Faculty, University of Oxford
• Topic Introduction by Co-Chair: Andrea McLean, Oxford GO Lab Fellow of Practice and Social Value Adviser, Northern Ireland Strategic Investment Board
• Panel presentations: 
  1. Lena Diesing, OECD Centre for Responsible Business Conduct
  2. Laura Treviño Lozano, Sapiens Network and the University of Greenwich, and Ezgi Uysal, University of Turin
  3. Peter Pawlicki, Electronics Watch 

• Questions
• Panel members' rapid responses and reflections and summary by Co-Chair
• Notes and close of the formal session by Chair

Post-session:

• Informal chat facilitated by Co-Chair

Related Resources

• European Commission - Just and sustainable economy: Commission lays down rules for companies to respect human rights and environment in global value chains
  
• European Commission -Proposal for a Directive on corporate sustainability due diligence + Annex
  
• European Commission -Questions and Answers on corporate sustainability due diligence
  
• European Commission -Factsheet on corporate sustainability due diligence
  
• European Commission -Webpage on corporate sustainability due diligence
  
• OECD - Public Procurement and Responsible Business Conduct
  
• OECD - Pilot on Integrating OECD Due Diligence into Public Procurement in the Garment Sector