ETI Events - Conferences - Ethical Trading Initiative

ETI Conferences

We organise an international conference every two to three years, as well as other occasional conferences.

Our next international conference

What has ethical trade achieved in the past decade?

What should it achieve in the next?

Come and find out at

ETI's tenth anniversary conference,
Thursday 23 October 2008
Novotel, Hammersmith, London.

For full programme details and to register please go to:

www.eticonference.org

To receive a discount and secure your first-choice workshop,
please register before 31 July.

"Shaping a new agenda" - ETI International Conference, May 2005.

Below, you can download reports/presentations from our recent conference in Guangzhou, China (May 2004), our previous international conference (May 2003) and from “Voices from the South and Eastern Europe”, a consultation event organised on the back of the international conference.

ETI Conference in Guangzhou, China (May 2004)

In May 2004, the ETI China Project Group organised a conference in conjunction with the British Council, Guanzhou, to raise awareness of the ETI and ethical trade issues in China. The event was attended by over 170 delegates and included suppliers to ETI corporate members, local Chinese organisations working on labour rights, academics, Hong Kong based groups and others interested in ethical trade and corporate social responsibility in China. Follow this link to view the programme and download presentation slides (much of the material also available in simplified chinese).

ETI biennial conference 2003

Our third biennial conference, held in London on 22-23 May 2003, brought together 320 participants from 25 countries and many different walks of life to discuss the key challenges to improving working conditions in global supply chains. With over 60 international experts presenting in 23 workshops and four plenary sessions, the range of issues discussed, as well as the breadth of experience and knowledge around the table, was simply overwhelming. Particular highlights included a plenary session devoted to sharing experience on improving working conditions in China, and a frank panel discussion between the key international multi-stakeholder code initiatives (Clean Clothes Campaign, Fair Wear Foundation, Fair Labor Association, Social Accountability International, Worker Rights Consortium and ETI).

Key challenges in ethical trade is a report of the main issues and debates that arose at this conference, and has been written for all those with an interest in ethical trade, whether or not they were able to take part. The report will be relevant to a wide audience, since the issues it covers make up a core agenda for the future of ethical trade and brings together perspectives from a wide range of stakeholders.

Instead of a conventional account of the conference proceedings, the report is structured around the following 10 key themes:

Building local multi-stakeholder code initiatives
Providing workers with confidential complaints mechanisms
Linking wages, overtime and productivity
The challenge of code implementation in supply chains that include homeworkers and/or smallholders
Improving companies’ performance on labour issues in China
Worker education
Purchasing practices: what impact on labour conditions?
Women workers: are current practices enough to address discrimination at the workplace?
What role for the private sector in preventing, identifying and remedying child labour?
Are codes making a difference to workers?

Read the full 2003 conference report
(or download a PDF)
Contact ETI
to order a hard copy

Voices from the South and Eastern Europe: consultation event, May 2003

ETI’s NGO caucus (the group of UK NGO ETI members) organised a consultation event on the back of the ETI biennial conference May 2003, with the aim of harnessing views from Southern and Eastern European organisations on the future of codes of conduct and what role ETI can play. Altogether 18 organisations were represented: five from Africa, eight from Asia, four from Latin America, and one from Eastern Europe.

The report from this event may be downloaded here, in English and in Spanish:

Voices from the South and Eastern Europe (EN) [PDF 85kb]