2022: A year in review

Man wearing a face masks picks pears from a tree. Photo credit: Shutterstock.

As we enter a new year, I wanted to celebrate ETI’s top 10 achievements in 2022, towards our vision of achieving a world of work that protects human rights and ensures dignity for all.

  1. Leading work on climate changeand its impact on workers – We have been supporting members to better understand the nexus between climate change and workers’ rights, and commissioned research to support our member discussions and consultations.
  2. Advancing gender equality –We have worked with members to progress gender equality approaches across supply chains and promoted the need for improved gender data to better identify specific vulnerabilities.  
  3. Accelerating progress on purchasing practices – With partners, we launched theCommon Framework for Purchasing Practices (CFRPP) as a guide for companies. To support with practical application, we are engaging members through the Learning and Implementation Community (LIC).
  4. We have consulted our company, NGO and trade union members and set out our recommendations for the European Commission to build a stronger Directive that holds organisations to account on the impact of their activities.
  5. ETI strategy 2026 and Theory of Change - We finalised our 2021-2026 ETI five-year strategy and Theory of Change. This sets out our vision, mission and key focus areas for driving change as a leader in business and human rights.
  6. Donor partnerships – We attracted over £1.1 million in funding from three major donors to advance our work on business practices. It has facilitated our work through a partnership called STITCH, allowing us to dive deeper into social dialogue, gender equality, human rights due diligence and purchasing practices. These funds have also catalysed new work on workers’ rights through our ETI Bangladesh office, including green social dialogue.
  7. Membership evolution – We launched the new ETI Member Charter, the new Corporate Transparency Framework and annual progression meetings with ETI members. We held over 120 individual member meetings, providing tailored support and guidance. In 2023 we plan to take the Corporate Transparency Framework public, so watch this space!
  8. A strong, tripartite membership – We continued to advocate for the most vulnerable workers, by harnessing the power of our diverse membership of trade unions, NGOs, and companies. We attracted new company members and supported Foundation members working towards graduation.
  1. ETI’s online Community – We launched a new online ETI Community to facilitate better transparency of information and for members to connect and share insights.
  2. External crises – We supported members to embed enhanced human rights due diligence in response to the crises impacting workers around the world, including Ukraine, Myanmar and Sri Lanka.

2023 will see us focus on business practices, just transitions for women, climate change impact on workers, in order to reach around 15 million workers in our members’ supply chains.  We will continue to support our members on crisis response.

We are excited about the work done with company members on driving increased transparency and look forward to many more companies reporting against our new Corporate Transparency Framework.  These important steps are vital progress in our goal to ensure that we, and our members, are recognised as leaders in promoting human rights at work.

ETI's blog covers issues at the intersection of business and human rights. We feature posts by, for and from our members and allies; we do not accept or offer payment for posts or publish content outside of these criteria. We welcome a range of insights and opinions from our guest bloggers, though don't necessarily agree with everything they say.