Ethical Business Services
Africa Now has established an Ethical Business Services unit which aims to improve working conditions for producers and workers, and ensure a growing market share for African products. Africa Now is an active member of the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) and played a key role in developing the ETI smallholder assessment guidelines, the one-day risk assessment and the ETI training course and workbook.
Africa Now's Ethical Business Services cover 4 main areas:
- Ethical audits and assessments
- Remediation and Training for companies/suppliers
- Smallholder Needs assessment
- Ethical Business Projects
Africa Now's specific competencies include:
- Leading audits and building local auditing capacity in Kenya, Namibia, Egypt, Nigeria, Swaziland, Lesotho, South Africa, Madagascar, Mauritius, Morocco and Rwanda.
- Experience and expertise in a range of sectors including horticulture, floriculture, garment and homewares and in packaging and processing.
- Establishing and implementing Corrective Action Programmes and links to appropriate organisations.
- Running bespoke training courses for international horticulture suppliers
- Providing training to Fairtrade flower farms on the managing the Fairtrade premium.
- Building the capacity of small scale producers to produce goods for global supply chains.
- Training smallholders in financial management, good working practices, efficiency practices and market knowledge and access.
Creating Africa-wide Audit Capacity
In order to have effective audits at a reasonable cost, Africa Now is developing a network of fully trained associate auditors across the continent, who undertake audits as part of a team led by a lead auditor from Africa Now Kenya, Zimbabwe or UK. This way, we ensure that the thoroughness and participatory methodology of our audits is maintained for buyers throughout Africa, whilst drawing on local knowledge and understanding, and keeping costs to a minimum.
Audit Principles
Transparency All parties involved are informed of the purpose, scope and limitations of the audit in a timely manner
Inclusion At the pre-briefing and closing feedback meeting, management and workers or worker representatives are present
Participation Workers are encouraged to give their views in an open and candid way
Qualitative information Audits use narrative appraisal techniques, which avoid tick-boxes or leading questions
Confidentiality Africa Now audit staff enter into confidentiality agreements to protect both the organisations and the individuals involved in an audit process
Through Africa Now's experience with a variety of codes of conduct and other corporate standards, our audit staff are able to highlight and make recommendations about additional social and environmental issues of significance revealed during the audit but not necessarily covered in the code or standard being applied. Alerts about potential problems and areas of concern leave the client free to decide if any action is required or if the Codes or standards would be usefully expanded to take account of these issues.
Testimonies:
'Union Hand-Roasted believes the production of high quality coffee can act as a conduit for change for smallholder coffee farmers by increasing their earning and improving their quality of life. Working with Africa Now enabled us to reveal the issues that have significant influence on complex social and working conditions of farmers. Africa Now brought an international presence and expertise to the awareness and interpretation of local issues and the impact of extending ethical sourcing principles to smallholders. The Africa Now team was comprehensive and methodical in their approach and extremely friendly to work with.'
Steven Macatonia
(Roastmaster & Director, Union Hand-Roasted)
'Working with Africa Now truly has been a team effort. Their monitoring process includes a more consultative approach, including off-site worker interviews and meetings with worker representatives, which we have found to be extremely beneficial to us as well as to our factories.'
Desta Raines (Manager, Jones Apparel Group)
For further information and a specific quote, please contact:
In the UK: Sophie Johns /or call +44 1865 249997
In Kenya: Rob Hale /or call +254 20 4183 120