17 July 2023. In Q4 2022, WBI was tasked by a global brand to deliver a pilot project that is uniquely tailored to the landscape of small and medium enterprises (SMEs) in Taiwan. The newly released impact report shows the difference made by the project across industry, civil society and academia.
The project promoted international labour standards in Taiwan, focusing on the topic of forced labour in the Taiwanese supply chain. We did this by preparing a Guidebook, in both English and Chinese, that was carefully researched and written by an international project team and beautifully illustrated by the Taiwanese cartoonist Stellina Chen.
[With colleagues from the Taiwan Labour Front, getting ready for the launch of the Guidebook with civil society organisations.]
The Guidebook was the basis for a series of three trainings targeting the SMEs in Taiwan in December 2022. Around 200 participants, including 154 enterprise representatives, attended these training sessions in Taichung, Hsinchu and Kaohsiung.
A quick look at how we made a difference with this project – here are some highlights from the Impact Report:
- Collaboration with 8 international brands, 2 industry alliances and 4 universities
- 1 workshop with 25 civil society representatives, 1 podcast, 2 university lectures and 1 recorded webinar
- In our post-event survey, 97% of the respondents said they gained a fuller understanding of what is meant by forced labour.
- There have been more than 2,000 views of our bilingual Guidebook.
- 8 migrant workers and volunteers attended one of the training sessions and provided feedback that will be incorporated into future events
- In Participants’ own words:
“I’m really impressed with the guidebook about the ILO indicators of forced labour…Great work on finding all these case studies and adding the analysis from a Taiwanese perspective, that is incredibly helpful.” — Civil society representative who works on business and human rights globally.
“Thank you for arranging the event. It provided accessible information on how Taiwan can improve regarding international labour standards.” (感謝貴單位提供此課程、可以簡單明瞭的得到目前台灣在國際上仍然有需改善的空間。) — A training session participant in Taichung
The Impact Report summarises the impacts we made through this project. It also sheds light on collaborations that followed, showing that our project created momentum that increased awareness on labour rights in Taiwan.
We thank the on-point and beautiful illustrations by Stellina Chen. We are deeply grateful to the support of our funder and collaborators for their attention on Taiwan.
We also thank the tireless engagement from civil society on labour rights and academic institutes dedicated to educating the next generation of leaders for business and human rights in Taiwan.
Quote from WBI:
“Above all, we are deeply moved by all who believe that we must address global risks of forced labour because we have to do everything possible to realise a better tomorrow for our shared humanity. This was the hope that underpinned our intense work to deliver the project — that forced labour is not intractable. We can prevent it. We can eliminate it. And we can give more people their opportunities for decent work.”
We have a strong reputation in providing practical and industry-focused training on human rights and labour standards. Please get in touch for any business inquiries to help bring in a more responsible supply chain!
