Asked by: Mary Glindon (Labour - Newcastle upon Tyne East and Wallsend)
Question to the Department for International Development:
To ask the Secretary of State for International Development, how much funding the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) received from the Government in the last three years; for what reasons that funding is provided; against what criteria the decision to fund that organisation was made; and what obligations the ETI places on its member companies with respect to freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Answered by Desmond Swayne
In the last three years the Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) has received £1.2m in funding from DFID, through a Programme Partnership Arrangement (PPA). PPA funding supports ETI to improve working conditions for poor and vulnerable people, this includes workers in top tier farms and factories, as well as those in the lower tiers of supply chains (such as women homeworkers, smallholders and migrant workers) who are harder to reach and more vulnerable to exploitation. PPA funding is not tied to specific initiatives or interventions but ETI are expected to meet objectives set out in a robust performance framework, agreed between DFID and ETI.
PPA funding was based on competitive selection and open to organisations who were regarded as leaders in their field and who could deliver on DFID’s objectives. Organisations were selected following a rigorous assessment and quality assurance process.
Freedom of Association and collective bargaining is a component of the ETI Base Code and therefore every ETI member commits to taking action to support this right.