2017 started with a bang. Just a couple weeks into the year, I sat down for a press conference at the World Economic Forum entitled, “How Are Leading Social Enterprises Creating Impact at Scale?”
Scale is a word often repeated in the nonprofit and business worlds. It can sound like jargon, but for some organizations, it’s a make-or-break question. Does your service or system have the potential to accommodate growth? From the outset, GoodWeave’s founders had imagined the day when our market-based model to tackle child labor would be applied to a variety of manufacturing sectors. Once it was clear that we had made serious headway in the carpet industry, we knew it was time.
Sitting at that table in Davos, with cameras rolling, I was proud to announce that GoodWeave was launching into new product categories. Friends, this is big. It’s the difference between niche and mainstream. More importantly, it’s the difference between reaching tens of thousands of at-risk children and reaching millions. Inside this Report are more details about GoodWeave’s next chapter, which we call Sourcing Freedom.
In addition, the growth in our core work of carpets has been significant. Increasingly, consumers are recognizing and demanding the GoodWeave label. You no longer need to wait or pay a lot for the ethical rug of your dreams, much like what bananas and coffee have done in organics. Getting this breadth of distribution has us coming upon the tipping point for our founding mission.
A lot is growing and scaling at GoodWeave, including our appreciation for those of you who make our work possible. The charitable donors and corporate partners who invested in the initial spark of GoodWeave and are by our side now as we stretch ourselves to reach even more children.
With gratitude,
Nina Smith
CEO
Products you purchase are made by a complex, and often invisible, supply chain – people, organizations, and processes linked to make and deliver products.
Behind the retailers and the factories we think we know, often there’s an informal chain of adults and children exploited for their labor.
GoodWeave brings visibility to all links of the supply chain and gives voice to marginalized workers and children.
The GoodWeave label is the best assurance that products are made free of child labor.
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GoodWeave has tested, fine-tuned, and scaled a unique approach to ending child labor. Market forces drive our work to clean up supply chains, rescue and educate children, and improve working conditions for adults. Our system covers every step from when a product is made to when it is sold.
“GoodWeave has developed the capacity, the understanding, and the experience to address supply chains in their totality.”
– Siddharth Kara, Director of the Program on Human Trafficking and Modern Slavery, at the Harvard Kennedy School of Government
Where we work
GoodWeave works in the areas where it is needed most.
Our system combines the power of consumers and businesses to ignite the engine of social change. In partnership with brands, we’re creating a market for goods made without child labor by preventing and rescuing children from lives of bondage, and by distinguishing select products with the GoodWeave label. This relationship with business provides the influence needed to permanently change behavior and practices, making “no child labor” a market requirement for their producers, along with design, price, and other features.
In addition to the results listed below, GoodWeave launched a new website last June. More than a digital makeover, GoodWeave.org is where customers come to find ethical products, businesses learn how to become “licensees”, and donors get inspired to give and to act.
At the 2017 DOMOTEX tradeshow in Hannover Germany, GoodWeave convened UNICEF Nepal, global brands, producers, and trade officials to launch a campaign to reward businesses that produce child-labor-free carpets in Nepal. Throughout the campaign we have produced videos and hosted events to convey the business value of child-labor-free production.
Even the most well-intentioned brands find exploitation in their supply chains. And now, in this era of fast fashion – with hurried timelines for new styles to hit shelves – the labor rights situation is getting worse.
GoodWeave establishes clear and rigorous standards, and we verify compliance by regularly mapping and inspecting factories, worksites, and facilities all the way down to cottage industry and individual homes. These inspections—which are random, unannounced, and frequent—lead us to exploited children and serve as a powerful deterrent to bad labor practices.
In 2016, GoodWeave broke ground in new sector programs, including embellished apparel, jewelry, and home textiles in northern India to tackle child and forced labor in informal supply chains, especially where readymade garments and fashion jewelry are produced. By the close of 2017, 4,372 workers and 7,178 children were benefiting from the programs across six communities that serve as a hub for home-based work.
The second part of our expansion plan is capacity building with partners who will adopt GoodWeave’s System in their sectors of focus. We now operate a brick pilot in Nepal with partners Better Brick Nepal and Global Fairness Initiative and completed feasibility research in Assam, India, identifying potential impact on 500 children and 1,200 workers in the tea sector through the next year of our pilot program in partnership with Rainforest Alliance.
In September 2017, we debuted a major technological innovation in the fight to end modern slavery. Our new data platform – created with support and partnership from The Skoll Foundation, USAID, and Target – offers an unprecedented level of transparency at the “bottom” of the supply chain and supports companies to improve conditions for otherwise hidden workers. It offers near real-time access to supply chain map and inspection data, from the factory floor all the way to the outsourced homeworker. It will roll out more broadly in 2018.
“The GoodWeave model excites us because at this point there is nothing like it in the apparel sector. GoodWeave has been able to achieve complete transparency in the carpet supply chain and we want to test whether we can replicate that success in the apparel sector.”
– Anindit Roy Chowdhury, C&A Foundation Programme Manager for Gender Justice and Human Rights
Originally from Ghaziabad, Uttar Pradesh in India, Vinti Singal, one of our Supply Chain Sustainability Specialists, has worked on human resources and social compliance teams for a decade. While consulting with Coca Cola on workplace rights, she gained exposure to the brand side of the story. At the French retailer Gémo-Groupe Eram, Vinti managed factory audits for North India. With this broad perspective, she joined GoodWeave to help spearhead its pilot program into the readymade garment sector.
“When I joined GoodWeave, I knew it was different. Our work doesn’t end the moment we find an issue of child or forced labor. That’s where it starts. It isn’t audits and compiling results. It is about standards.”
Vinti values the process of unearthing hidden units beyond the borders of the factories. Because in doing so, she knows we can give an identity – and then rights and benefits – to informal workers.
When asked about her most memorable day on the job, Vinti recalls visiting a Child Friendly Community in Jaee village where GoodWeave started a literacy class for young women who never had a chance to study. Scanning the room, one woman stood out. She was holding a three-week-old baby. Later Vinti found out that her name is Musrekin, this was her eighth child, and she does handwork, beading fashion jewelry for export to big brands in Europe, UK and US.
“Despite the challenges and she just delivered a baby, here she is attending class. There is no incentive for work or money. I can’t calculate the financial value of her attending this class or tell what she learned, apart from that she feels empowered. Sometimes we talk about return on investment too much, and you can’t calculate the benefit on this person’s life.”
GoodWeave’s social programs serve victims, address the root causes of child labor, or often both. In each country where we operate, GoodWeave tailors interventions to the context. Over the years, we have started early childhood education centers, coordinated home-schooling, provided school sponsorships, and made a second home for children who desperately needed one.
Meet Samrul, a nine year old boy from Muslimpur in Varanasi district, along the banks of the Ganges River. The oldest child of illiterate parents, Samrul would spend his days taking care of his siblings and accompanying his father to a center where he did handloom work. In late 2016, the GoodWeave team identified Samrul working and immediately began a rehabilitation process in his home village, including enrolling him in 1st grade in a modern madrasa (Islamic cultural and language school). GoodWeave provided books, stationery, a backpack, clothes, and tuition assistance on that very same day. Soon, Samrul matriculated to a formal government school. The team has remained in regular touch with Samrul and his family and learned that he is doing well in his studies, graduated to 2nd grade, and has expressed a dream to become a police inspector.
Addressing child labor effectively requires more than simply prohibiting the practice as a matter of law, policy, or standard. One important part of the equation is ensuring that adult workers have improved conditions.
GoodWeave depends on a combination of earned income from license fees paid by partner companies and charitable investments to make our work possible. True to our mission, we are all about transparency and that also applies to our financial management. We strive to ensure that every dollar, pound, or rupee paid or donated is spent to maximize benefits to the children, workers, and communities we serve.
• 93% of all expenditures were invested in programs working to end child labor.
• Companies that participate in GoodWeave’s carpet industry certification system pay license fees, which help to offset costs of the program. GoodWeave added 24 new licensees in 2017 and covered one-third of this program’s cash expenditures through the fees.
• New programs in apparel, jewelry, home textiles and bricks continue to grow, representing 36% of GoodWeave’s programmatic cash budget in 2017.
DOWNLOAD STATEMENT OF ACTIVITIES
GoodWeave was audited by Rogers & Company LLC, Certified Public Accountants and Business Advisers of McLean, Virginia. Full audited financial statements are available upon request.
GoodWeave partners with rug designers, importers, and retailers to create a market for products that have been made without child labor. The following companies are GoodWeave licensed, meaning they adhere to the GoodWeave Standard to assure clients that their high-quality design are accompanied by the best labor practices.
4Favorites
A&G Rugs
Afghanistan Rugs and Carpets Center
AIIO Limited
Akira Handelsgesellschaft
Alicia D. Keshishian Carpets
Amy Helfand
ANG Studios
Anji Mountain
Apeiron Design
Ariana Rugs
Asha Carpets
Bazaar Velvet
Bennett Bean Studio
Bespoke Tibet Carpets
Bev Hisey
BravinLee Programs
by Henzel
Cadrys Handwoven Rug
CalviRugs
Capitol Carpets of Chelsea
Change Space
Christian Liaigre
Classic Fever, LLC
Classic Rug Collection
Clive Christian Interiors
Cloak
Company C
Crosby Street Studios
Dadicos
Danielle David Art and Design
DBA Bramblecrest
Deirdre Dyson
Diane Paparo Studio
EcoFiber Rugs
Edition Bougainville
Eeuwes Studio Design
Elson & Company
Emma Gardner Design
Equator Production
Fab Habitat
Floor Story
Flora Decora 5 SL
Freedom
Fuigo
Gary Cruz Studio
Gran Living
Grund America LLC
Guildcraft Carpets
Heinrich Heine
High Country Rugs
home republic
HWP Teppich
Icarpet
Indo Designer Rugs
Inigo Elizalde Rugs
Interior Resources
J. S. Hurd Design
Jacaranda Carpets
Joseph Carini Carpets
Julia Toncology Pfeiffer
Julie Dasher Rugs
Kaja Gam Design
Kaldhara
Katherine Richards Design
Khawachen/ Innerasia
Kim Parker Home
K-Mail Order
Knot Collective
Knots & Strokes
Kolatech
Kooches
Kristiina Lassus Design
Laguna Rugs
Land Rugs
Landry & Arcari
Lapchi
LiLu Interiors Inc.
Lindstrom Rugs
LIV by TM Interior
Liz Gamberg Studio
Liza Phillips Design
Lotus Collection
Lucy Tupu
Madeline Weinrib Atelier
Makeda Rugs
Malene B
Matteo Pala
Matthew Wailes
Merida
Merinos
Miller Davis Group
Modern Archive
ModernFever
Molana
Momtaz Contemporary Rug Art
MOSSROOM
MyFelt
Namaste UK
New Moon
NIBA Rug Collections
NOA Living
Nodi Handmade Rugs Ltd.
Nordic Home
notNeutral
O’C Carpet Inc.
Odegard Carpets
Organic Weave
Otto
Paramount Rugs
Proper Design
PuRo Lifestyle
Raya Rugs
Restoration Hardware
Rimo
Robin Gray Design
Robyn Cosgrove
Rosemary Hallgarten
Rug Art
Rug Artisan
Rug Couture
Rug Star
Rugguy Galleriez
Rug-maker.com
Ruthie L. Designs
Sage Green Designs
Scott Group Studio
Serapi Oriental Rug Gallery
Sirecom Tappeti
So’mace Design
Sonya Winner Rugs
Squarefoot Commercio E Decoracao
Stephanie Odegard Co., Ltd.
Tailor-Made Textiles
Talis Vertriebs
Tania Johnson Design
Target Corporation
Tashi Murik
The Fine Rug Gallery at Macy’s
The Moorland Rug Company
The Rug Company
Tranquillo
TYSK Design
Vossberg Versand
Wafa Dar
Warp & Weft
Wecon Home
Wendy Morrison Design
Woven Edge, Ltd.
Woven Treasures Inc.
Zoe Luyendijk Studio
Woven
Modern Rugs
The Rug Seller
Luxury Rugs
Kush
Interior Resources
Hagopian
Christiane Millinger
Fayette Showroom
Rugs By Zhaleh
GoodWeave thanks the individuals and institutions that provide vital operating support to help us achieve results for children and workers. The following list acknowledges donors that have donated $5,000 or more to GoodWeave International or its local NGO affiliates in 2017:
Anonymous
Janet Wright Ketcham Foundation
The Walt Disney Company
UBS Optimus Foundation
UK Home Office
UNICEF
C&A Foundation
Humanity United
Target
Textile Recycling for Aid and International Development
The Thanksgiving Fund
U.S. Agency for International Development
U.S. Department of Labor, Bureau of International Labor Affairs
Anbinder Family Foundation
Anonymous via Fidelity Charitable Gift Fund
Anonymous via Impact Assets
Estelle Friedman Gervis Family Foundation
Jerome Dodson
The Khaled Hosseini Foundation
Kristi Nelson
Limited Brands Foundation
Macy’s Foundation
Naomi & Nehemiah Cohen Foundation
Patricia Hambrick
The International Foundation
The West Foundation, Inc.
Covington & Burling LLC
Mayer Brown LLC
Sunstein Kann Murphy & Timbers LLC
GoodWeave is grateful to have award-winning experts in child rights, business, social entrepreneurship, and certification serve in leadership and advisory roles in the organization.
International Board of Directors
Patricia Hambrick (Chair)
Kul Chandra Gautam (Co-Vice Chair)
Claude Fontheim (Co-Vice Chair)
Pat Zerega (Secretary)
Marc Triaureau (Treasurer)
Barbara Hawthorn
Leslie Johnston
Amol Mehra
Edward Millard
Regatte Venkat Reddy
Dan Viederman
Nancy Wilson
Emeritus Member:
Pharis Harvey
Standards Committee
Walter Chapin, President and Co-founder, Company C, Inc.
Aseem Grover, Partner, Grover International
Rev. Pharis Harvey
Caroline Kent, Operations Manager, The Rug Company
Lobsang Lama, Managing Director and Chairman, Gomang Carpets Manex
Ivanka Mamic, Senior Director for Responsible Sourcing, Target
Gerard Oonk, Director, India Committee of the Netherlands
Nitu Prasad , Senior Program Coordinator, GoodWeave India
Lee Swepston, Senior Advisor on Human Rights, International Labour Organization (ret.)
Indu Tuladhar, Independent Expert, (Child Labor)
Harish Vashistha, Executive Director, Credibility Alliance
Scott Welker, Director of Business Development, GoodWeave International
Child Protection Committee
Pashtoon Atif, Director, GoodWeave Afghanistan
Jonathan Blagbrough, Co-founder, Children Unite
Uddhav Raj Poudyal, Independent Expert
Nitu Prasad, Senior Program Coordinator, GoodWeave India
Regatte Venkat Reddy, National Convenor, MV Foundation
Kushum Sharma, Social Programme Manager, Nepal GoodWeave Foundation
Certification Committee
Narayan Bhattarai, National Project Coordinator, International Labour Organization
Mathew John, Certification Director, GoodWeave International (non-voting)
Shawn MacDonald, CEO, Verite
David Ould, Board Member, GoodWeave UK
Kalyani Rajaraman, Project Director, Consumers Association of India
Oversight Committee
Chhatra Amatya, Independent Expert
Viraf Mehta, Independent Expert
Edward Millard, Director of Africa and South Asia, Rainforest Alliance
International Management Team and Staff
Nina Smith, CEO
Beth Huber, Deputy Director
Cyndi Janetzko, Chief Financial Officer
Scott Welker, Director of Business Development
Todd Garth, Chief Program Officer
Pashtoon Atif, Afghanistan Country Director
Manoj Bhatt, India Country Director
Lubha Raj Neupane, Nepal Country Director
Mathew John, Director, Certification Division
Jean Johnson, Senior Business Development Manager, Europe
Biko Nagara, Senior Manager, Certification Systems
Anoop Agarwal, Senior Program Manager
Cara Hagan, Business Development Manager
Alina Ruzmetova, Online Communications and PR Associate
Jessica Tsang, Program Officer, Standards and Policy Unit
Kimberly Trauner, Strategic Initiatives Officer
All photos are taken by Nitin Gera.
Bring your passion, creativity, and support and join us in realizing this vision.
GoodWeave International
1111 14th Street NW
Suite 820
Washington, DC 20005
202-234-9050 (phone)
202-234-9056 (fax)
Info@GoodWeave.org