Coulthard Continental

Partner Africa is a pioneer in the field of ethical and socially responsible business practice that delivers high quality and innovative ethical audit and responsible business advisory services to clients. Partner Africa is driven by a social mission to improve the livelihoods of workers and producers, while assisting access to international supply chains and bridging the skills and standards gap between Africa and the international community. Partner Africa focuses its work on conducting high quality, worker-centered ethical audits in order to assess the working conditions in factories and farms throughout Africa and identify the salient labour issues for its clients. All ethical audits involve assessing suppliers against the ILO conventions: - child labour will not be used; freedom of association; no excessive working hours, no discrimination, employment is freely chosen, workers are paid a minimum/living wage; working conditions are safe & hygienic, regular employment is provided, and no harsh or inhumane treatment is allowed. Partner Africa also undertakes Small Producer Assessments to assess the ethical standards of small producers feeding into export supply chains. Applying codes of conduct to informal and often family run businesses is a complex process. We seek to establish the characteristics, needs and priorities of small producers and their workers, and outline recommendations to maintain standards required as well as to help improve livelihoods. Partner Africa takes a approach to its work and is committed to forming partnerships with its clients to address the root causes of the salient labour issues identified during ethical audit. With our Pan- Africa reach and experienced local teams in 23 countries we can deliver a wide range of high-end advisory services to international brands and retailers, as well as governments and NGOs. Our advisory services allow clients to draw upon our knowledge of local capabilities, labour codes and culture to develop programmes that enable them to prevent and remediate non-compliances identified in their operations and supply chain. Our advisory services include: Human Rights Risk Assessments which enable clients to understand the impact of the operations and supply chains on human rights and understand the associate risks. In-depth research. Partner Africa carries out long-term, in-depth research into targeted issues within supply chains across Africa including forced labour, child labour, sexual harassment and discrimination. The research findings are used to help companies develop an in-depth understanding of issues in their supply chains and tailor policies and systems to support global efforts to eradicate the worst forms of child labour, forced labour and modern slavery and land grabbing. Partner Africa has also carried out baseline and end line studies to determine the impact of potential or current sourcing strategies within a supply chain or community. Training and supplier forums. To help clients improve their understanding of responsible business, prevent, and remediate non- compliances Partner Africa offers a range of training programmes for suppliers in Africa that are part of international supply chains. Supporting companies develop responsible business programmes and policies that enable them to be responsible and be compliant with UNGO's on Business and Human Rights. Impact assessments and Reporting. Partner Africa is committed to supporting clients assess the impact of their responsible business programmes and preparing high quality robust reports. Partner Africa's team have experience of preparing and reviewing modern slavery reports, ethical trade initiative (ETI) reports, UN Global Compact reports and the organisation of stakeholder panels.