Overview
Mauro Gonzalez, PMI's Director of Sustainable Agriculture, will speak to how the organization has been working to improve labor practices in its tobacco growing supply chain. Since 2011, PMI has been working with its affiliates and suppliers to implement the Agricultural Labor Practices (ALP) program aiming to eliminate child labor and achieve safe and fair working conditions on all farms growing tobacco purchased by PMI. In 2018, PMI went a step further and declared its ambition to eradicate child labor and other labor abuses from its tobacco supply chain by 2025. Mauro will speak to how this ALP program came about, the strategic decisions that the company has been making to enable its global implementation, and the key features that make it a unique effort in the agricultural sector, currently reaching over 350,000 farmers around the world.
Anna Kletsidou, PMI’s Manager of Social Sustainability, will then share the status, successes and challenges of the ALP program. Anna will share insights from the comprehensive monitoring system that is now reaching 300,000+ farms, as well as examples of remediation initiatives for child labor and other issues identified through this monitoring. .
Pauline Tiffen, Verité’s Senior Consultant. Verité is a leading global NGO in responsible supply chains and they are PMI’s strategic partner since the inception of the ALP program. Pauline, together with other colleagues at Verité, helped shape the different elements of the ALP program and has been providing hands on support to PMI’s staff, business and NGO partners around the world. Pauline will speak to her practical, external experience working with PMI, the learnings from the implementation process and the importance of always listening to stakeholders in the efforts to drive change.
What You Will Learn
In this webinar, attendees will be presented with these takeaways:
- Gain insight into the transformation being led by PMI to make the tobacco industry more sustainable, including improving human rights initiatives across the value chain
- Learn about PMI’s approach to the tobacco growing supply chain and how it is driving positive change among over 350,000 smallholder farmers around the world
- Understand the importance of listening to feedback, confronting challenges, and transparently sharing both successes and shortcomings in order to improve sustainability efforts
- Tangible examples of work that PMI has conducted to bring about better working practices
Additional Resources:
Any questions you may have for PMI regarding the content of this webinar can be directed to [email protected].