About us

Electronics Watch uses public procurement leverage to promote and protect the rights of workers in global supply chains. Together with its affiliated public authorities and civil society partners, Electronics Watch coordinates industry-independent supply chain monitoring and facilitates the remediation of human rights abuses in public sector ICT and low-emission vehicle (LEV) supply chains. It helps affiliated public authorities to work together, increasing their leverage by acting as one.

Electronics Watch has over 1,500 affiliates in 12 countries as well as one international organisation, and collaborates with monitoring partners operating in 14 countries in manufacturing and mining regions.

Benefits for workers

Electronics Watch:

• Functions as an external grievance mechanism and facilitates access remedy for those who have experienced harms,
• Engages workers and trade unions in dialogue and promotes their inclusion in monitoring and remediation,
• Enables workers to use public procurement leverage to exercise their rights, including their right to organise and bargain collectively, and
• Educates workers about their rights.

Benefits for affiliates and programme participants

Electronics Watch:

• Supports public authorities to integrate social considerations into all stages of the procurement process (i.e., pre-tender, tender, contract management),
• Collects credible evidence of human rights risks and violations through worker-driven supply chain monitoring,
• Provides responsible procurement tools and resources,
• Offers a platform for peer learning, and
• Organises public buyers to exercise collective leverage and promote industry compliance with core labour standards and human rights due diligence guidance and regulation.

What Electronics Watch does and does not offer

Electronics Watch provides a platform for collaboration and leadership among public authorities seeking to address systemic human rights risks in their ICT and LEV supply chains. It does so by providing public authorities with support to implement human rights due diligence and to promote it in the market. Dialogue with industry actors and meaningful stakeholder engagement are critical aspects of this effort.

Electronics Watch does not provide assurance of supplier compliance with the social requirements imposed by its affiliates and programme participants. Because the human rights issues in the ICT and LEV sectors are systemic, it cannot certify or attest to specific products or brands being 'sustainable', 'ethical' or having a lower level of risk than others. That a public authority is an Electronics Watch affiliate or programme participant does not imply that there are no human rights risks in their supply chains.  Rather, affiliated public authorities and programme participants increase their capacity to identify, assess, and address these risks.

What distinguishes the Electronics Watch approach

Electronics Watch employs a worker-driven monitoring and remediation approach. This allows rightsholders and their representatives to initiate an investigation, discuss monitoring findings and inform decisions about reparations. This is different from the social auditing process in which workers primarily serve as a source of information in the investigation but are seldom actively consulted or included in the discussion of corrective action.  Its approach is wholly different from the approach of the burgeoning Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) assurance industry, in which the social aspect is often an afterthought and workers' voices are absent.

The objective of Electronics Watch investigations is to provide rightsholders with access to remedy, rather than simply ensuring compliance with a code of conduct, securing a rating, label or certification, or demonstrating progress toward corporate social responsibility goals.

Please contact Martina Hooper if you have any questions or need additional guidance.