Electronics Watch is glad to present Björn Skorpen Claeson as its new Affiliations and Fundraising Coordinator, who will work from his base in Sweden for Electronics Watch. He brings years of experience and expertise in protecting workers rights’ around the world through socially responsible public procurement initiatives.

Electronics Watch is now recruiting dedicated Trustees to lead and guide this exciting new organisation through its first years. Nine Trustees will be selected in total. Within the composition of the Board, we are looking to achieve a diverse and vibrant mix of age, gender, ethnic and cultural background, as well as professional experience and expertise within areas of relevance to Electronics Watch.

Electronics Watch is delighted to have its first founding members - Edinburgh University, Advanced Procurement for Universities and Colleges and London Universities Purchasing Consortium. With these three important public bodies joining within weeks of each other, and with others across Europe currently competing to be one of the Founding Members, the campaign looks unstoppable.

On the 4th of April Electronics Watch organises a training of trainers that will equip partners to organise workshops for journalists on sustainable public procurement in their respective countries. The overall aim is to get more stories about sustainable public procurement in the media.

The Mobile World Congress, the world's greatest mobile event, has recently been celebrated in Barcelona (Spain) and it has focused on showing innovations in the electronics industry. Given the clear interest and motivation of the Government of Catalonia and Barcelona City Council - co-hosts of the congress - in the area of socially responsible procurement, Electronics Watch would be delighted to see, in future editions, spaces for discussion around the huge impact of the electronics industry on people and the environment.

The revision procedure initiated three years ago has finally come to a conclusion. The new public procurement Directives approved recently by the European Parliament should allow public authorities across Europe to spend taxpayer's money more responsibly.

On Thursday 14 November, the Hortus Botanicus in Amsterdam was the setting for the first international Electronics Watch conference, hosted by the Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations (SOMO). It brought together nearly thirty participants from over ten different countries to discuss socially responsible public procurement of ICT hardware.

We are happy to announce that the Electronics Watch Advisory Group is now officially in existence! This international group is going to advise on the creation of the world's first independent labour rights monitoring organisation in the global electronics industry.

Electronics Watch is excited to be holding its first work conference: "Socially responsible public procurement of ICT hardware through independent factory monitoring", organised by SOMO on the 14th November in Amsterdam, the Netherlands.

Forced overtime, strenuous, long shifts during peak periods with few days off per month, wages lower than a living wage and militant management are persisting grievances in the Chinese IT manufacturing sector.