Electronics Watch has launched a three-year pilot project to build the capacity of miners to improve their working conditions through monitoring, remediation, social dialogue and awareness raising.

Electronics Watch is delighted to give an official welcome to four new full time staff members who joined in the last quarter of 2022. Director of Monitoring, Fabrice Warneck, Manager of Monitoring Capacity, Aykut Kazanci and Programme Assistants, Petra Krčmářová and Haëndila Varela, will all play a vital role servicing our affiliates and supporting workers to defend their rights.

Electronics Watch is taking steps to develop and implement a worker-driven remediation methodology. The methodology will complement the worker-driven monitoring methodology, taking over at the point where harm to workers is reported. The idea is to develop an equally detailed method to drive improvements, including remedy for workers. Recent workshops in Copenhagen and Malaysia served to consult key stakeholders – namely public buyers, trade unions, civil society organisations and academics – on aspects of the methodology and its underlying principles, to ensure its relevance and utility.

In June Electronics Watch released ‘State of Sustainability Research for Corporate ESG Performance: The Electronics Industry'. The report supports the Global Electronics Council to revise the Electronic Product Environmental Assessment Tool (EPEAT) criteria for corporate ESG performance. EPEAT is a global ecolabel for the IT sector. The GEC has now released its draft Corporate ESG Performance criteria for public comment.

Twenty one public sector organisations and seven civil society monitoring organisations from 13 countries convened in Barcelona, Spain from 17 – 18 November for the Electronics Watch event, Affiliate Exchange for Impact. By facilitating learning and exchange, this event increased awareness about public buyers' collective leverage and how it is – and can further be – exercised to protect the rights of workers in global supply chains.

Our Regional Risk Assessment on the ICT and battery value chains in Hungary has identified risks for workers in nine thematic areas of the Electronics Watch code. A collaboration between Electronics Watch, Periféria Policy and Research Center (Hungary), and University of Bristol (UK), the report explores each of these risks in detail, and provides recommendations on key actions to mitigate them.

Since our last newsletter seven public buyers from five countries have affiliated to Electronics Watch: la Direction des Achats de l'État in France, KU Leuven in Belgium, ITDZ Berlin and Ludwigsburg City Council in Germany, Cardiff Metropolitan University and North Eastern Universities Purchasing Consortium in the UK, and Monash University in Australia.

The Purchasing Directorate of the French State (Direction des Achats de l’État, DAE) has affiliated to Electronics Watch. It is the first public buyer in France to join Electronics Watch's affiliate network.  DAE was created by the Decree of 3 March 2016 and is situated within the Ministry of Action and Public Accounts, where it replaced the State Purchasing Service (Service des Achats de l'État, SAE).

The Regional Chamber of Social and Solidarity Economy in Provence Alpes Côtes d'Azur (CRESS PACA) is organising the fifth edition of the ESS Sud event "the Fair of the Economy of the Future,” which will be held on Thursday, 3 November at the Palais du Pharo in Marseille. The fair is a major meeting of public, private and non-profit sector stakeholders from Region Sud, the Southern Region of France.

A grant from the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit GmbH (GIZ - the German Agency for International Cooperation) will support Electronics Watch to increase workers' access to remedy. The programme will focus on Vietnam, Malaysia and China. As a federally owned enterprise, GIZ supports the German Government in achieving its objectives in the field of international cooperation for sustainable development.