Pilot Projects 'IMVO Convenant Natural Stone'

The natural stone ‘IMVO Covenant’ aims at specific corporate social responsibility (CSR)-risks within the manufacturing and supply chain of the natural stone industry in order to reach substantial improvements within a period of three to five years for those groups that experience negative consequences. The parties involved in the preparation of the Covenant agreed that the implementation of Covenant should be supported by a number of pilot projects. The aim of these pilots is to learn lessons on how socially responsible purchasing may encourage companies to contribute actively to the reduction of CSR risks in the supply chain, in particular with respect to child labour. These lessons are to be applicable in sectors other than natural stone.
These pilot projects should support the development of three basic aspects of the Covenant in a case study, and/or deliver best practice which stakeholders can build on.

These aspects include:

1. Sustainable purchasing.
2. Due diligence.
3. Child labour free production.

An integrated approach, in which the demand side and the supply side both commit, is the foundation for a win-win-win situation: by generating real demand for sustainably produced natural stone by the government – to start with, it will be more interesting for suppliers to invest time, energy and money in these subjects in order to actually improve the situation at the source. Indispensable to achieve this win-win-win is the involvement of the government and relevant non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and trade unions, who, with their networks and knowledge, can support an advise the supplychain partners.

Remark

Due to the transparency with regard to the IATI projects, a non-ODA country is mentioned in this project.