CASE STUDIES

OECD Alignment Assessment for the Garment & Footwear sector

OECD Alignment Assessment for the Garment & Footwear sector

Kumi was appointed by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) to support the OECD’s Alignment Assessment of the Partnership for Sustainable Textiles (PST). The PST is a garment sector multi-stakeholder initiative with members such as businesses, industry associations, non-governmental organisations, trade unions, standards organisations, and the German Federal Government. The aim of the PST is to improve social and environmental conditions in the global garment sector through its members implementing actions to strengthen their approach to responsible sourcing in alignment with the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment & Footwear Sector.

Different coloured fabric layered over each other

Kumi’s responsible sourcing consulting team worked in coordination with the OECD’s Responsible Business Conduct Unit to review the processes used by the PST to assess third party standards and certification schemes and determine whether these standards or schemes could be considered equivalent to the PST’s own requirements. The focus of Kumi’s work was to determine whether the PST’s equivalency processes were aligned with the OECD’s recommendations on how equivalency between different standards and schemes should be considered.

This work was delivered through a combination of desk-based documentation reviews and interviews with PST staff and consultants. The outputs from our work were then incorporated by the OECD into its final assessment conclusions and report.