Ethical Toy Program is the ethical supply chain program for the global toy industry. The Ethical Toy Program combines far-reaching and specialized audits, a robust ethical certification scheme, capability building and worker well-being programs to improve standards in the global toy supply chain.

Children are a third of the global population and key stakeholders of the toy industry; not just as dependents of parents working in the supply chain but also as consumers.

1. An enhanced, graded version of the ICTI Ethical Toy Program Audit Checklist

China’s role as the world’s leading manufacturer and exporter of toys continues. China also has a surging domestic toy market which over the past few years has grown annually at an average of 21.8% and is projected to exceed RMB 300 billion by 2019.

We asked Carmel where Chinese factories are currently with regard to production backlogs. She explained, “In general, factories have addressed all backlogs and production is up to date. We’re seeing a divide when it comes to the current status of factories, though. Around 30% are very busy with orders, these being the ones manufacturing particularly sought-after products.

Ethical Toy Program will be there to meet with designers to promote the work we do to ensure toys are manufactured in a way that is consistent with the values of the industry.

The SDGs call on businesses to work in partnership with governments and civil society to be part of the solution to a broad range of sustainability issues - from labor standards to inequality, social justice to climate change, gender equality to environmental issues.

In addition to toys, IETP Certified factories manufacture a broad range of other products including maternity, juvenile and baby products, apparel, electronics, printing, stationery and many more. Retailers and brands can use the factory search functionality in our Connect Platform to search our global directory of ethically-certified factories by different product types.

Sponsoring our FFS demonstrates your company’s commitment to promoting worker well-being in the toy supply chain. Funding this work is also an effective way of integrating child rights into your corporate social responsibility strategy and meeting other commitments such as those related to the UN Sustainable Development Goals and Children’s Rights and Business Principles.

In addition to the OHS advice given by the ILO, the ICTI Ethical Toy Program (IETP) also reminds factories on how they can help curb the spread of COVID-19 by paying attention to all workspaces and other areas where workers gather including canteens and dormitories.

Earlier this year, I had the opportunity to meet many passionate CSR professionals during the Responsible Business Summit Asia 2016 in Singapore, of which ICTI Ethical Toy Program is a promotional partner, and saw our CEO, Carmel Giblin speak on two panels. The theme for the first day was 'Business Strategy and Supplier Collaboration' and the second day was 'Stakeholder Engagement and Business Strategy'.As we can see from the title of the themes, the emerging trend nowadays is moving from philanthropy towards creating shared value (CSV), and developing a business strategy that incorporates corporate social responsibility, sustainability, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) into the daily operations of a business.Industry experts from AkzoNobel, BASF, Levi Strauss & Co, Adidas Group, Syngenta, The Body Shop, ICTI Ethical Toy Program, and Huawei shared their learning journeys with many great examples illustrating how companies can engage internal staff, suppliers, and establish partnerships with multi-stakeholders (even competitors) to create shared value for all.If you are not familiar with the term shared value, here’s a simple definition: 'shared value is a management strategy focused on companies creating measurable business value by identifying and addressing social problems that intersect with their business. The shared value framework creates new opportunities for companies, civil society organizations, and governments to leverage the power of market-based competition in addressing social problems'.CSV appears to generate lots of opportunities, but what I’ve found during the Q&A sessions and the conversations between some practitioners was that although a lot of businesses have great intentions and lofty goals to further develop their own sustainability strategies, many are uncertain of where to start.Here're six questions to ask yourself when you begin your thinking process:

The panel, moderated by Ian Spaulding from ELEVATE, resulted in an engaging discussion between industry experts on topics such as innovation, industry trends and key insights within supply chains.

The Remediation Program aims to elevate suppliers’ standards on social compliance management, reduce the number of audits needed, and empower them through effective technical support to resolve challenging issues permanently. The 9 and 12-month Remediation Programs offer targeted capability building support to suppliers as an alternative to the existing IETP Probation Program.

· The updated, risk rated IETP Audit Checklist

The number one reason parents leave their children behind when they migrate for work is not having anyone to look after them when they are at work

Asia Pacific is the world’s most rapidly developing market for toy sales, and Southeast Asia plays a crucial role in its growth. Southeast Asia’s population is over 625 million and set to grow to 717 million by 2030. In addition, their economies are growing fast, with aggregated GDP growth of 4.7% per annum.

My first six weeks at the ICTI Ethical Toy Program have been an eye-opening experience. Coming from a different manufacturing industry, I find the united nature of the toy industry to be amazing and quite unique from other product sectors I have worked in before. Many ICTI Ethical Toy Program certified factories have been in the industry for decades and the level of pride and dedication the owners and management have to their work and products is clear. It is exciting to see the passion from our stakeholders and how they are striving to further enhance the toy industry, and the ICTI Ethical Toy Program, to ensure we continue to respond to responsible sourcing challenges.

The study is benchmarking ICTI Ethical Toy Program against both industry-specific ethical manufacturing programs such as the Electronic Industry Citizenship Coalition (EICC) and larger multi-sector responsible sourcing programs such as Business Social Compliance Initiative (BSCI).

The four approved audit companies are ELEVATE, SGS, SCSA and UL. These firms are now accredited to conduct Ethical Toy Program audits.

In Australia, public consultation on new anti-slavery legislation concluded in October 2017. New anti-slavery laws were then recommended by the Australian parliamentary Committee, and a new anti-slavery Act is expected to pass in 2018 focussed on protecting people who are vulnerable to enslavement and tackling the forced labor risks in global supply chains.