In order to allow time for Chinese New Year 2020 celebrations, the Ethical Toy Program will instruct our accredited firms to not conduct audits or Progress Visits between January 13th, 2020 through February 16th, 2020 (2 weeks prior to and 2 weeks after Chinese New Year).

In order to allow time for Chinese New Year 2021 celebrations, the Ethical Toy Program will instruct our accredited firms to not conduct audits or Progress Visits between February 1st through February 28th, 2021 (2 weeks prior to and 2 weeks after Chinese New Year).

The Welcome Pack provides a comprehensive introduction to the Ethical Toy Program Audit Process, clear guidance on how to get started, as well as tips and resources to help factories get the most out their certification.

Read our Q&A below to learn more about the Modern Slavery Act, understand the new disclosure requirements, and find out how you can use the Ethical Toy Program to demonstrate compliance with the legislation.

In order to allow time for Chinese New Year 2023 celebrations, the Ethical Toy Program will instruct our accredited firms to not conduct audits and Progress Visits from 9th Jan to 5th Feb 2023. (2 weeks prior to and 2 weeks after Chinese New Year).

“We extend a very warm welcome to our new Governing Board members and look forward to the knowledge and expertise they will bring to the Board,” said Carmel Giblin, President and CEO of the ICTI Ethical Toy Program. “As we build on the enhancements and developments we delivered to the Ethical Toy Program in 2018, our Board will be instrumental in supporting our growth plans as we extend our Buyer Membership Program and increase the number of Certified factories thereby benefitting even more workers.”

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.

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

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).

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.

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.

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

· The updated, risk rated IETP Audit Checklist

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 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.

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:

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.

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 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.