Corporate responsibility in the supply chain: South African Model

A good example of across the board cooperation towards sustainability is demonstrated by the South African Wine Growers voluntary agreement. This case was presented by Peder Michael Pruzan-Jorgensen at the Swedish partnership for Global Responsibility seminar in Stockholm 18th November. We have been unable to find a web reference to check details but the principles are an extremely interesting example of how developing countries can set up cooperation to encourage corporate social responsibility.

The voluntary organization, partly funded by refunds on UK customs tax levees, was set up to oversee the development of corporate social responsibility in the wine export industry.
Members are required to comply fully with legal requirements and a code of conduct.
The organization monitors the members, provides training and manages various initiatives.

One benefit was that the government were so satisfied with the organization’s own internal monitoring that they concentrated instead on wine growers supplying local markets, where conditions were much worse.

Such set ups can be given real financial teeth. One example would be where one country allows a certain export quota to another country withcompanies participating in the voluntary code of conduct. To the degree this code is broken, export quotas are reduced.

This set up results in a lot of self-management.