Workshop

Meaningful Worker Engagement: From Participatory Research to Action

ORGANIZED BY

Article One, International Organization for Migration, Google, iSEE

15-Sep

09:00-10:30

Meeting Room H

Supply chain resilience is rooted in worker participation. Based on case studies, this workshop explores how participatory worker engagement can uncover salient human rights risks and how increased worker participation can strengthen social compliance audits. Through panel discussions and interactive exercises, participants will evaluate these emerging approaches to meaningful worker engagement and explore how similar approaches could be applied in other supply chains.

What practical challenge will the workshop tackle

We address how responsible sourcing practices can be strengthened through participatory research, worker-informed onboarding, and meaningful worker participation in audits.

Who should attend

Business, Civil Society, Rightsholders, Academia, Consulting

Overview

Supply chain resilience is rooted in worker participation—the capacity for workers to identify, report, and co-remediate risks before they escalate into crises. Grounded in a case study from Viet Nam’s electronics sector, this interactive workshop examines how participatory research with internal migrant and ethnic minority workers uncovered onboarding and workplace challenges that traditional snapshot audits missed. Presenters will showcase a practical pipeline of worker-centric tools built from these insights. This includes proactive, worker-informed onboarding interventions in the vulnerable "first 30 days" window and tools to foster worker participation within formal audit and remediation lifecycles. Through panel discussions and interactive exercises, participants will evaluate these emerging tools, share feedback on active pilots, and explore how similar approaches can be adapted across global supply chains to protect rights under pressure.

Activities

At the start, participants will be divided into three different stakeholder groups (global business, Asia based manufacturers, worker representations). Initially, they will discuss challenges and opportunities they face with engaging workers in a meaningful way and translating that feedback into action. After a briefing on the various participatory methodologies, participants will return to their groups to discuss and provide in-depth feedback on one of the three main topics. Participants will also discuss any lessons learned from these methodologies that they can apply in their own settings.

What participants will gain

Understanding of Participatory Mapping: Participants will learn how to apply IOM’s community-based methodology to uncover structural risks beyond the factory gate.
Implementation Roadmap: Attendees will preview and provide feedback on a scalable maturity model for evolving worker participation in audits, aligned with the EU CSDDD.
Case-Based Insight: Direct learnings from IOM’s research in Vietnam’s electronics sector regarding the unique challenges of internal migrant and ethnic minority workers.
Continual engagement after the session: Participants will be able to provide feedback on the three areas presented via QR code survey after they have had more time to think and reflect on this session and the rest of the forum sessions

Elodie Jacoby

IOM

Elodie Jacoby leads the International Organization for Migration’s (IOM) Migration, Business and Human Rights (MBHR) programme in Viet Nam. Based in Ho Chi Minh City since 2022, she works with government, companies, and communities to strengthen responsible recruitment and the protection of migrant workers in global supply chains. Her work focuses on advancing worker voice and engagement, human rights due diligence, grievance and remediation mechanisms, and practical solutions that enable businesses to identify and address risks faced by both international and internal migrant workers.

Faris Natour

Co-Founder and Principal, Article One

Faris Natour is an internationally recognized expert with 25 years of experience working in business and human rights, sustainability, and responsible technology. As Principal of Article One, Faris advises the world’s leading companies on strategic approaches to embedding human rights and sustainability throughout the value chain.A lawyer by training, Faris focuses on human rights and environmental due diligence, human rights strategy, aligning with key regulatory standards such as CSDDD, CSRD, and UFLPA, supply chain sustainability, and responsible innovation. His clients have included corporate and institutional leaders such as Amazon, Cisco, Google, IKEA, Microsoft, NVIDIA, the OECD, Gap Inc., Rio Tinto, Starbucks, Target, Unilever, UNICEF, VF Corporation, and Visa. Faris has led strategy and due diligence projects in countries including Belgium, Brazil, Canada, China, Denmark, France, Guatemala, Japan, Kazakhstan, Mexico, Norway, Philippines, Saudi Arabia, UK and USA. Before co-founding Article One, Faris spent 10 years at Business for Social Responsibility (BSR) where he led BSR’s global human rights practice as Managing Director. In addition to advising companies on human rights strategy and management systems, Faris established and led the BSR Human Rights Working Group, a group of over 30 multinational companies collaborating on implementing the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights. Faris has also worked at Calvert Investments, where he was responsible for investment analysis of corporate human rights performance.

Natalie Giggy

Responsible Supply Chain Manager, Google

Natalie is a Responsible Supply Chain Program Manager at Google, where she leads social compliance and worker-centric supply chain programs across consumer hardware manufacturing operations. She has over ten years of experience in responsible sourcing and supply chain due diligence across the electronics and apparel sectors, previously leading supplier sustainability and stakeholder engagement at Gap Inc. Natalie holds a Master's degree from the University of California, San Diego and a Bachelor's degree from the University of California, Berkeley.

Ngoc Nguyen

Director, Institute for studies of Society, Economy and Environment

As a Director of Institute for studies of Society, Economy and Environment (iSSEE) - a grassroot organization in Vietnam working for the rights of minorities, focusing on ethnic minorities and LGBTI+ communities, Ngoc has been engaged in development issues in the past 10 years and a strong advocate of social justice education, community engagement and co-creation approaches. Her work has been involved rigorously with ethnic minority workers and communities to challenge the systemic inequalities, promote their voices and representation and expand possible spaces for community development and meaningful collaboration.

Sanchita Saxena

Senior Academic Fellow, Berkeley Center for Law and Business, University of California at Berkeley

Dr. Sanchita Banerjee Saxena holds a PhD in political science from the University of California, Los Angeles and has over 25 years of experience working on issues related to business and labor in global supply chains, with a special focus on the garment industry in Asia. At the University of California, Berkeley, Dr. Saxena teaches classes about social sustainability and she is also a Faculty Fellow at the Institute for Research on Labor and Employment (IRLE) and a Senior Academic Fellow at the Berkeley Center for Law and Business. She is also a Senior Advisor to Article One, a specialized strategy and management consultancy with expertise in human rights, responsible innovation, and sustainability where she advises companies on responsible supply chains. For more information, please visit sanchitasaxena.com.