Overview

Responsible purchasing practices are essential to building resilient supply chains that advance workers’ rights. Aligned with the Forum theme, Building Resilience, Advancing Rights, this interactive panel, organized by Fair Wear Foundation with the Social & Labor Convergence Program, will explore how companies can move from shared principles to practical action by embedding human rights due diligence into everyday sourcing decisions. Drawing on garment supply chain examples, the session will focus on equal partnership, sustainable costing, and the use of assessment data to strengthen integration, reporting, and accountability. Participants will engage through live polling, moderated discussion, practical case reflection, and audience exchange. Participants will leave with clearer insight into how responsible purchasing practices can be improved and how such improvements can contribute to better outcomes for workers, including fairer wages, more predictable working hours, and greater employment stability. Participants will also gain practical examples of responsible purchasing practice changes and indicators they can apply within their own organisation.

Why it matters

Purchasing practices directly shape whether resilience is built by advancing rights or by shifting risks onto suppliers and workers. Unrealistic prices, lead times, forecasts, payment terms, and order changes can undermine wages, working hours, and job security. This session matters because it shows how responsible purchasing,informed by credible and actionable supplier-level data, and strengthened through equal partnerships and sustainable costing, can help bridge the gap between HRDD commitments and day-to-day sourcing decisions.

Key questions

• How can brands strengthen their purchasing practices to better support fair wages, reasonable working hours, and employment stability?

• What does good practice look like when building more equal and collaborative relationships with suppliers?

• How can brands use supplier-level data to identify and address purchasing practices that create risks for workers?

• Which practical purchasing practice changes and indicators can help companies track progress and drive better outcomes for workers?

Who should attend?

• Business (large corporations)

• Business (SMEs)

• Civil society organizations

• Government

• Trade unions

• Workers / rights holders / communities

• Academia and researchers

• Consultancies and advisory firms

• General / multi-stakeholder

What participants will gain

Participants will leave with:

• A clearer understanding of which purchasing decisions create the greatest human rights risks, and which levers have the most potential to reduce them

• Practical insight into how costing, planning, lead times, and sourcing decisions translate into real outcomes for workers: wages, working hours, and employment stability

• One concrete RPP change to take back to their organisation, and one metric to track progress

• A practical understanding of how converged tools, shared data systems, and aligned industry frameworks can influence decent working conditions and supply chain resilience

Additional resources

Purchasing Practices HRDD Framework for Garment and Footwear Industry https://static1.squarespace.com/static/636ba8ae2fd47349a887dd92/t/68b00c611b9515166d651236/1756367969925/Purchasing+Practices+HRDD+Framework+for+the+Garment+and+Footwear+Industry_July+2025_Final.pdf

Common Framework for Responsible Purchasing Practices (CFRPP) https://www.cfrpp.org/

Fair Wear’s Equitable Sourcing https://www.fairwear.org/responsible-purchasing-practices