Consultant: Human rights & environmental due diligence guide for the leather industry

Job description

Position: Expert Consultant/Consultancy

Location: UK

Programme Duration: October - April

Application Deadline: 25th September 2024 with interviews to be held via Teams/Zoom on the 2nd of October

The Ethical Trading Initiative (ETI) is a leading membership organisation focused on addressing human rights impacts in supply chains. By working with companies, trade unions and NGOs we are uniquely placed to tackle the challenges faced by workers around the world. We support businesses to identify and reduce human rights risks in supply chains, through guidance and collaboration across our membership.

ETI has recently been awarded a contract from the Sustainable Manufacturing and Environmental Pollution (SMEP) programme, established by the UK's Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), to implement a project in the tannery sector in Bangladesh. An important part of this project is the development of a Human Rights and Environmental Due Diligence (HREDD) guide that can provide a point of ‘best practice’ for the leather industry. This guide will be translated and adapted by ETI Bangladesh into a toolkit for the tanneries in the Savar Estate as well as utilised internationally by key stakeholders. The Leather Working Group (LWG) is a key stakeholder in this project and part of our Steering Committee and will provide guidance and support in the development and dissemination of the toolkit.

ETI is seeking an experienced consultant or consultancy to develop a HREDD guide for the leather industry. The guide will utilise ETI’s HRDD Framework, adapting the process to focus specifically on the leather sector. The guide will be practical, ensuring it can be easily adopted by various supply chain partners.

The guide will provide a ‘best practice’ point of reference for the wider industry which will lead to an improvement in the delivery of HREDD in the sector. The framework will be applicable to the whole leather supply chain and provide guidance on undertaking effective HREDD within the context of the leather industry, including deep dives / case studies focusing on sourcing countries and / or specific human rights and environmental risks that are salient to the sector.

Qualifications:

• Expertise in business and human rights, specifically within the leather sector.
• Expertise in developing guidance documents and materials for businesses including brands, buyers, suppliers on HREDD
• Strong understanding of supply chain dynamics in the leather industry, including environmental and human rights risks.
• Excellent project and stakeholder management skills, with the ability to facilitate workshops.
• Strong research, analytical, and writing skills.
• Proven track record of delivering similar assignments.

Expected Deliverables:

Outputs: The consultant will be expected to produce:

• A detailed project plan
• A high-level report detailing activity during the scoping stage
• A detailed proposed outline/structure for the HREDD framework and plan for dissemination for agreement and sign off by the ETI and project Steering Committee
• Finalised HREDD framework
• Delivery of dissemination plan and outputs (anticipated to be a series of workshops / webinars).

Meetings:

• The consultant will be expected to attend meetings with ETI regularly
• The consultant will be expected to present key milestone outputs to ETI and the project Steering Committee
• During the scoping phase, the consultant is expected to engage with several key stakeholders within the leather industry. The project team can introduce the consultant to several key stakeholders, but the consultant is expected to bring their own network of contacts to this assignment or be able to identify and generate the connections required during the assignment.

Application Process:

To learn more about this opportunity, please visit our website where you can download the Terms of Reference (ToR) and find all the details on the recruitment process. Submit your CV(s), evidence of similar work, and a proposal (max 4 pages) outlining your approach, timeline, and budget to [email removed - click apply for more details] with the subject line “Leather Industry HREDD Framework” by 25th September 2024.

We welcome applications from both individual consultants and organisations.

Please note: Feedback will only be provided to candidates selected for an interview.