Summary: Information / Discussion

Labelling and certifications

Speakers from an NGO, a private sector comany and the academic sector discussed interests and limits of ethical sourcing, fair trade, labelling of NGOs and other mechanisms.

For Ms. Michelle Bergadaà, teacher of marketing at the University of Geneva, talked about the importance of branding, especially at times when the market is saturated. The brand needs new personality traits, a clear meaning offered  to consumers. There is an incentive for brand names to integrate social and environmental concerns and to personalize messages, rather than to soley base maketing strategies on mass marketing.

Representing the Société Générale de Surveillance (SGS), Mr. Robert Jourdain noticed that while NGOs speak a lot about corporate social responsibility, they are asked at the same time to show responsibility and transparency about themselves. In this spirit, Mr. Jourdain presented NGO 2000, a norm aimed at certifying the quality of non-profit organizations. Mr. Bieler, also from SGS, explained that his company is already engaged in several sustainability-oriented certification schemes, such as 'Social Accountability 8000'.

Mr. Levy of Transparency International pointed out that, while it is impossible to give a single definition to this practice, there is corruption among companies as well as among NGOs. He called for a “non corruption attitude” label or certification model, which could be applied to a wide range of organizations. This would fill a gap of the existing social norms, such as SA 8000, which currently do not address the problem of corruption.

Interesting Questions and Conclusions
The participants in the audience, characterized with quality more than quantity, expressed several question about certification initiatives dealing with social issues and the private sector. Key words formulated in questions and answers were independent monitoring, transparency and credibility.

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