Finance Department joins the fight against modern slavery
BY MATT ALLENSBY
The Salvation Army’s Strategic Sourcing and Procurement team are leading a charge in the fight against modern slavery with the introduction of recent updates to our Procurement Policy.
The updated Procurement Policy, combined with our Sourcing Agreement Standard, stipulates we must consider modern slavery and human rights in all our procurement activities and ensure we follow international best practice in responsible sourcing.
The updates strengthen the policy’s alignment with our Christian values and ensure compliance with legal requirements such as the Modern Slavery Act 2018, and state-specific public procurement rules.
Now, you may find yourself asking, “What is responsible sourcing?”. Responsible sourcing is a term often used in supply chain and sourcing contexts. It’s when an organisation intentionally sources or procures products and services for its operations in a sustainable, ethical, and socially conscious way.
By following responsible sourcing principles, The Salvation Army is reflecting international best practice in human rights. Captain Stuart Glover, Secretary for Business Support, explained that when sourcing from new suppliers we must be vigilant in making sure they are following responsible sourcing practices.
“It’s important to ask how much did this product really cost to make? Is someone else paying for me to save money? In reality, our cost-savings could be coming at the expense of someone in our supply chain – a person facing the same hardship or disadvantage that we are here to address. In fact, unwittingly we could even be the cause of the hardship and injustice some in our world experience because of our poor or ignorant purchasing practices,” Stuart highlighted.
As the Army continues its fight against modern slavery, the Finance Department is actively working with our suppliers to inform and educate them on how they can improve their approaches to responsible sourcing and join the fight alongside us.
Many suppliers have already answered the call, with the department hosting over 40 of our suppliers at a forum in June 2023, where they welcomed representatives from companies such as Woolworths, Kia, Wasteflex and Winc.
The forum served as a unique opportunity to come together and form strong relationships of trust and respect, providing key suppliers with a safe environment to be honest and transparent about areas where they require support to ensure they continue following responsible sourcing practices.
As a result of the Finance team’s efforts to ensure responsible sourcing practices are followed both internally and by our suppliers, they’ve excluded high-risk suppliers from tendering for work with us here at the Salvos. They’ve also elected to not work with businesses that contract suppliers who display an unwillingness to evolve and enhance their responsible sourcing performance.
The Salvation Army’s Responsible Sourcing Manager, Heather Moore, explained the responsible sourcing program would see ongoing activities and engagement with our suppliers, to promote the positive social impact that responsible sourcing has.
“Linking with our national vision statement, the goal of our responsible sourcing program is to ensure we are not benefitting from, causing or contributing to hardship or injustice through the goods and services we buy,” she explained.
To support personnel in doing this, their team have developed a Responsible Sourcing Toolkit, which is available on request by contacting Heather.
Personnel can also ensure they’re responsibly sourcing supplies by purchasing through Coupa, the Salvos’ online purchasing portal. Suppliers and, in time, products on Coupa for vetted responsible sourcing standards, which takes the burden off personnel and provides assurance about what they’re buying.
By working together, everyone in the Army can contribute to fighting the injustices of modern slavery.
To find out more about how The Salvation Army is joining the fight against modern slavery, watch this video on the Salvos Studios YouTube channel.
