Recent exchange events in Bangkok on social procurement in Thailand’s agrifood and hospitality sectors highlighted both the potential and practical challenges for companies seeking to identify, assess, and onboard impact suppliers. This points to a possible need for user-friendly digital tools that can help verify supplier information and provide a clear pathway to connect corporate procurement decision-makers with credible impact enterprises across multiple sectors.
Building on momentum from recent exchanges about social procurement in Bangkok, this virtual roundtable meeting aims to introduce the People Planet First platform and Fair Trade certification, while also gathering stakeholder inputs to inform follow-up activities that may strengthen understanding of these such platforms and support the advancement of social procurement practice.
Objectives:
- To recap recent exchanges on social procurement and reflect on the role of digital platforms in enabling or constraining practice.
- To provide a concise introduction to the supplier verification including People and Planet First, and Fair-Trade Organization, including its verification model and how it supports buyers to discover and engage with social enterprises and other impact suppliers.
- To brainstorm and prioritise potential follow-up activities (e.g., toolkits or learning sessions) to support business leaders in integrating impact suppliers into their supply chains using digital solutions.
Participants:
This session is intended for a focused group of stakeholders engaged in social procurement and digital solutions, including:
Business leaders and procurement, sustainability, and ESG decision makers are exploring or implementing social procurement within their organisations.
Representatives of social enterprises, inclusive businesses, and other impact suppliers seeking to access corporate value chains via digital channels.
Platform providers, networks, and intermediaries working on digital tools or verification systems that connect buyers and impact suppliers.
Organisers:
This event is jointly organized by the United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP), in partnership with Yunus Thailand, as part of the project on the analysis of social procurement in the agrifood sector in Thailand.