global demos

I am happy to share exciting news with you today. At the end of April we had a meeting with Andre, our Project and IT Manager. After having talked about the heart piece of Global Demos, the Supply Chain Navigator for many months and discussed the multitude of capabilities of the tool, Andre presented us the prototype. This constitutes a big step forwards. It was exciting to finally see what we have talking about for such a long time. Unfortunately we are currently not able to show you this prototype because the next step is now to feed the programme with data. Daniel and Dominik are currently doing that. They collect all available and necessary supply chain data of two companies. It is a really good feeling to already see the first outcome of our work from the last half year. The Supply Chain Navigator is the core of Global Demos and it will visualise the connections between corporations globally. It will enable you to see which multinational corporations own whom and where along the corporate supply chain issues like child labour etc occur and how they are linked to the corporation itself. At the same time it offers corporations a great information tool since they might not be aware of some connections or issues. They can use it as an early warning system.

I am already proud of our Supply Chain Navigator and I am already looking forward sharing more information or illustrations with you soon, but I have to ask you for your patience. In the meantime I am happy for any questions or comments you have.

You will hear from us soon.

Have a peachy day

Judith

It has been very quiet over the last months which does not mean that nothing happened. On the contrary a lot has been happening.

We have received great and useful feedback during and after our first international workshop in September. During the last months we have started to conceptualize the set-up of our web presence. Currently we are working on filling our homepage with life. This is very exciting and of course time consuming. We are closely working with our IT team based in Hamburg (Germany). During the work on our homepage we will use the blog to keep you informed about Global Demos and we promise that it won’t take another couple of months until you hear from us again.

Workshop Highlights

• Intense discussion on mission, vision, and website methodology of Global Demos
• Presentation of GD Regional Chapters
• Presentation of potential pilot project with UNDP Sudan
• Signing of Memorandum of Understanding with African Rally for Peace and Development (ARPD) - Agreement to open an Ethiopian GD Regional Chapter with help of ARPD
• Guided tour on cathedral of Lausanne

Next milestones

• Website: Re-conceptualization of website based on experience with the first prototype and discussions in workshop.
• Communication & Interaction: Creation of an internal online platform to share files and documents among team members of GD and GD Regional Chapters
• Projects: Continuation with the potential pilot project with UNDP Sudan in cooperation with the Regional Chapter Sudan
• Strategy: focus on relevant pilot projects & key partnerships; discuss indicators and rating further
• GD Regional Chapters: Formalization of guidelines for the foundation of GD Regional Chapters
• Funding: Development of fundraising strategy
• Community: Develop a group of supporting organizations

Impressions

These are some updates on recent activities:

- We started sending out a request for proposals for a new corporate design.

- We are currently working on the specification for the major web application based on our experiences with the existing prototype and the results of our workshops and meetings during the year.

- We signed an agreement with the African Rally for Peace and Development for setting up a forth regional chapter in Ethiopia – next to our regional chapters in Sudan, Peru and Uganda.

- Potential upcoming project: Deconstruction of supply chain of a major mining company. The research project examines current trends in corporate social responsibility (CSR) with regards to the mining industry and its supply chain (key actors, key issues, structure, risks & opportunities) and outlines the predicted or expected changes, analyze the potential for the use of standards such as the GRI and draw conclusion as to future developments.

- We are discussing partnerships with several NGOs, universities, intergovernmental organizations, and technology companies for data collection, community building, improvement of the website concept, and marketing.

These are some impression (please click on the pictures to enlarge them):

Ulf coordinating the conference on Skype:

Participants in front of the cafeteria:

Impressions during the workshop: