November 2022
Annual Progress Report 2021-2022
Looking Back on Year 3
An overall evaluation of the third implementation year of the Metals Agreement shows that despite the social and economic challenges posed by COVID-19 and the war in Ukraine along with the tight labour market, the Parties to the Metals Agreement continue to strive towards integrating International RBC into value chains.
Roadmap: what has (not) been accomplished?
The roadmap shows the schedule of due diligence efforts, outreach targets and proposed projects for the Metals Agreement Year 3 to 5 (2021-2024). The roadmap aligns with four different focus areas in the Agreement: Individual Company and Collective Due Diligence; Responsible Secondary Materials Supply Chains; Collective Actions to Address Systemic Risks and Increasing Collective Leverage; and Monitoring and Evaluation.
Individual Company and Collective Due Diligence
Progress has been made on the due diligence practices of individual companies. All companies have submitted their due diligence maturity assessments and have also completed or submitted their risk analyses. Unfortunately, an industry heat map was not provided this year, as it was expected that there would be not many differences with the heat map of Year 2.
For more information, click here:
Due Diligence
Lessons Learned and Bottlenecks
Quote 1 202 wrd
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, sed porta, nibh non viverra imperdiet, dolor augue imperdiet ex, in sollicitudin nisi ex rutrum tortor. Ut sed erat orci. Cras placerat tellus nisl. Phasellus pulvinar pretium metus iaculis eleifend. Suspendisse ultrices iaculis diam ac laoreet. Curabitur sem arcu, varius vel augue in, sagittis auctor neque. Integer sit amet nisi vitae purus suscipit pharetra. In sit amet vestibulum lectus. Nullam feugiat ultricies elit, in efficitur tellus accumsan ac. Fusce mauris nulla, lobortis et pretium quis, cursus eget dolor. Aenean pharetra, eros eget commodo volutpat, lectus nunc convallis nunc, a aliquet tellus sem sed ipsum. Suspendisse feugiat elit sit amet sem cursus hendrerit ut vitae dolor.
Integer sem purus, aliquet ac risus gravida, eleifend dapibus sem. Ut purus quam, porttitor congue vestibulum ut, viverra ac nulla. Suspendisse venenatis neque nec nunc pharetra consectetur. Donec convallis, metus in volutpat faucibus, ante neque feugiat turpis, at rhoncus lorem neque eget dolor. Vivamus sed porttitor mi, eu convallis nulla. Nunc erat est, aliquet eu velit et, efficitur faucibus dolor. Curabitur ultrices posuere nunc sed commodo. Duis quam erat, gravida vestibulum ornare eu, efficitur in orci. Aliquam nec dignissim sem. In sit amet porta tellus, a posuere elit. Sed a pulvinar nisl.
Responsible Secondary Materials Supply Chains
Due diligence tools were revised to tailor them more effectively to companies in the recycling sector. Among other ways, by focussing more on risks on the customer side of the value chain. Even though all companies managed to fulfil their due diligence obligations better this year, this was especially true for recyclers. For more information, click here:
Sustainable Secondary Materials Supply Chains
Collective Actions to Address Systemic Risks and Increasing Collective Leverage
The Parties identified collective risks and have conducted a joint investigation into operational health and safety in Peru, Bolivia and Colombia. The research will be published in Agreement Year 4. The Parties have worked hard to try getting new companies on board too. Two companies have since joined the Agreement, although this is fewer than expected. Persistent COVID-19 restrictions, rising energy prices and labour shortages have all had an adverse impact on the willingness to join. For more information, click here:
Collective Actions and Upscaling
Monitoring and Evaluation
An evaluation made clear that in the future, the Parties would like to focus on being well-informed and preparing for upcoming European and Dutch due diligence legislation. For collective actions, it was decided to look “closer to home” in order to be of interest to more Parties of the Agreement. For many companies, mining operations and the associated risks are something that are far removed from their lives, given that they are active in the downstream side of the value chain or are active in the recycling sector. Civil society organisations and companies are also keen on a joint approach to due diligence. For instance, they are planning to work with companies to develop stakeholder analyses in countries that they source from. Moreover, companies sense the need and are motivated to understand more about supply chains beyond the first tier. In order to do that, it is essential to attract larger companies as they have greater insight into and influence on value chains.
Prof. dr. Tineke Lambooy, Chairperson of the Metals Agreement
“The Agreements have led to a surge in the concrete implementation of due diligence standards and other international RBC standards for the companies that form part of the safe learning environment and community of practice.”
Elles van Ark, Managing Director of CNV Internationaal
“Transparency in the metals chain is pivotal to be able to tackle risks such as labour law violations. The Agreement shows that companies cannot do this alone. We are working on that together.”