The Socfin Group announces its collaboration with Dignity in Work for All (DIWA, formerly Verité Southeast Asia), an international non-profit organisation dedicated to advancing human and worker rights. DIWA develops and implements programmes focused on preventing forced labour in recruitment, strengthening corporate governance in the protection of human rights within global supply chains, and empowering workers to speak out against child labour, gender-based violence and other forms of harm and discrimination.
This collaboration aims to strengthen Socfin’s policies, programmes and operational practices related to gender equality, as well as the prevention of and response to Gender-Based Violence and Harassment (GBVH), across the Group’s operations in Africa and Asia. In this context, DIWA will support Socfin in the implementation of a structured programme articulated around three complementary phases:
- A Group-level review and rapid assessment of existing policies and programmes, as well as their implementation modalities on the ground;
- Targeted training and capacity-building activities, with a particular focus on Gender Committees and operational teams;
- The co-development of strategic recommendations aimed at strengthening Socfin’s global gender programme and its Sexual Harassment Action Plan.
“This collaboration with DIWA represents an important step in strengthening the coherence, effectiveness and impact of our gender and human rights programmes across the Group,” said Céline Schmitz, Head of Sustainability of Socfin Group. “By combining an independent assessment with targeted capacity-building actions, our objective is to sustainably reinforce prevention and response mechanisms, for the benefit of workers and the most vulnerable populations on the ground.”
DIWA’s longstanding expertise underpins this collaboration. For more than twenty years, the organisation has conducted thousands of onsite labour assessments across a wide range of industries, notably in agriculture, palm oil, seafood, electronics and manufacturing. This work has contributed to significant milestones, including partnerships with local stakeholders to advance gender equality, child protection and migrant worker welfare; pioneering research identifying recruitment fees as a root cause of forced labour; capacity-building initiatives supporting the implementation of the Employer Pays Principle; and the development of long-term programmes aimed at strengthening human rights due diligence systems within business operations.
“Operating responsibly in complex environments requires robust frameworks, effective operational tools and a continuous commitment to progress,” said Régis Helsmoortel, Chief Operating Officer of Socfinco. “The partnership with DIWA will enable us to further consolidate our gender and human rights programmes, strengthen their implementation at site level, and ensure that our commitments translate into concrete and measurable progress across the Group.”
This collaboration forms part of Socfin Group’s ongoing efforts to strengthen its human rights and sustainability frameworks, as well as to consolidate internal capabilities. It also contributes to building an environment of trust conducive to dialogue and to the expression and handling of grievances, in order to ensure that actions implemented across its operations deliver tangible and lasting results for workers and communities.
