Grace Farms Foundation today announced it has entered into a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the country of Georgia and Unchain—a new charity which was initiated by Grace Farms Foundation with key partners including WPP agencies Geometry Global, J. Walter Thompson, Thomson Reuters Labs, and Cornell University Center for Sustainable Global Enterprise—to create a set of standards and practices that promote supply chain transparency to help bring an end to the world’s largest, yet under recognized problem: contemporary slavery. Consistent with Georgia’s stated goals of developing a green, sustainable, and technologically smart country within the next 10 years, this partnership will work to build a demonstrative business model that educates other countries, corporations and investors about the economic and financial benefits of ensuring transparency in corporate supply chains.
Recognized for its commitment to fuel social change by Georgia’s Prime Minister, Mamuka Bakhtadze, Grace Farms Foundation, among its responsibilities, will collaborate with the Georgian government and Unchain to develop a licensing procedure and review existing legal, institutional, policy framework and standards to strengthen processes that will work to ensure ethical and transparent supply chains in the two discrete but complex, international supply chains of the food and agriculture, and technology industries.
“Developing comprehensive strategies and partnerships that disrupt and combat human trafficking and gender-based violence are critical to our mission,” said Sharon Prince, Chair and President of Grace Farms Foundation. “We live in a world where there must be a universal commitment to take action against these destructive forces. That’s why it’s a privilege to enter into this MOU with Unchain and the country of Georgia, a nation that has set itself apart as a leader and has made a commitment to building a multi-pronged ethical business model, which will actually accelerate growth while also driving social change.”
As part of the MOU, Unchain, a global awareness campaign to end contemporary slavery launching to the public in early 2019, will help define a set of standards for ethical and transparent supply chains at both a macro and a micro level, and will assemble a tech advisory council to evaluate technologies that can be applied to the standards methodologies, among other responsibilities.
“We look forward to working with the country of Georgia and Prime Minister Bakhtadze in this critical endeavor,” said Krishna Patel, President of Unchain and Justice Initiative Director at Grace Farms Foundation. “This partnership is the first step of many in bringing worldwide attention to this under recognized problem.”