The SIZA vision is to supply a cost-effective approach, and to achieve that we need to partner with global platforms. Buyers prefer to work on a global platforms, as they source from multiple countries and not only South Africa. Therefore, for SIZA to gain and maintain acceptance so that producers only need to undergo one single audit each for Social and Environmental, we need to make your audit data available through a platform such as Sedex. In fact, it is a market requirement in order for producers to export to certain countries and organisations.
There are two ways to make that data available for these particular markets:
- You can either do it yourself by registering a profile on Sedex where you will have to upload your own personal information, self-assessment questionnaire, and audit information; or
- You can work via SIZA and we will maintain your profile on the producer’s behalf. It is also worth noting that the cost is much lower if SIZA handles the account on your behalf (R 1 500), as we negotiated a special fee for SIZA members with Sedex. This allowance is made because we currently maintain more than 1 600 producer profiles on the Sedex platform to ensure visibility is available to the markets at all times.
If your data is on Sedex and your markets request that you undergo a SMETA audit, you are most welcome to refer them to SIZA so that we can explain to them how this agreement works between SIZA and Sedex. It is not necessary to undergo a SMETA audit if you have a valid SIZA audit and your Sedex profile is managed on your behalf by SIZA.
For interest’s sake, here are some statistics about the maintenance of Sedex profiles:
As of April 2020, Sedex membership has increased by 4% and SIZA now manages a total of 1 614 sites on Sedex. The UK and European markets are very thankful and appreciate SIZA’s efforts for keeping sites updated on the Sedex platform, especially with audits being uploaded immediately after they have been completed on MySIZA. Visibility is increasing as membership numbers increase and markets have requested more links compared to previous years. SIZA has 166 direct and 55 indirect relationships with markets, and 1 449 sites are linked to different markets while 165 sites are not linked yet. During this period, 2 951 links were requested, and 15 new relationships were established. To date, we have about 2 800 social (ethical) audits published on Sedex, 523 of which were uploaded during this period.
For more information on the SIZA Sedex relationship please contact Lizzy Sebati in the SIZA office at lizzy@siza.co.za.
