Making Women Workers Count: A Framework for Conducting Gender Responsive Due Diligence in Supply Chains

This resource provides guidance on conducting gender-responsive due diligence within supply chains to organizations and suppliers through the Gender Data and Impact (GDI) Framework. The source describes how to make the case for supplier diversity, conduct and analyze gender-responsive assessments, track progress and improve accountability, and communicate progress.

These actions are contained in four phases, which all have a corresponding checklist:

Phase 1: Assess and Analyze

• Review brand business practices
• Understand country context and risks
• Assess supplier workforce performance, profile, and impact data
• Collect GDI indicators
• Analyze GDI tool findings

Phase 2: Integrate and Act

• For brands: act, enable, and influence
• For suppliers: prioritize issues, define measures and targets, and implement within the business

Phase 3: Track

• Differentiate between intervention and specific indicators and business as usual indicators and their tracking frequency
• Use supplier visits to review and discuss ongoing progress towards a specific outcome or to monitor overall gender equality performance
• Ensure that data collection and tracking become business as usual practices
• Involve workers and experts in reviewing progress made

Phase 4: Communicate

• Use gender data within your business
• Align communication about the GDI with the Women’s Empowerment Principles (WEPs) and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) to communicate with stakeholders
• Use the GDI to cover investors’ expectations
• Encourage suppliers to use GDI findings with their core practitioners’ team and worker committees/unions to foster social dialogue