About ECHO
ENABLING CHILD AND HUMAN RIGHTS WITH SEED ORGANIZATIONS
Enabling Child and Human Rights with Seed Organizations (ECHO) is a multi-stakeholder forum established as a joint initiative of the seed industry and Non-governmental Organisations (NGOs). The key objective is to identify issues and promote ethical seed production supply chain practices and enable decent workplace standards in the hybrid seed industry.
ECHO took shape through the cooperation of the Seed organizations, has evolved over a period of time. Initially, the forum was called the Child Labour Elimination Group (CLEG) that was formed in collaboration with the Association of Seed Industries (ASI) in 2003 and subsequently named Child Care Program (CCP). The forum took a more formalized structure as the Enabling Child and Human Rights with Seed Organizations (ECHO) in December 2019.
Today, ECHO promotes child rights and decent work with the support of social research organizations, seed industry members, and other voluntary organizations. ECHO members include public and private seed companies and representatives from voluntary and professional organizations.
THE PREMISE OF ECHO
For decades, deep-rooted socioeconomic problems like child labor and minimum wages, have been prevalent in the hybrid seed production industry across the country.
Several NGOs and research professionals have, over time, presented their studies on child labor and minimum wages in hybrid seed production at various fora advocating the need for effective solutions.
To establish common standards across industries, a formal forum was created that would come up with approaches in joint consultation and address various social compliance issues.
The ECHO forum was established after two years of deliberations with a clearly defined mission and to chalk out possible solutions.
ECHO will engage with stakeholders to create awareness, develop an auditing mechanism to review the work of the companies towards human rights in their supply chain. ECHO will also enable farmers by facilitating sustainable solutions on child rights and other decent work issues.
The forum consists of national and multinational seed companies, NGOs, and research institutes as its members.
PURPOSE:
Liaise with regional, international organizations concerned with risks associated with supply chain management and government organizations to develop uniform, decent work standards for the seed industry.
Conduct relevant need-based research and systematic audits for decent work standards and compliance in the supply chains of the companies.
Explore opportunities for collaboration among member companies to drive common programs, around decent work standards and Corporate Social Responsibility programs across geographies and intensive production pockets.
Develop a system of certification around decent work standards.
Reinforce and recognize best practices besides a reward and recognition program for best-performing companies.
Act as a knowledge base on global standards, federal laws, and recent amendments on relevant legislation.
Develop position papers to provide input for the development and change of rules and regulations for seed industries.
OBJECTIVES:
ECHO will maintain and sustain a regional forum for industry and formulate industry positions (policies) and recommendations on supply chain issues to improve seed sector performance in attaining Sustainable Development Goal 8.
Represent the interests of ECHO members at regional and international levels.
Encourage the establishment of state-level regional fora and support their development.
Facilitate and contribute to the harmonization of regulatory procedures towards International standards.
RESEARCH . ADVOCACY . ACTION . ENGAGEMENT . COLLABORATION
