Episodes

  • Shawn Askinosie and the Chocolate Factory

    Shawn Askinosie and the Chocolate Factory
    Jan 19 2023
    Shawn Askinosie is an author and the founder and CEO of Askinosie Chocolate. His book, Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul, takes readers on his journey to self-actualization and is a guide to how they can discover the secret to purposeful business. He was also named by Oprah Magazine as one of 15 Guys Who Are Saving the World, and by Forbes as one of the 25 Best Small Companies in America. Shawn joins Gwen Hassan to share how children are exploited in the cocoa beans industry and how Askinosie Chocolate mitigates their supply chain risks. Compliance professionals are often overextended and not taken care of. A compliance officer's role should not be viewed as solely to ensure compliance within a company, but also to coach and advise. The work of CSR and ESG departments should be diffused throughout the entire organization. It’s particularly important that these departments are led by lawyers, as they are in a unique position to advocate for change in a way that is credible. Askinosie Chocolate is a company that sources its cocoa beans directly from farmers, rather than through brokers like most other chocolate companies. They also pay farmers 55% more than the farmgate price and provide advanced payments to help finance the farmers' harvesting operations. This approach is called "direct trade" and is meant to create a more direct alignment between the chocolate maker and the farmer. This model also helps to mitigate issues like conflict minerals and child trafficking in the supply chain, which can occur when beans are shipped through multiple middlemen, and their origins are not transparent.  Resources Shawn Askinosie on the Web | LinkedIn | Twitter  Askinosie.com Meaningful Work: A Quest to Do Great Business, Find Your Calling, and Feed Your Soul
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    35 mins
  • 2022 in Review

    2022 in Review
    Dec 15 2022
    Hidden Traffic Podcast host Gwen Hassan reviews the year's developments in human trafficking prevention and shares what's next on the podcast. This year has seen a rise in human trafficking and climate change refugees. The United Nations International Labor Organization (ILO) reported that there are 50 million people across the world who are currently being held in some form of modern slavery. Notable news stories around human trafficking include the Uyghur Forced Labor Protection Act coming into play and allegations against Tesla for sourcing their cobalt from child labor. A major issue in the corporate world coined the ‘Green Push,’ is the neglect of the ‘S’ in ESG.  You can't make the world better environmentally by reducing carbon output and addressing climate change issues while also enslaving children, Gwen remarks. Resources Gwen Hassan on LinkedIn
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    16 mins
  • Rock and Roll Against Human Trafficking with Noel Thomas

    Rock and Roll Against Human Trafficking with Noel Thomas
    Dec 1 2022
    Noel Thomas is CEO of Zero Trafficking, a data company bringing innovative data, analysis, and training solutions to the frontlines of anti-trafficking. He joins host Gwen Hassan to discuss how Zero Trafficking is using technology in the fight against human trafficking.  Prior to founding his company, Noel toured the world as the bass guitarist of a rock band. It was during one of these tours in 2007 that he first got exposed to the issue of human trafficking through a flyer aiming to raise awareness. It inspired him to learn more about human trafficking and join the efforts to eradicate it. Rather than manually looking for human trafficking online, Noel and the task forces he worked with thought of a better way to bring technology into the space. They quickly realized that corporations like social media platforms, banks, and even real estate developers could also benefit from this data; they could use it to up their compliance and mitigate the risks involved with human trafficking.  Resources Noel Thomas on LinkedIn Zero Trafficking
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    16 mins
  • No Child Left Behind with Kody Kumfer

    No Child Left Behind with Kody Kumfer
    Nov 10 2022
    Kody Kumfer is Associate Executive Director of Forgotten Children Worldwide. Forgotten Children is an organization dedicated to helping children in vulnerable situations across the world. Kody joins host Gwen Hassan to discuss how Forgotten Children is funding education and working with indigenous leaders to create positive change. Forgotten Children partners with native leaders, most often religious and business leaders, who are passionate about orphan care. They have built homes and farming operations in various countries to support vulnerable children. The organization is focused on preventing children from falling prey to human trafficking, as well as improving their conditions. Currently, Forgotten Children is working in India to bring young girls out of the Devadasi system, which is a practice that, in modern times, pushes them into prostitution. It’s a hereditary role that is often passed on from grandmother, to mother, to daughter.  Resources Kody Kumfer on LinkedIn Forgotten Children
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    20 mins
  • Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (SCDDA) with Aditi Wanchoo

    Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (SCDDA) with Aditi Wanchoo
    Oct 21 2022
    Aditi Wanchoo is Senior Manager of Human Rights at Novartis, based in Basel, Switzerland. Novartis is a leading global medicines company using innovative science and digital technologies to create transformative treatments in areas of great medical need. Aditi joins host Gwen Hassan to discuss Germany’s recent Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (SCDDA) and how it’s going to help with human trafficking prevention. In order to tackle any change, whether it’s better labor and human rights protection for supply chain workers or addressing human trafficking, there needs to be an ecosystem response. Governments, businesses, and civil society must consistently work together to address and overcome these challenges. Having had the opportunity to work with three multinational companies in diverse sectors, Aditi believes companies can be and are a force for good to bring about social and environmental change. Though human trafficking prevention, in particular, has improved in the last few decades, there is still much left to be done. Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act (SCDDA), which was passed in 2021 and will enter into force on January 1st, 2023, is an important step forward in this regard. The act’s core expectation is to develop a corporate risk management system to identify and address human rights and environmental risks. Companies that fail to do this will be subject to substantial administrative fines. Resources Aditi Wanchoo on LinkedIn
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    25 mins
  • Using Technology for Human Rights with Vera Belazelkoska

    Using Technology for Human Rights with Vera Belazelkoska
    Sep 22 2022
    How do you create a system where you are continuously and effectively listening to your key stakeholders in an inclusive manner? Vera Belazelkoska is Director of Programs at Ulula, a social enterprise startup that provides organizations with digital tools and expertise to monitor the human rights impacts in their global supply chains. She joins host Gwen Hassan to discuss how Ulula is helping companies amplify the voices of people who don’t always get to talk to the social auditors.  Ulula designs technology solutions to help companies do better in many areas. They are dedicated to building, configuring, and successfully implementing different innovative tools to help organizations monitor human rights issues, labor rights impacts, and community rights in global supply chains. Supply chain transparency is part of it, but they also focus on the accountability aspects.  Corporations are being held to increasingly high standards across different jurisdictions to ensure that they do everything in their power to identify human rights violations they may be complicit in along their supply chain, and then remediate them. Resources Vera Belazelkoska on LinkedIn  Ulula
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    26 mins
  • Ending Human Trafficking through Research and Information Networks with Rebekah Enoch

    Ending Human Trafficking through Research and Information Networks with Rebekah Enoch
    Sep 1 2022
    Rebekah Enoch is Program Director at Human Trafficking Search, an organization aiming to raise awareness and contribute to preventing and eliminating human trafficking worldwide. She joins host Gwen Hassan to share how Human Trafficking Search is fighting human trafficking through education. Human Trafficking Search is an electronic clearinghouse of information about the many faces of human trafficking, including sex trafficking, labor trafficking, child labor, and labor exploitation. “We really try to encompass every level of that conversation so that if you are someone who works in the field or an aspect of the field, you can find materials for any research you're doing to inform what you're working on,” Rebekah explains. Even laymen who just want to be informed can access easily digestible information from their website. They also conduct their own investigations, she adds. Recently, HTS published a report about how the green revolution in the Democratic Republic of Congo may be linked to cobalt mining. While this may not sound like a problem initially, cobalt mining in the DRC is driven by a host of issues around child labor and labor exploitation.  Resources Rebekah Enoch on the Web | LinkedIn | Twitter
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    32 mins
  • Developments in Human Trafficking and Forced Labor Prevention

    Developments in Human Trafficking and Forced Labor Prevention
    Aug 23 2022
    In this solo episode of the Hidden Traffic Podcast, host Gwen Hassan discusses recent developments in human trafficking and forced labor prevention. She shares with listeners a snapshot of where Hidden Traffic is headed over the next few months as 2022 draws to a close. There has been a flurry of activity around the Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act, Gwen claims. It has been driving broader conversations among companies about their supply chains, serving as an impetus to examine where they source their products from and if they have been enabling entities that violate human rights. Even companies that are truly domestic have now started full-scale risk assessment processes for forced labor risk within their supply chain. It really has stemmed from UFLPA work, because many of them are concerned they may have private label goods that are manufactured for them under a contract manufacturing arrangement overseas. They've become aware of the fact that they may be caught up in a forced labor situation, even if it's not their own labor or their own manufacturing. Resources Gwen Hassan on LinkedIn
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    26 mins