INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS PAGES Scaling and Streamlining Collaboration through Better Data Sharing A roundtable discussion on "Scaling and streamlining collaboration through better data sharing" was organised by the Open Apparel Registry (OAR). This roundtable discussion was a lively deep dive into how best to share supply chain data in order to move the apparel industry beyond transparency for transparency's sake. How is data being used to improve conditions in supply chains, and what are the challenges facing organisations disclosing data? The roundtable was held as a part of Partner Pre-Forum Sessions on 11 February 2020. Partner sessions are not organised by the OECD and therefore may not reflect the views of the OECD. Objective(s) of the sessionmous opportunities. •What are the challenges/gaps? • •Demonstrate the tangible, positive impacts that better data sharing creates Encourage more organisations - brands, certifications schemes, MSIs and beyond - to disclose more information, more quickly, and in a consistent format, about their sup- ply chains Tackle misconceptions that supply chain disclosure leads to a loss in competitive advantageAlthough good progress has been made to date, the industry needs to move further, faster. Internal bureau- cracies at large organisations remain a barrier to uptake; levels of techno- logical sophistication vary wildly; and the gap between talking about trans- parency and taking practical actions to open up supply chains persists. Discussion questions • Background At as basic a level as name and ad- dress information, the quality of sup- ply chain data in the apparel industry is poor. With multiple variations for the name of one facility in existence and no globally agreed standard for ad- dress formats, confusion and inefficien- cy are rife. At a practical level, this can result in auditors visiting the same fa- cility two days in a row, or improve- ment programmes inadvertently being run twice in the same facility. Beyond name and address data, chal- lenges surrounding types of data dis- closure exist. Initiatives such as the Transparency Pledge or Fashion Rev- olution’s Transparency Index have re- sulted in more brands than ever be- fore disclosing key data points on their supply chains, including number of workers, gender splits and whether or not a factory is unionized. However lit- tle thought has been given to how this data is disclosed - until now. There is agreement throughout the apparel industry that data quality is poor. Whilst this leads to a multitude of problems, on the flip side, tackling the issue of data quality presents enor-Does anyone use the data dis- closed in the name of transparen- cy anyway? Share practical examples of how organisations are using this data, e.g. BHRRC using it to speed up remediation in facilities; Dutch Cov- enant tracking data to identify projects and areas to invest in. •What are the challenges, in the eyes of people in the room, in com- plying with a standard format for supply chain disclosure? •How can multi stakeholder initia- tives move at a pace on supply chain disclosure that satisfies all members? •What is the most effective way to involve global unions in supply chain disclosure, to advocate on behalf of facilities? •What’s the role of legislation in scal- ing up supply chain disclosure? About The Open Apparel Registry The Open Apparel Registry (OAR) is a neutral, open source tool mapping gar- ment facilities worldwide and assign- ing a unique ID number to each. It is a systematized registry which facilitates NCM-MARCH 2020 60greater collaboration and efficiencies for all stakeholder groups through a common ID and open data. It was cre- ated to establish one central “source of truth” for name and address infor- mation and unique identification infor- mation for the apparel industry. About the Open Data Standard Together with industry partners, an Open Data Standard for the Apparel Sector will help the industry to move away from badly formatted data locked in silos in different databases towards being able both to sync across sys- tems, and for data to be compared and analysed in practical, meaningful ways. Industry-wide adoption of an Open Data Standard would: Provide a level playing field: various stakeholders like academia, civil so- ciety, MSIs and consumer organiza- tions can more easily use this data to provide accurate and up-to-date anal- yses, and allow brands to fulfill their due diligence obligations in a respon- sible, comparable way. Make data usable and current: with the ability to scrape from machine read- able data, open source databases can update when a brand publishes an up- to-date list. Create one common resource: orga- nizations can collate supplier lists and make them accessible to users in easy-to use tools and maps. Save time: companies won’t spend time or money publishing information which might not be used and organi- zations analyzing data won’t spend time collating or trying to sync data. Make it easy to find factories & as- sociations: contributing data to pro- mote sustainable transparent fashion.