SAP Ariba and Samasource join forces to eradicate child exploitation in the supply chain

SAP Ariba has teamed up with nonprofit Samasource to ensure that child labor within the supply chain becomes a thing of the past.

The two companies have joined forces to stamp out poverty and drive fair labor practices across global supply chains by leveraging the power of technology and digital networks.

Founded in 2008, Samasource is a nonprofit social enterprise dedicated to lifting people out of poverty by providing training and access to dignified digital work through a process called “impact sourcing”, which is the practice of hiring people at the bottom of the pyramid, giving them access to earning a living wage, allowing them to transform their quality of life on their own terms.

For SAP Ariba, which works with 2.8 million companies in 190 countries worldwide, Samasource seemed like the ideal partner to work with to combat the exploitation of poverty within the supply chain and together they believe they have the transparency to resolve what is being described as "one of the biggest issues in the supply chain today."

Alicia Tillman, Chief Marketing Officer of SAP Ariba said: “At SAP Ariba, we firmly believe that one of the most effective ways to eradicate poverty is through free markets.

"Collectively, the Global 2000 spend $12 trillion on goods and services annually. These companies – more than 75 percent of which are connected to the Ariba Network - have the buying power to ensure they provide fair labor practices across their supply chains. And this is exactly what we, in collaboration with Samasource, hope to inspire them to do.

“This is my passion and my purpose which I took hold of when I started in this organisation, and now it’s grown into something that’s not just a big part of our organisation, but also a part of our industry.”

“Procurement today has embraced the idea of going beyond cost savings and efficiencies to align with a purpose and make a difference.

“Eradicating poverty is a movement that every single company can get involved with. And the data and technology is readily available for them to improve people’s lives.”

Leila Janah, CEO and Founder of Samasource, added: “Samasource was born out of the belief that talent is equally distributed, but opportunity is not,” said Leila Janah, CEO and Founder, Samasource. “In working with purpose-driven companies like SAP Ariba, we can help companies make a difference for low-income people by creating opportunities to radically alter their life trajectories and lift them out of poverty.”