WEBINAR SERIES:

28th September – 2nd October 2020

Registration

The webinars are organised by the Make ICT Fair project, in collaboration with Fair ICT Flanders and supported by KU Leuven SIM2.

Summary

In 2017, eleven European partners joined forces to create the project “Make ICT Fair – Reforming manufacture and minerals supply chains through policy, finance and public procurement”. This diverse partnership (including a university, a newspaper company, an international association of governments, a monitoring organisation, research centers and other specialised civil society organizations) aims at improving the lives of workers and local communities impacted along the ICT supply chain through research, capacity building and campaigning.

Three years later, the consortium is hosting a series of webinars to share the research results, pleading for increased transparency in a fairer ICT supply chain. 

In three webinars, the different links of the ICT supply chain, from mineral extraction to manufacturing and assembly are analysed. Key results of the research are presented and the following questions are debated:

• Which levers in the supply chain could drive a fairer ICT supply chain?

• What are the opportunities and calls to action?

These webinars aim to stimulate an open discussion with the sector to achieve a fairer supply chain for electronic devices. Each webinar is structured in two parts:

1. Overview of the relevant research results and a brief explanation why its conclusions could help to improve the studied stage in  the supply chain.
2. Open discussion with the participants.

Provisional Programme

28th September, 10:00-11:30 (CEST)  |  Registration

The current copper production is facing many challenges. Case studies in Zambia, Bulgaria and Namibia are showing large social and environmental impact. Witnesses  from local communities and monitoring data are showing the achilles heels of the extraction. However copper is highly demanded in current and future technological applications. New technological innovations are available, ready for upscaling but not yet implemented. (How) Can adequate policy drive this change?

Speakers: Linda Scott Jakobsson (Swedwatch), Daniel Popov (CEEBWN) & Xiaohua Sharron Li (KU Leuven). 

Moderator:  Charlotte Christiaens (CATAPA). 

1st October, 10:00-11:30 (CEST)  |  Registration

Artisanal and Small-scale Mining (ASM) represents the majority of the workforce engaged in mining activities worldwide. While it is often seen as an informal subsistence activity for local communities, ASM is actually very well integrated in the global metal supply chain. This kind of mining operation is sometimes referred to as the most ‘sustainable’ socio-economic way of exploiting metal ores against its depletion, while it also can cause enormous uncontrolled health and environmental impacts that affect workers and local communities.

This webinar presents one case study of ASM and discusses the local impacts and how their integration in the international market could be a lever to engage other stakeholders towards positive change through enhanced due diligence, monitoring and collaboration.

Speakers: Prof Erik Smolders (KU Leuven), Boris Verbruggen (KU Leuven) & Alberto Vázquez Ruiz (CATAPA). 

Moderator: Piet Wostyn (KU Leuven).

2nd October, 10:00-11:30 (CEST)  |  Registration

The right to organise is often denied to workers in the electronics industry. In key electronics production sites like China and Vietnam, the only union that workers are allowed to join is the state-sanctioned union. But even in countries where union rights are protected by law, like Indonesia, workers often find it difficult to exercise this right. This webinar presents field research from Bekasi, Indonesia’s prime industrial area just outside Jakarta. Looking at four different electronic factories, the webinar discusses the multiple barriers workers’ face when they seek to exercise their right to freedom of association and the strategies different Indonesian unions have developed in response.

Speakers: Jeroen Merk (University of Edinburgh), Hari Nugroho (University of Indonesia) &  Fahmi Panimbang (LIPS). 

Moderator: Dave Gorman (University of Edinburgh).

You can choose to register for all three webinars, or just one or two of them, in the registration form.

Fair ICT Awards 2020

Vlaamse bedrijven, non-profitorganisaties, instellingen hoger onderwijs en lokale besturen die inzetten op het duurzaam aankopen of beheren van ICT-apparatuur kunnen zich tot 14 november 2020 inschrijven voor de Fair ICT Awards. 

Heeft jouw bedrijf refurbished laptops aangekocht? Verleng je actief de gebruiksduur van je ICT door de apparaten te delen of intern te verhuren? De Awards belonen het fair en duurzaam omgaan met toestellen. Niet zeker of je in aanmerking komt? Schrijf je dan gerust in, en we laten je zo snel mogelijk iets weten.

> Schrijf je in

Smartphones, tablets, laptops, printers: ze zijn niet meer weg te denken uit de werksfeer, en veranderen de wereld in sneltempo. Ook letterlijk: het ontginnen van grondstoffen voor ICT-apparatuur en de fenomenale hoeveelheden afval die resulteren uit een te korte levensduur, wegen zwaar op onze aarde. De cijfers doen duizelen: in 2018 werden wereldwijd alleen al 1,46 miljard smartphones geproduceerd.

De industrie houdt vast aan een lineair  ‘take – make – waste’-businessmodel. De gemiddelde levensduur van een smartphone bedraagt 1,5 tot 2 jaar. Ecodesign en modulaire toestellen zijn in de ICT-sector moeilijk te vinden. Volgens Global E-Waste Monitor belandt jaarlijks het gewicht van 4.500 Eiffeltorens aan elektronisch afval op de vuilnisbelt. Dat cijfer stijgt trouwens elk jaar.

CATAPA, Bond Beter Leefmilieu en Ondernemers voor Ondernemers zetten met het project Fair ICT Flanders in op deze problematiek, met als doel de verduurzaming van het ICT-aankoop- en verwerkingsbeleid in Vlaanderen, en een duurzamere toekomst en verbetering van de werk- en leefomstandigheden van getroffen gemeenschappen in de mijnbouw- en ICT-productiesector in het Globale Zuiden. Om goede praktijkvoorbeelden in de kijker te zetten, wordt deze zomer de Fair ICT Awards gelanceerd.

> Schrijf je in

De winnaars krijgen niet enkel een welverdiende trofee, maar ook media-aandacht via de persconferentie van de Fair ICT Awards. Bovendien kunnen ze met trots het label ‘Winnaar Fair ICT Awards 2020’ op hun website plaatsen en genieten van verschillende mogelijkheden tot publiciteit binnen Fair ICT Flanders.

De deadline voor indiening is 14 november 2020. Op 30 november worden de genomineerden bekend gemaakt om dan op de persconferentie van 15 december de winnaars aan het grote publiek voor te stellen. Lees vóór je deelname zeker het reglement erop na, wat je kan vinden op fairictflanders.be/fairictawards.

Caning, arrests and social issues

Ten days of quarantine in Peru

Author: MAXIME DEGROOTE

Monday marked the start of the second week of quarantine in Peru. What does quarantine imply in a country like Peru?

We escaped for a few days to a cabin in the forest, away for a while, away from the world, the crazy world that we don’t seem to understand at all these days. And when we wanted to step back into that world after a few days, it turned out to be closed for us. Peru is in quarantine. An entire country, and already almost an entire world, in quarantine.

Corona horror stories

For a while now the corona virus has the entire world in its grip. In every single conversation of the past few weeks another corona horror story came up. We’re bombarded with numbers of deaths which are difficult to grasp and which make the situation seem even more unreal, no matter how real it all is. And little by little, we pass all phases.

Denial, because surely the virus won’t be that much more serious than the usual flu. Doubt, because it suddenly seems to spread very quickly. Fear, because it is getting closer and closer and the measures are getting more drastic. Anger, because why are so many people still not taking it seriously?

In general, Peru has taken the situation very seriously. We spent a few days in our ’cabin in the woods’, as we jokingly called it. A few days away from the corona craze that we didn’t understand yet and seemed to still be light years away. And then you’re in the car back to the city on Sunday night when you suddenly have cell phone reception again and hear the president of the nation declaring on live television that all of Peru is going to be quarantined.

Where to, the friend behind the wheel asks, where do you want to spend the next few weeks? Do I drop you off at your mom’s or at your boyfriend’s? Because wherever you get out of the car, that´s where you’re staying.

So here we are.

Panic

On Sunday the 15^th of March Peru heard the news. On Monday everyone had one last chance to relocate, before all national and international transport was put to a halt at midnight. Borders closed. Everything closed. Only supermarkets and other food stores, hospitals, pharmacies and banks are allowed to remain open.

Panic arose on Monday. Because what does quarantine mean in a country like Peru, without any form of social security?

The president promised 380 soles (about 100 euros) to every family who wouldn’t be able to make ends meet during the 15 days without work. But how do they decide which families can’t? And how do they get the money? And when exactly? Questions arose, as did the unrest.

Only after a whole week there was some news about the 380 soles. A website was launched where you could sign up for a chance to receive the allowance. That same day, officials appointed by the government went to the communities looking for families in need. Only a week later. Not hard to imagine the level of concern that flooded the population.

And rightly so. Peru is no Belgium, where most of the citizens continue to work from home. Peru is a country in which more than 70 percent of the population works in informal sectors. In which the vast majority of the population is dependent on their daily income to put food on the table. A day without work equals a day without food.

And what about all non-Peruvians in the country? Every day I see the necklace that was made by my two fantastic Venezuelan friends hanging around my neck. What about them? What about the thousands of Venezuelans in Peru who are left to their own?

Chaos

Markets were flooded by panic and people that first Monday. People took whatever they could get and ran. Market vendors started to panic, prices doubled, tripled. Policemen trying to keep the peace and to arrest anyone stealing, now also had to start arresting vendors raising their prices. The chaos grew.

Waiting in line for three hours to buy eggs, only to find out they are sold out. Bosses who don’t believe in quarantine and demand employees to show up at work. Bus companies that continue to sell bus tickets, only to have the police rush in and shut everything down at the time of departure.

Tourists who don’t have a clue what is happening and go back to their hostels, some of them finding themselves in front of locked doors. Because doesn’t corona come from Europe?

And me, wanting to make use of those last hours of free movement in the evening, which was allowed until midnight. Only to find 15 soldiers blocking my way after only half a block on my bike. The quarantine is no joke.

Arrests

On the second day the severity of the situation becomes even more clear to us. On Tuesday, the Ronda Campesina starts roaming the streets in the north of the country. The civilian police. The gravity of the situation sinks in in Cajamarca, where the rondas command far more respect than the police will ever do. The declared state of emergency brings back memories of the protests against the mega mining project Conga here, in which several people lost their lives.

On Wednesday, the government declares a ‘toque de queda’, a curfew. No one is allowed to be outside between 8 p.m. and 5 a.m., no matter what. People who disobey are arrested immediately.

The following morning, social media is flooded with videos of the first violations of the rules. A man who went to take out the trash and immediately got surrounded by five police cars. To the police station.  A man who got arrested, jumped out of the police car and was chased by the policemen. A man who wanted to walk his dog and got arrested right outside his front door, with on the background his wife screaming about the dog being taken away, not about her husband.

My neighbours all got locked up for a night for playing football in the park. We laugh, but the quarantine is no joke. The quarantine is serious.

And the quarantine has to be taken seriously. There are 250 intensive care beds in Peru. 250. And look at how many cases there are now. In Peru, the figure currently stands at 480. Seven people lost their lives in just a few days.

This is just the beginning. We have to fix this now, because Peru can’t cope with a crisis like the ones in Italy or Spain. Honestly, who can?

No hospitals

And like this Peru was the first country across Latin America to impose such strict measures. And yes, it is scary to see soldiers, police officers and farmers with firm sticks walking through the streets. It’s scary to hear the stories from the past and see how citizens are losing more and more rights and how we are slowly moving in the same direction.

But it is even scarier to realize that there is not a single hospital here in Cajamarca that will be able to save an emergency corona patient. That to gain access to a ventilator, you have to travel at least seven hours to the coast. That there are currently only 50 ventilators left in the entire country, and they will most likely all be in use by the end of this week.

It’s scary that upon calling the corona emergency number for my friend who has been sick for three weeks, we were casually told that “this would mean that she would have had corona virus for three weeks and in that case she would have been dead for a long time already, so she shouldn’t worry”. I understand that the line is overloaded, but then when will you be taken seriously? When do they test you?

It is scary to realize that in the meantime the Amazon region is facing the highest number of dengue cases in the history of Peru, and there will not be a single bed left for the first corona patient needing intensive care.

It’s scary to realize there are several thousands of Peruvians suffering from tuberculosis who, if infected, will not survive the virus.

And it’s scary to see that more than 18,000 people have already been arrested for disregarding quarantine measures and are continuing to go out on the streets as the virus spreads.

Difficult issues and problems

The quarantine is serious, the quarantine is necessary, Peru has acted well. But with the quarantine a lot of issues and problems arise. And I’m not just referring to the economic problems.

For fifty percent of women and girls in the country, their home is the least safe place to be. It’s the place where they are most exposed to sexual abuse and gender violence. The first feminicide since the start of quarantine was committed in Arequipa on Monday. It barely took a week for a woman to be stabbed to death in her own home by her boyfriend. Two reports of rape have thus far been made, involving a little 4 year old girl and a 14 year old, both in their own house.

The emergency line of the Ministry of Women and Vulnerable Populations received 2,500 calls in the past week. 208 complaints were made. 38 women have already been transferred to relief centers. Prolongation of the quarantine raises difficult issues. Mandatory imprisonment with your rapist, can you imagine?

Self-made rules

And what about the abuse of power that quarantine entails? Discrimination? Corruption?

Several officers seem to have set their own rules, forcing people to close their windows or even turn off their lights after eight o’clock, threatening with gunshots. Other policemen arrest random people on the street, because who can prove that they are actually on their way to the supermarket or that they have only been outside for half a minute?

Others will make an exception if you give them some money – how many agents accepted money when a friend’s uncle traveled seven hours back to Cajamarca on the seventh day of quarantine?

And then there is the video of a military captain. Instead of taking a young man that wasn’t respecting the curfew to the police station, the captain beat him on the street. Various times. Hard. The man in question has since been fired, although he receives support from nearly all over the country. After all, people say, military soldiers are trained to serve their country ruthlessly, and we must understand that a soldier is not the same as a police officer, and doesn’t work the same way.

So what does that mean? Should we just tolerate this type of aggression then? Can we expect more of this? And why is there such a contrast in the way people are arrested in the wealthier neighborhoods, such as Miraflores in Lima, compared to the young man of the video for example? And why are women treated differently than men? Or why was I not checked at the supermarket while the local woman next to me was immediately arrested? How do we tackle this kind of discrimination?

Bus de la muerte

And what about the congressmen who allowed themselves and their families to board a humanitarian flight from Lima to Cusco? A flight that was organized to return vulnerable families stranded at the airport in Lima, often without money, to their families. Who gives them the right to take those much needed places?

It’s no surprise the people of Peru have become alert. And that the bus that suddenly appeared a few hours’ drive from Cajamarca during the night from Thursday to Friday was immediately noticed. Vigilant citizens sent photos and videos into the digital world, and the bus route was followed all over Cajamarca on social media. The mysterious bus de la muerte was approaching the city. Who was on the bus, where did it come from?

The bus was coming from Moquegua, in the very south of the country. It had already traveled 2000 kilometers, about 35 – 40 hours, across the entire country. How can a bus travel 2000 kilometers in the middle of a national quarantine? How is it possible that no one has made the bus stop during its 40 hour journey while I can’t even reach the corner of my street on my bicycle? And who was on board?

Turns out there were 32 passengers on the bus. 32 mine workers. There you have your answer. The bus had permission. And just like that, 32 passengers who had crossed the entire country, entered Cajamarca, where no case of the coronavirus had yet been detected. Panic.

But the bus was allowed to drive. On Tuesday, we were already informed through an official document that the Ministry of Economy will make exceptions for essential activities during the national quarantine. And how would we survive a quarantine without winning copper? Extremely essential, of course, mining.

Mine interests and violations

The speculations started immediately. Is the declared state of emergency being used in the interest of mining? Why is no one in the country allowed to work while the mining companies just carry on with their business? Isn’t that also a form of discrimination? On Friday, President Vizcarra spoke out about the issue and declared that they would not accept pressure from any group with a particular interest in society.

According to his statement, some mining activities are carried out in remote places, where workers are isolated, where no one enters or leaves, and it is arranged that these activities may continue given proper isolation.

The departure of workers, such as the group from Moquegua which drove all the way to the north of the country, is however prohibited because it violates the measures.

But is that the only aspect that conflicts with the measures? The interprovincial movements? What about the hundreds of trucks that transport minerals between different regions every day? What about the rural population in the immediate proximity of the mining activities? Or the employees who often travel two or more hours, back and forth, to get to their work at the mine? It suddenly turns out these activities are not as isolated as they make it seem.

Health first

In the south of the country, complaints against the mining company were made public by the mine workers themselves, as well as by the local communities near the mining projects Las Bambas, Antapaccay and Shougan. The mining companies continue to work normally. Not just isolated, not just the basic tasks, barely any extra safety measures. Business as usual, 24 hours a day. And that is a violation.

The Peruvian government should always put the health of its inhabitants above personal interests. Which does not include buses driving across the country to let employees go home in the middle of quarantine.

Health comes first. When three young people arrived to Cajamarca all the way from Arequipa, after illegally having traveled for over 30 hours in cardboard boxes in the back of a truck, their own families denied them access to their own homes, to protect themselves and everyone around them. The three youngsters were arrested on the street shortly after. If a family can deny their own family members access to their own home to not put anyone at risk and follow the measures, then the government should for sure start taking these measures more seriously themselves. And then it should for sure be possible to suspend the work in the mines for a while, or at least ensure that the activities are carried out following the proper isolation measures. Neither the employees nor the neighboring communities, the most vulnerable part of the population of Peru, should be put in danger.

Standing still

Different communities all over the country have now closed their access roads by themselves. The streets are quiet. Thousands of disobedient Peruvians are still being arrested every day, but at the same time the conscience about the importance of quarantine is growing.

Peru has responded, and incredibly fast. The world seems to be standing still for a moment, but it isn’t. The world isn’t standing still, we are. And let’s continue to stand still for a little longer.

Stay inside.

The ICT Supply Chain from the Doculatino Film Festival 2019:

What is inside your smartphone, where does it come from and where does it end up?

Our Catapista Hernán Manrique wrote the following interesting and critical piece about the ICT supply Chain of electronic devices, by analysing and reviewing the three documentaries from our last Doculatino Film Festival.

Introduction

During October and November of last year, CATAPA organized the Doculatino Film Festival. Held in the cities of Ghent, Antwerp, Brussels and Leuven, this edition of the festival was part of the Make Information and Communications Technology (ICT) fair European campaign, whose goal is to achieve a more transparent and fair ICT supply chain.

The documentaries showed various insights into the globalized ICT supply chain of some of our favourite devices. The first documentary, Minga (2019), directed by Damien Charles and Pauline Dutron, takes us into a journey through Latin America where it shows some of the major environmental conflicts between local communities and multinational mining companies. Death by Design (2016), directed by Sue Williams, explores how employees from the ICT supply chain work in unsafe environments where they come into touch with toxic substances during the production and assemblage of computers, smartphones, etc. Finally, The E-Waste Tragedy (2014), directed by Cosima Dannoritzer, reveals what happens with our electronic devices once we stop using them, showing that whether we recycle them or not, they reproduce vicious patterns of toxic waste disposal in developing countries.

This review intends to discuss some insights on poorly known aspects of the ICT supply chain, as well as to introduce some alternative scenarios as portrayed in the documentaries.

Let’s try to answer some questions

Did you know that your smartphone resembles a mine of precious minerals and rare elements? It might seem odd, but each smarthphone contains at least 60 different minerals, such as cobalt, lithium, gold, copper, and so on and so forth, that are extracted from all over the world. Such variety is so large that, according to the Geological Society of the United Kingdom, the average smartphone uses 75 out of the 81 elements in the period table.

Extracting these materials at the large-scale needed for the ever growing ICT demand is a daunting challenge that requires millions in investments. Companies are always exploring new areas where to find these materials that allow the permanent interconnection of our digital economy. However, as with many other things, there is a very different picture at the other side of the coin.

What are the social and environmental costs of mining in developing countries? Scientists from all disciplines have continuously shown the large social and environmental damages produced during mineral extraction. Are they inevitable? That is hard to tell, but what we know is that efforts to regulate mineral extraction are rarely enough and its accountability differs widely from one corner of the world to another. Environmental and labor safety regulations in poor and developing countries are usually sacrificed to the laissez-faire of free markets. For this reason, developing countries with plenty of mineral resources have sometimes been signaled as being ‘cursed’ by such abundance. Having said this, now let’s see how our three documentaries can help us to understand how such ‘curse’ works.

Minga presents some of the major struggles from various communities in Latin America against mining extraction. At these first stages of the ICT supply chain, rentier states seek to encourage extractive industries to invest in their national territories through various stimulus, such as low environmental and social regulations, financial incentives, etc. In many cases, governments portray such investments as a promise of modernity for rural communities near mining concessions that are depicted as ‘pre-modern’ or ‘left behind’. However, both environmental and social externalities affect the livelihoods of people from these areas. Heavy metal pollution, respiratory diseases, decreasing outputs in agriculture, etc. are some of the main consequences of inadequately environmental regulations in the mining sector.

For these reasons, it shouldn’t be a surprise that various communities near mining zones have risen up against extraction. Among many other cases, Minga shows one of the greatest conflicts against gold mining in Peru: Conga. This case became infamously known due to the agressions from part of the Yanacocha company and the Peruvian security forces against Maxima Acuña Chaupe (Goldman Environmental Prize 2016), a peasant woman from the Andean region of Cajamarca who refused to sell her land to Yanacocha. However, despite gaining global recognition in environmentalist circles for her defence of water sources, her life is still in danger. Maxima’s case is not an atypical story; hundreds of persons have lost their lives for opposing the extractive industries. Several cases from extractive localities in the Global South show that sometimes the rush for obtaining these precious minerals and rare elements needed for our devices privileges profit over life and the environment.

After extraction, minerals travel a long way to finally reach the facilities where, after several transformations, they are turned into key pieces of our ICT devices. Death by design takes us on a journey from mid 1970’s and 1980’s California to contemporary Shenzen in China to reveal what happens behind the scenes of this billion dollar industry.

Electronics and semiconductors necessary for personal computers require a large use of toxic chemicals, such as sulphuric acid, hydrazine sulphate, etc. Some decades ago, these products were mainly produced in the United States. However, in the midst of what would be later known as Silicon Valley, the increasing number of ill workers due to the exposure to such chemicals led to hundreds of lawsuits against some of the major ICT companies of the time. Not only there were accused of causing severe illnesses, such as brain cancer, breast cancer, etc. but also of polluting underground waters by storing chemicals below ground. After thousands of petitions, the Environmental Protection Agency from the United States obliged major ICT companies to clean up sites they contaminated.

However, this was only a partial triumph. Given that since the 1980s companies have enjoyed more flexible legislations to relocate their investments elsewhere, they decided to go abroad. Heavier environmental regulations in the United States led to a massive search for free-regulations areas across the world. It’s in this way that Shenzhen in China became the main hub for this industry. With inadequate labor regulations, companies could operate at a much rapid scale and with less concern for workers. Soon outsourcing would become the rule. With almost no labor rights and high production quotas established by ICT companies, outsourced workers became increasingly exploited. Death by design shows some of the consequences of such lax regulations. These include several accidents in the plants, disastrous explosions and fires in assembling facilities and even suicides during working hours.

Finally, the E-waste tragedy traces the path that electronic devices follow after we stop using them. Why would this be a tragedy? The documentary cleverly starts by portraying the dumping sites where they end up in Africa where the massive accumulation of toxic e-waste poses great environmental and public health problems for developing countries that import developed countries’ waste. But how did all this e-waste end up there?

 This is exactly the challenging question that the E-waste tragedy seeks to respond. E-waste trafficking is a criminal activity that involves millions of dollars. According to the experts interviewed in the documentary, despite EU regulations to prevent e-waste trafficking, more than 65% of these products never reach an official recycling plant and less than 1% of mobile phones are recycled in Europe. Thus, most e-waste is not recycled, but sold to the black market, where it is later exported through the main European ports.

But there is more. Once ICT devices end up in African dumping sites, large groups of people, especially children, dismantle smartphones and others electronics with their bare hands in search not just of screens and batteries but also of small electronic pieces, such as buzzers, transistors, capacitors, etc. After collecting some considerable amounts of electronics, these are later sold to brokers. This situation is similar in surrounding areas of Shenzhen, where Chinese workers use rudimentary and toxic methods to identify valuable electronic pieces from old devices. These products are then refurbished before getting into circulation once again. Again where? In China.

But how do these old devices (of which many of them were supposed to be recycled) and their small parts get their way into China? E-waste trafficking has Hong Kong as one of its main routes to enter China. The port of Hong Kong, one of the largest in the world, is a free port with low customs regulations. With more than 63,000 containers arriving everyday, Hong Kong represents a privileged entrance into the Chinese market. Indeed, it has been estimated that 36,000 e-waste containers enter China through Hong Kong every year. After arriving, most of the e-waste, once refurbished and repaired, find their way into Shenzhen, which is strategically located a few kilometers from there. Finally, all these different electronic devices and their small parts are offered as new in Shenzhen, where once bought they travel to new destinations to be sold and resold again and again.

Main lessons from Doculatino and steps further

The three documentaries screened in Doculatino show a reality that is hard to deny. The ICT supply chain involves several formal regulations and decent jobs around the world while at the same time it also allows the advancement of groundbreaking technologies that are changing the world. However, all this progress is also accompanied by more negative issues, such as conflicts, environmental pollution, child labor, e-waste trafficking, etc. We might not be aware of such problems, because most of them occur far away from the comfort of our homes. And that is exactly one of the main concerns that these documentaries point out: even without knowing it, we might be contributing to some of these hazards that affect thousands or even millions of lives around the globe.

What can you do?

Inform yourself about how ethical your devices are: There are several websites with relevant information on the provenance, labour conditions, and other characteristics of our devices. You can find some of them in the following links:

• Ethical Consumer
• Ethical Guide
• The Good Shopping Guide

Make sure to hand your old devices to certified recycling operators: Recycling is not as easy as it sounds. Some companies offering to recycle for free might actually be part of E-waste trafficking networks. Don’t forget that most of EU’s e-waste is never recycled, but rather trafficked. Here you can find some useful links:

• Sustainable Electronics
• European Electronics Recyclers Association
• Environmental Expert: E-waste recycling Companies in Europe

Think twice before buying a new electronic device: Instead of reproducing the vicious cycle that most electronic devices follow as seen in these documentaries, repairing your devices can be a much better option. It’s cheaper, it’s easier and it’s much more sustainable. Here you can find some links that show you where to repair your devices (you will be surprised that even some of them encourage to do it yourself!):

• iFixit 
• Yelp: Electronics Repair

Think circular: If you want a more fair and sustainable future, it’s about time to start thinking circular!

Author: HERNÁN MANRIQUE LÓPEZ

Standaarden, certificaten, en monitoringsystemen in de ICT-sector: op weg naar een duurzame aankooppraktijk?

De ICT-sector kampt met heel wat uitdagingen op het vlak van duurzaamheid. Het produceren van ICT-producten zoals smartphones, computers en laptops heeft een erg grote impact op mens en milieu. De ontginning van metalen en mineralen nodig voor deze producten gaat vaak gepaard met mensenrechtenschendingen en ecologische destructie. De assemblage van laptops en smartphones gebeurt in fabrieken waar arbeidsrechten met de voeten getreden worden. De gebruikduur is zeer kort en het ontwerp van ICT is niet gericht op hergebruik van de onderdelen, waardoor er een gigantische e-waste afvalberg ontstaat. Daarnaast is bijna vier procent van de wereldwijde uitstoot van broeikasgassen afkomstig van de ICT-sector.

De laatste jaren zien we een toenemend aantal initiatieven die aan de slag gaan met deze uitdagingen. Vele initiatieven vertrekken vanuit de koopkracht van aankopers van ICT. Grote consumenten van ICT producten kunnen via hun aankoopbeleid een belangrijke invloed uitoefenen op ICT bedrijven om hun productieketen op een structurele wijze te verduurzamen.

Standaarden, certificaten en monitoringssystemen worden in verschillende sectoren, omwille van hun gebruiktsvriendelijkheid, veel gebruikt. Ze zijn vrij eenvoudig te verwerken in aankoopdossiers. Toch lijken labels minder gevraagd te worden bij de aankoop van ICT hardware.  Welke certificaten bestaan er voor ICT? Zijn ze betrouwbaar en bruikbaar?

Meer weten? 

Fair ICT Flanders, een project dat getrokken wordt door CATAPA,  en HIVA-KU Leuven publiceren vandaag een gebruiksvriendelijke paper rond standaarden, certificaten en monitoringssystemen voor een duurzamere ICT-sector. Het onderzoekswerk werd uitgevoerd door Dr. Boris Verbrugge (HIVA KU Leuven). Het document is geschreven voor aankopers en andere professionals die aan de slag willen gaan met duurzame ICT binnen hun organisatie. Het biedt handvatten op weg naar een duurzame aankooppraktijk van ICT, gaat dieper in op de voor-en nadelen van certificaten en standaarden en bespreekt mogelijke alternatieven voor certificaten.

De paper is gratis te downloaden op de website van Fair ICT Flanders.

Radio show “Hijack hour” about Bar Circular event – Black Friday impact consciousness

Last November 29^th CATAPA co-organized Bar Circular, an event meant to raise awareness on the impact of Black Friday. The consumption levels around the idea of ‘Black Friday’ is increasing every year, in more countries and the event is lasting longer and longer, for example, now the duration is actually about a week long. This is pushing more and more people into over-consumption.

As part of this event, we were very happy to be invited to talk about this at a student Radio that same day. The Radio that host us was Urgent FM and we were in the show called ‘Hijack hour’ where one hour of radio time is given to local organisations who want to share and advocate for an important issue.

Here we want to share with you that “Hijack hour” session about the impacts of Black Friday consumerism related to mining and the ICT supply chain, and some actions you can do!

Catapista Louna and Catapista Youssef represented CATAPA in the show for the first part (in English), talking about the problems related to the ICT supply chain in the first half hour.

In the second half hour (in Dutch), members of Gents MilieuFront and Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken, also co-organisers of Bar Circular, talk about the different solutions and alternative ways of consuming ICT, like repairing or buying second hand. They even did interviews with repairers from the Repair Café, one of the activities of the Bar Circular event.

The event had many different activities open to participants and guests in the Krook library! Just before the activities started, local artists transform Miriam Makebaplein square (in front of the Krook) into an e-waste cemetery. Through this public action we tried to create more awareness about the impact of Black Friday and the consequences of our current way of producing and consuming electronic devices.

Then, as mentioned above, we had a Repair Café where you could bring your broken electronic devices and clothing to get them fixed and give them a second life! Throughout the afternoon, three interactive presentation sessions were happening, about the problems related to the production of our electrical appliances and how we can work together towards solutions.

More practically, we had a “Documentary speed-date” corner where visitors could watch in pairs a short documentary from a selection that were about the problems related to the ICT chain and the possible alternatives. Also, there was a Workshop to discover the inside of a smartphone. During this workshop you will discover what raw materials and materials are inside a smartphone, what function they have and what their ecological impact is. Last but not least, there was also an old mobile phones collection point that was after taken to a designated recycling center.

Another initiative we launched to raise awareness of the impacts of Black Friday was an alternative online campaign called “Buy nothing day”, that you can find more about it here.

This event is the result of a collaboration between CATAPA vzw, Gents MilieuFront, Netwerk Bewust Verbruiken, Vormingplus Gent-Eeklo, Curieus, Festival van de Gelijkheid and Bibiliotheek De Krook; with the support of Gent Klimaatstad.

How great was the Movement Weekend 2019?

From the 13^th till 15^th of December there was the annual Movement Weekend which took place in Lokeren. We gathered with a lot of Catapistas to learn, brainstorm, be together, have a good time and eat some delicious food.

The weekend started on Friday with a warm welcome and some soup. Afterwards there was an interactive introduction game in which we discussed the different challenges related to the topics that Catapa is addressing. We also followed an interesting presentation about the extraction of Lithium. Lithium is, i.a. used for our batteries of electric cars. We ended the night with a fun game to get to know each other a bit better!

On Saturday we woke up early to kick off a day filled with interesting activities! We started with a group dynamic exercise and followed the working group meetings. Silke and Alberto, presented their research mission in Bolivia, focusing on several mining cooperatives. After a discussion on the results, we did parallel speed date sessions about the internal functioning of our volunteer organization. Here we sat together to give input and discussed solutions about how to improve our organizational, communication and planning skills.

Laura organized a teambuilding activity in which we learned to trust each other (and almost broke a leg). And then there was dinner, with the best falafel we ever ate. After we all overate, we called our GECO’s (Global Engagement Catapa Officers) in Latin Amerika through Skype to learn more about their experiences. And last but not least, Truike gave a kick-off presentation about OpenMinED, an event that will take place in March 2020. Here we invite guest speakers to give more information about mining and the impact of the ICT supply chain. We ended our Saturday night with the unforgettable Fiesta Catapista, in which we got to see some real dance talents!

On Sunday, the last day, Charlotte gave some information about how to make our way of working more efficient. This meant the end of an amazing weekend.

Already looking forward to the next one!