Corporate Accountability >> Actors >> Civil Society Groups and Oranisations >> Civil Society Groups and Organisations: S

SOMO, Centre for Research on Multinational Corporations

SOMO, a Dutch NGO, is specialised in the following themes: Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR); trade and investment; research on companies and sectors; reform of the international financial system; research for union's and labour-organisations.
SOMO acts as an advisor and consultant for NGOs, trade unions, ethical investment funds and the government in the development of CSR policies. Apart from this advisory work regarding CSR policies and guidelines, SOMO undertakes research into the actual behaviour of MNEs, with particular focus on their activities in developing countries.

SpinWatch

SpinWatch is an independent organisation that was launched in 2004 to monitor and expose corporate and government public relations and propaganda.
The aim is to foster a greater awareness of spin and public relations. There also are campaigns against the manipulations of the PR industry and SpinWatch works to expose spin techniques such as media management, lobbying, corporate social responsibility, front groups, dirty tricks and spying.

Stop Child Labour - School is the best place to work

School is the Best Place to Work' campaign is run by the Alliance 2015 network of development organisations.
Organizations of three European countries participate: Ireland, The Netherlands and Germany.

The campaign calls on the governments of the Netherlands, Ireland and Germany and the European Union:
1) Create a coherent policy on the elimination of child labour linked to the provision of full-time, formal education for all children up to 14 years of age.
2) Ensure that European Union members work together to allocate at least 8% of Overseas Development Aid to formal primary education, including strategies to integrate all out-of school children into the education system.
3) Make provisions in Overseas Development Aid to ensure that girls and young children from vulnarable groups (including those living in absolute poverty) are integrated into the formal school system.

www.schoolisthebestplacetowork.org/


Südwind

Südwind (southern winds) Institute is focusing on research for just economic relations between North and South.
The work includes ethical investment, international debt (relief) and research on code of conducts in the garnment industry. In this respect Südwind cooperates with Kampagne für Saubere Kleidung the German Branch of the Clean Clothes Campaign. (Limited English version of the website.) Contact: wick@suedwind-institut.de

Sustainable Energy and Economy Network

The Sustainable Energy and Economy Network, a project of the Institute for Policy Studies (Washington, DC) and the Transnational Institute (Amsterdam), works in partnership with citizens groups nationally and globally on environment, human rights and development issues with a particular focus on energy, climate change, environmental justice, gender equity, and economic issues, particularly as these play out in North/South relations.
The reliance of rich countries on fossil fuels fosters a climate of insecurity, and a rationale for large military budgets in the North. In the South, it often fosters or nurtures autocratic or dictatorial regimes and corruption, while exacerbating poverty and destroying subsistence cultures and sustainable livelihoods. In many cases, multinational corporations involved in fossil fuel extraction and consumption, headquartered in the North, profit from this vicious cycle. Our research has focused mostly on the public funds derived from international financial institutions and export credit agencies for energy corporations.