The Global Initiative for Industrial Safety (GIFIS) has launched of a first-of-its-kind Manifesto for Global Industrial Safety to pioneer a safer world through technology adoption.

 

Developed in collaboration with the United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), Lloyd’s Register Foundation, the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit (GMIS), and the Cambridge Industrial Innovation Policy (CIIP), the manifesto marks a significant step towards addressing emerging and longstanding safety risks affecting workers across the world, said a Wam news agency report.

 

Advanced technologies, including the Internet of Things, Artificial Intelligence, and Advanced Robotics, are becoming integral to industrial processes, giving rise to intelligent factories and dynamic supply chains.

 

The Manifesto outlines five guiding principles and vital contributions required from industry, government, academia, regulators, and international organisations to accelerate the safe adoption of technology in new industrial processes and to integrate technology-enabled safety solutions in traditional industries.

 

The include:

1. Uphold the human right to safe working conditions: This principle sets out an overarching expectation that the global industrial community should embrace a renewed commitment to deliver a safe and healthy working environment as a fundamental human right, in line with recent international agreements and technological developments. This commitment should ultimately be reflected in future-oriented safety action plans, with practical steps and realistic timelines, including up-to-date safety policies, procedures and processes, to achieve excellent safety in the workplace.

 

Particular attention should be paid to the potential to leverage technology across all phases of the safety continuum: prevention, preparedness, response and recovery. A new global industrial approach is needed whereby safety is recognised as a critical management issue at the highest levels of the organisation, and where it is part of discussions, not just on every factory floor but in every board meeting too.

 

2.Ensure that safety is central to digital decisions: This principle builds on the ambition to place safety at the core of our thinking about developing and deploying technology. In a world where global safety needs are rapidly evolving, this principle ensures that companies and stakeholders take steps to identify and respond to new risks associated with novel technologies and their applications. Particular attention should be paid to new sources of psychosocial risks that could affect the mental wellbeing of workers. To ensure that new risks are internalised, steps need to be taken to consider emerging cyber, physical and psychosocial risks for company policies, procedures and processes – including job instruction sheets and other day-to-day guidelines.

 

3. Exploit new digitally enabled safety solutions: While new technologies present new potential sources of risk to human safety and wellbeing, they can also provide unique solutions. There are already some well-known technology solutions to existing problems – from high-altitude inspection drones to real-time safety-monitoring applications and intelligent personal protective equipment – but these need to be deployed globally to address long-standing safety challenges in many sectors. Industrialists and safety professionals need to “see and touch” these solutions to support their implementation on the ground. Therefore, demonstration and awareness efforts need to be prioritised.

 

4. Share, monitor and promote safety lessons: This principle requires the development of a data-sharing and monitoring culture. The principle builds on UNIDO’s call to share “knowledge, experiences, innovative approaches and technological solutions” to help one another secure industrial safety globally. Organisations should commit to building safety knowledge by sharing not only lessons learned and near misses but also best practice, know-how, data, tools and resources across firms, supply chains, sectors and countries.

 

5. Support safety improvements in developing countries: While the safety challenge is universal, developing countries are disproportionately affected by safety issues and occupational accidents.Many countries still lack a strong legislation framework and the know-how and infrastructure to implement it. A vast number of industrial workers in developing countries are based in informal workplaces. This principle envisages a community of people, associations, companies, countries and stakeholders to join efforts to continuously and systematically support safety efforts in developing countries. Such efforts should focus on strengthening national occupational safety and health (OSH) systems – through collaboration, education, intervention, budgetary support and institutional reforms.

 

Ciyong Zou, Deputy to the Director-General and Managing Director of the Directorate of Technical Cooperation and Sustainable Industrial Development, UNIDO, said: “The GIFIS Manifesto for Global Industrial Safety provides a unified approach to address complex safety challenges, signifying a critical first step toward a safe and more secure industrial future. The industrial sector, governments, academia, regulators, and international organisations are encouraged to act upon industrial safety regulations that are very much needed for transformative and sustainable industrial development.”

 

Namir Hourani, Managing Director of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, said that the Manifesto is a call to action to address longstanding industrial safety challenges through innovative and collaborative efforts, which will catalyse change in industrial standards and best practices across the world, ensuring that industries prioritise the safety and well-being of every single worker.

 

David Reid, Director of Global Advocacy and Partnership Campaigns at Lloyd’s Register Foundation, stated, “Emerging technologies, such as big data, cloud computing, robotics, and 3D printing, are rapidly changing the industrial landscape. While they bring significant opportunities, they also pose new risks to the safety of workers, especially in the developing world. The GIFIS Manifesto serves as a beacon to ensure new technologies are adopted safely across industrial processes.”

 

The Manifesto marks the first major milestone of the GIFIS, launched as a key outcome of the 2021 edition of the Global Manufacturing and Industrialisation Summit, a high-profile event that convenes world leaders to promote Inclusive and Sustainable Industrial Development.