Ethical Corporation reports on:

the news that on December 28, a number of Chinese companies that produce milk, children's clothes and other kid-related items, jointly established the Maternal and Child Brand Enterprise Alliance in Beijing.

This is a non-profit organization formed by domestic companies who produce maternal and child essentials.

They will care about the health of mother and children, guarantee the quality and safety of their products, and take on the issue of social responsibility.

We'll see what they come up with in terms of initiatives.

Business led collaborative organisations in China tend to become organisations that get funding from businesses and do charitable intiatives with that funding. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it is hardly comparable to some of the excellent working groups and collaborative organisations in other countries where companies work together to share best practice, develop common tools and standards, jointly advocate or develop constructive and useful research. I am less interested in the details of their initaitives than what kind of initaitives they come up with. I would prefer to see less philanthropic ones and more collaborative business-improvement ones!