Dr Akilah's Story
Dr Akilah Jardine joined Orbis Procurement in September 2021 as our Senior Policy Lead for Modern Slavery. She came to us from the University of Nottingham’s Rights Lab, where she was a Research Fellow conducting studies on modern slavery and labour exploitation in supply chains. Akilah collaborates with other technical and policy experts in our central Policy Team, the development of which is fundamental to delivering a key objective of our strategy, namely Procuring with Purpose. This compels us to leverage our spend for the greater good, bringing real benefits for residents, be that social value, community wealth, building environmentally sustainable procurement, or the eradication of modern slavery.
During her time in post, Akilah has developed toolkits, guidance, training and processes to take us beyond a mere tick box approach to tackling the risk of Modern Slavery in our supply chains. These approaches are now embedded at the heart of how we drive sustainable and ethical procurement through the delivery of critical services to our residents.
Beyond her work with Orbis Procurement, Akilah makes a wider contribution in the field of modern slavery which benefits the procurement profession and corporate sector. A key achievement includes co-chairing a group of stakeholders to developing BS25700, the world's first national standard on modern slavery designed to support organisations of all types, sizes, and activities in addressing modern slavery risks. Her successful co-chairing of the committee led to her jointly winning the British Standards Institution's (BSI) 2022 Standards Makers Award's Leadership Award which recognises exceptional contribution by a UK Committee Chair. Akilah was also shortlisted for the CIPS Sustainable Procurement Champion 2023 award.
Akilah's journey is a fascinating one and really demonstrates the value in recruiting a diverse workforce that is able to bring a wide range of previous experience to bear in their work for local government. Having the right expertise at our disposal is a critical element of our operating model, and ensures those with the right experience and technical skills are tasked with considering some of the most pressing challenges in local government procurement. They can then work with various stakeholder groups to really embed the approaches required to tackle these issues. Structuring our team in this manner allows us to not only take advantage of the efficiencies and deep technical input that directly results, but also expands the opportunities available at Orbis Procurement. Akilah tells us she was really attracted to the role as it would allow her to work much closer to the proverbial coal face in terms of seeing tangible results from her work, and knowing it directly benefits thousands of residents.
And who wouldn't want to work on a subject matter about which they are passionate, in a role that affects real change?