WEBINAR: How to build resilient smallholder supply chains and drive systemic change for rural communities

16 December 2020. Innovation Accelerator: How to build resilient smallholder supply chains and drive systemic change for rural communities. 

This webinar will launch the initial findings of the research which has explored a wide range of supply chains, including cotton, fruit and vegetables, dairy, coffee, soya, palm and maize. As well as bringing together cross-sector experience, the project sought insights from political science and development economics to explore the wider societal dynamics of communities and countries in which supply chains exist. Innovation Accelerator was formed thanks to the support of The Clinton Foundation, COLEACP, CottonConnect, GIZ, Golden Agri-Resources and Nestlé.

A panel of working group members will then explore some of the key issues in more detail, including: 

• How societal norms affect how best to work with smallholder communities 
• Do employees and intermediaries in smallholder supply chains earn a living income and work in safe environments? 
• Is smallholder farming viable in the longer term, or do we need to explore other structures for rural agricultural communities? 
• What prevents host governments from providing coherent policy frameworks for agriculture, and how can we develop effective extension services? 

Speakers:

• Dr Peter Stanbury (project lead),  will lay out the conclusions of the research to date, questions which have emerged, and the practical next steps. 
• Roberto Duarte, advisor, sustainable agricultural supply chains and standards programme, GIZ
• Anita Neville, SVP, group corporate communications, Golden Agri-Resources 
• Ariana Constant, director, Clinton Development Initiative 
• Alison Ward, CEO, Cotton Connect 
• Yann Wyss, senior manager, social impact, Nestlé 

Background:

The SmallholderInnovation Accelerator Collaborating to develop durable smallholder supply chains: an action research project to share lessons and drive better practice

• Since summer 2020, Innovation Forum has been running an action research project – we call it our “innovation accelerator” – to develop actionable lessons which can build durable commodity supply chains based on smallholder farming. 
• This project was established to respond to the fact that, despite almost decades of effort by companies, campaigners, NGOs and others, considerable social and environmental challenges still remain in smallholder-based commodity supply chains. 
• The project brings together six varied organisations to share the lessons they have learned over many years, and also builds on a comprehensive review of various reports, papers and other written information. 
• It also aims to look at commodity value chains in their wider context – at societal and international level. To that end, it brings in perspectives from areas of expertise such as development economics, anthropology and political economy.

Resource:

Innovation Forum (2020) Innovation Accelerator: Building resilient smallholder supply chains. The Clinton Foundation, COLEACP, CottonConnect, GIZ, Golden Agri-Resources and Nestlé.51 pp

This report is intended as the first step in Innovation Forum’s Innovation Accelerator1 (IA) rural and agricultural reform research, designed to share initial lessons between members, and to define a clearer agenda for work in specific geographic locations. The next steps for this project are therefore as follows: 

In four selected geographic areas: 

• Map and examine potential for collaboration between different initiatives working in each location, and for better linkages to work being done by the country government and by international development actors. 
• Analyse in more detail the political economy in each location. It is clear that working through and with local power structures is an important factor in gaining traction with farming communities. Developing a more-shared understanding may allow work to go further and deeper. 
•  Explore the areas of supply chains that seem less understood. In particular, develop more insight into the ‘farm gate to port’ element looking, for example, at conditions for those working in transport and processing. 
• Develop better government engagement and understand where points of access may be available that are currently under-explored. 

The ‘international landscape’ 

• Explore how current supply chain models might be modified over time, to make them more effective in supporting smallholder sustainability. 
• At present there is no coherent process for matching sustainably produced goods with a market for them. What might a ‘sustainable commodities marketplace’ look like and how might it be developed? 

Related: 

07/11/2019 Sustainable cocoa: a manifesto for change

Following a recent article laying out the challenges for sustainable cocoa in the coming years, Dr Peter Stanbury and Tobias Webb suggest a path forward for all concerned. The cocoa sector is facing significant pressures. Questions have been raised about the effectiveness of procurement standards, and West Africa’s largest producing countries are making veiled threats about permitting companies to continue their sustainability programmes because of a perceived reluctance by those companies to pay the governments’ new ‘living income differential’ (LID). The notion of minimum pricing is spreading to other parts of the world too, not least South America and the Caribbean. This article sets out a manifesto to achieve genuine sustainability in the cocoa sector.

Speaking in Accra, Ghana, the World Cocoa Foundation’s Ethan Budiansky and Innovation Forum’s Toby Webb discuss progress in the cocoa sector, particularly through the Cocoa and Forests Initiative in west Africa. The WCF works to achieve more sustainability in cocoa production, both in terms of dealing with climate change impacts and deforestation as well as farm productivity and livelihoods. Budiansky explains how the federation promotes climate-smart cocoa – and why now, finally, the sector as a whole seems to be developing better collaboration than it had perhaps in the past.