Month: November 2019

About BCSD Singapore Ltd

Since its inception, GPSNR was in the need of a host and BCSD Singapore Ltd. was chosen because its mission is very much aligned with that of GPSNR. From October 2018, BCSD Singapore Ltd. acted as the legal entity under which GPSNR operations were conducted. This role was formalised with the approval of GPSNR’s Statutes in March 2019. The services provided to GPSRN were about all administrative aspects of the platform which include but not limited to invoicing, accounting, procurement, and HR services. 

About WBCSD Asia Pacific Ltd

WBCSD Asia Pacific Ltd. has been established as a non-profit legal entity in Singapore in January 2019. This entity is an affiliate of WBCSD and its purpose is to support more effectively global WBCSD Members and projects in the region. With a regional office in Singapore, WBCSD is in a better position to understand regional and national specificities, business priorities and practices, political and regulatory landscape and learn from cultural diversity and perspectives of local communities.

What will change ? 

• This transition will not result in any changes of the day to day activities of GPSNR. 
• The organizational and governance structure of the platform remains the same as decided in the last General Assembly.  
• Future incoming and recurring GPSNR membership would be invoiced through WBCSD Asia Pacific Ltd (instead of BCSD Singapore Ltd) as of 1st December, 2019.
• WBCSD Asia Pacific Ltd would act as the legal entity and host for the Global Platform for Sustainable Natural Rubber (GPSNR) as of 1st December, 2019 until the platform decides to change hosting or create its own legal entity.

If you have any questions on the transition, please contact GPSNR Director, Stefano Savi (stefano.savi@gpsnr.org). 

With the input from the workshop in Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil (and soon Cote d’Ivoire and Vietnam), the smallholders representation working group is finalizing the definition of ‘smallholders’ which will be needed to open up a new category of membership. Recognizing the experience and effort that IRSG/SNRi had already invested in this work, Smallholders Representation Working Group invited IRSG to discuss the definition of ‘smallholders’.  

While many countries have their own definition of ‘smallholders’ based on the size of their land, the Smallholders representation Working Group agreed other characteristics of smallholders (such as income provenance, level of dependency on family labour, economic constraints, etc) should also be considered. 

As the definition of ‘smallholders’ are affiliated to the work scope Strategy 2 – Capacity Building Working Group, the Smallholders Representation Working Group members are working closely with Strategy 2 – Capacity Building Working Group members to ensure that there is alignment in definition between smallholders in the natural rubber supply chain and smallholders that will become GPSNR member.

In the meantime, a successful third workshop in Brazil concluded this week, with a series of learnings for GPSNR on the organisation of farmers in the region, and their expectations from the future collaboration with the Platform. The workshop also achieved good progress on the identification of potential candidates for membership in GPSNR, both by single farmers and producers associations.

Desired state V1-0 and Theory of Change documents were circulated among Strategy & Objectives Working Group in November. Comments from the members were consolidated and will be responded to in the next version.  Theory of Change will be finalized and submitted to the Executive Committee in order to be approved at the General Assembly in March 2020.

Strategy 1 ‘Policy Toolbox’ Working Group primarily agreed on the scope of work. The desired state V1-0 serves as a baseline document which will be cross referenced with Accountability Framework initiative in order to come up with policy framework that will be applicable to GPSNR members.  The drafters volunteers will present the first draft of a policy framework to the working group members in December 2019.

Strategy 2 ‘Capacity Building’ Working Group members worked on defining priority geographical areas based on current production volume and emerging trend of natural rubber production.  The existing stakeholders and capacity building activities in those countries are being identified in order to design the plan for GPSNR on capacity building.

Strategy 3 ‘Traceability and Transparency’ Working Group members were requested to list down traceability tools that are currently in use and/or traceability tools that could be potentially used for natural rubber supply chain.  In December they will analyze the attributes of each tool to see the compatibility and applicability for transparency and risk assessment.

All the 3 working groups including Strategy & Objectives and Smallholders Representation Working Group members are given access to GPSNR discussion forum which aims to increase transparency and synergy among the working groups. You will be able to see the discussions and the documents of all the working groups but will be able to contribute only to the groups you signed up for.  Please contact nigel@gpsnr.org for your log-in credentials.