Platform Updates for August

Strategy and Objectives Working Group: Feedback on the Assurance Model resolution has closed, and the finalised resolution has been released along with other voting materials. Public consultation on the documents up for discussion can be found here. Members will vote on the Assurance Model resolution at the Extraordinary General Assembly and are encouraged to participate in the in-person meetings to provide input on the Assurance Model content.

Smallholders Representation and Capacity Building (SCB) Working Group: The SCB Working Group meetings in April provided updates on the Thailand Agroforestry, Thailand GAP, and Indonesia GAP projects. The final workshop for the Income Diversification and Rubber Agroforestry Taskforce in Liberia was completed. Calls for capacity-building project proposals and funding were issued and interested members are welcome to contact cheewei@gpsnr.org.

The SCB WG will continue maintaining oversight of all ongoing projects. The Pre-EGA Smallholder Webinar will run from 8 PM to 10 PM SGT on 30 May 2024. The final report for Indonesia GAP (Phase 1) and the mid-term report for the Digital Knowledge Sharing Platform are in progress and will be distributed by the Secretariat once received. The Digital Knowledge Sharing Platform Task Force will meet with the project partner, Koltiva, for remediation planning and technical review meetings. The Income Diversification and Rubber Agroforestry Taskforce will finalise their reports and prepare for the final presentation.

Shared Responsibility Working Group: The Value Transfer Group has held subsequent meetings to discuss the value transfer proposal. The group continues to meet to refine the proposal, which will be presented at the in-person meetings in June.

The strategy and objectives working group

Both the sub working groups under the umbrella of the Strategy and Objectives WG are occupied with some critical milestones. The Risk Subgroup has received the final draft for the risk assessment framework by ASI, and will be working on piloting the framework and the next steps. The Risk Subgroup would also be looking at guidance on traceability enhancement based on pilot field trials and other data from members, and they have started a series of traceability tools webinar sessions with tool providers and member companies and planning on the second session. The next webinar is on 26th April, and you can register for it here. 

On the other hand, the Assurance Model taskforce is streamlining the category specific KPIs along with the members journey/assurance model blueprint that was finalised during the latest hybrid meetings. You can find more context in the minutes here or reach out for questions on info@gpsnr.org.

The smallholder representation working group: 

Along with the work on the smallholder policy equivalent for which the WG has already sent out an all-member survey and initiating the HCSA-HCVN NR Smallholder Toolkit Field Trials, they are preparing for the decided merger with the capacity building working group. More details on how this will play out can be found here. 

The policy toolbox working group: 

The group is working on a tender to Crosswalk RR framework with CDP Forest and GRI Reporting, while aligning with the Assurance Model taskforce on the KPI on due diligence. 

The smallholders representation & capacity building working group: 

As a newly merged working group, they continue to perform the duties of the two old working groups, including overseeing the on-ground projects in Indonesia and Thailand. At the same time, they are focussing on finalising their new TOR and agroforestry/income diversification strategies. Members who wish to continue in the SCB WG and any National Subgroup or Task Force should write to the Secretariat, indicating their organisation, name, email and the national subgroup or taskforce they are interested in participating in.

The shared responsibility working group: 

As per the decisions taken on the next steps during the hybrid meetings in January-February, the group is working with the Tiremaker category on streamlining a proposal on shared investment while also completing the deliverables on the other pillars. They are also aligning with the Assurance Model taskforce on how the KPIs will integrate into the Shared Investment mechanism. They have completed 40% of the progress they committed to on all three pillars during the in-person meetings so far.