GPSNR Working Groups Update: October 2021

The Member Consultation period for the proposed GPSNR Policy Components and Baseline Reporting Requirements closed on 3 July 2020. All comments received as part of the consultation exercise were discussed by the Policy Toolbox Working Group over several rounds of calls. There has also been healthy dialogue between various membership categories and the Working Group on the alignment of the Policy Components. 

Meanwhile, pilot testing for the Baseline Reporting Requirements is in progress, with 10 GPSNR member volunteers participating in the exercise. The Secretariat will be interviewing each of the volunteers in the coming weeks to gather feedback on their experience in submitting the Baseline Reporting Requirements data. More updates will be shared in due course.

At this stage, finalized versions of the Policy Components and related documents have been submitted by the Policy Toolbox Working Group to the Executive Committee for review and further discussion at the Executive Committee level. The Policy Components will then be brought to the GPSNR General Assembly for voting.

The formulation of Policy Components is a critical piece in fulfilling GPSNR’s vision of a fair, equitable and environmentally sound natural rubber value chain. 

All GPSNR members, at the time of joining the Platform, committed to this very vision, as well as 12 principles of sustainable natural rubber as defined by GPSNR. The Policy Components were developed to provide more specificity to the 12 Sustainable Natural Rubber Principles. Within the proposed Policy Components are key commitment details to no deforestation/ conversion/ degradation, upholding human rights, supply chain transparency and monitoring and reporting. 

If approved, the Policy Components will act as a clear and guiding framework for GPSNR company members to establish or update supply chain commitments through their natural rubber purchasing policies. 

Adopting a policy allows a company to signal that the issues covered by the policy are important to the company, and that resources and capacities will be dedicated to addressing the issues in order to comply with the policy. Policies, while illuminating the goals that a company is working towards, also enables these commitments to be channelled upstream to suppliers and downstream to buyers, with the potential to transform the entire supply chain.

Following the Policy Toolbox Working Group’s observation that common questions and concerns were raised by GPSNR members during the Members Consultation period, the Working Group has developed a supplementary FAQ document to provide detailed responses to address these concerns, in a bid to provide greater clarity on the Policy Components. These will be circulated to the GPSNR membership in August, along with all other proposed resolutions.

What a year! All our working groups successfully overcame the challenges of remote working and time-zone coordination, while moving the needle on sustainability in natural rubber. Here are their updates for December 2021:

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

The group has finalized the Theory of change, which is currently in the process of being designed for public communications. They have also published the Environmental Risk Study, which can be found here.  Currently, the group is working on developing the RFP for the Economic Risk Study, which will be published and worked on in 2022. The group is also working on developing next steps for itself based on the finalized Theory of Change.

Smallholder Representation Working Group

In 2021, the working group onboarded 39 new smallholders at GPSNR. In 2022, they will be focussing on mapping out the possibility of smallholder onboarding workshops in Columbia, Ghana, Liberia and Malaysia, which are countries with a relatively lower representation of smallholders within GPSNR. From January 2022, they will also be busy with developing a Smallholders Policy Framework. 

Policy Toolbox Working Group

The group saw a major milestone in the approval of the reporting requirements at the 2021 General Assembly. In 2022, they will be busy developing guidance for thereporting requirements and a transparency roadmap before the reporting cycle begins in mid-2022. At the same time, the group continues to refine the Implementation Guidance before the General Assembly of 2022. 

Capacity Building Working Group

The group recently hosted a webinar on GPSNR’s Good Agricultural Practices (GAPs) before the 2021 General Assembly, and published two RFPs for the assessment of the Knowledge Sharing Platform and GAP coaching for Indonesia respectively. In the next few months, it will focus on kickstarting the Thailand national sub-working group, advancing agroforestry implementation plans for GPSNR as well continuing to advance capacity building implementation in Indonesia and Ivory Coast. 

Traceability and Transparency Working Group

The Traceability and Transparency working group has requested members’ input on the traceability benchmark and will work on refining it based on the feedback received. You can take a look at the draft benchmark here and give your feedback here before 31st December. 

Shared Responsibility Working Group

The working group has discussed and explored solutions to address the root causes identified for each of the three focus areas of Shared Responsibility. It has also identified a consultant to support the development of a shared responsibility framework. In 2022, the group will draft activities and framework for Shared Responsibility for integration into other processes such as the Implementation Guidance and align with other working groups.