GPSNR Working Groups Update: January 2024

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Strategy and Objectives Working Group: ASI finished the initial draft of the Assurance Model proposal and presented it to Working Group (WG) members in December for their feedback. To gather more specific insights, feedback calls were arranged with various categories. Based on the feedback received, ASI plans to revise the draft and present it for further discussion at the February in-person meetings.

Smallholders Representation and Capacity Building (SCB) Working Group: Smallholder representatives attended the 5th Sustainable Rubber Plantation and International Conference in Buriram, Thailand, from December 13-15, 2023, to discuss sustainable practices. A consultation on the assurance model was held on January 25, 2024. Both SNV-Proforest’s Indonesia GAP and SNV-IRRI’s Disease Fighting project concluded in December 2023, with final reports submitted. Koltiva’s Indonesia GAP project, extended until September 2024, received additional funding from Goodyear. 

The Thailand agroforestry project signed a supplemental agreement for more projects. Southland and Sri Trang joined the Thailand GAP project as processors, with training material under review. 

The Digital Knowledge Sharing Platform (KSP) task force completed its user acceptance test, releasing the Rubber Wiki app on the Google Play Store. Koltiva was awarded the third phase of KSP for content development with the task force’s content development phase kicking off on January 25, 2024.

Continental pledged funds for capacity-building in Cote d’Ivoire. The Cote d’Ivoire subgroup will discuss new Continental-funded projects.

Two SCB WG meetings were scheduled on December 26 and 31 for final presentations and updates on various projects, including endorsements. The Thailand Agroforestry project plans training for late January 2024, and the Thailand GAP project aims to start training in late January or February 2024. The Income Diversification and Rubber Agroforestry task force is planning its third agroforestry workshop in Liberia from May 22-24, 2024.

Shared Responsibility Working Group: The Working Group is initiating initial steps to explore ways to develop a value transfer mechanism in GPSNR. The Secretariat has discussed possible paths with the co-chair, who will present these plans to the EC in the near future.

Executive Committee: The EC convened for an in-person strategy planning session in Paris, where they identified and outlined key strategic priorities in a Gantt chart. he Secretariat, along with members and WGs, will collaborate to implement these strategic priorities set forth by the EC.

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GPSNR Working Groups Update: December 2020

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

The Working Group has received several bids in response to the Request for Proposal (RFP) for a study on environmental impacts, and risks, in the natural rubber value chain that was published in November. The Working Group has shortlisted three candidates and, as part of the evaluation process, will be conducting with these candidates in January 2021 before awarding the bid to the successful candidate. 

The Working Group is also starting on the Theory of Change document update, an exercise which will involve all other Working Groups. This will take place in January 2021. The Equity sub-Group is preparing summary documents for the living income studies and is planning to present the studies to GPSNR members in early 2021.

‘Policy Toolbox’ Working Group

The Working Group has finalized the Baseline Reporting Requirements and these will go to the Executive Committee for review. The Working Group is also developing a Request for Proposal for a consultant to work on the implementation guidance and reporting requirements.

‘Capacity Building’ Working Group

Since the last update, the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP) Task Force has had their first kickoff call and is beginning the work to identify and/or refine guiding principles for GAPs appropriate for the sustainable production of natural rubber.

The Working Group is also engaging the Executive Committee on their comments regarding the proposed capacity building strategies for four focus countries.

‘Traceability and Transparency’ Working Group

In early December, the Working Group onboarded smallholders from Indonesia and Côte d’Ivoire into the group, with the smallholders participating in their first meeting on 10 December. 

Aside from reviewing the Working Group’s Terms of Reference (ToR) and its objectives moving forward, the Working Group will also be starting to develop recommendations for members on traceability and transparency tools in early 2021.

Smallholder Representation Working Group

The revised ToR for the Working Group is undergoing a final review, following which it will be sent to the Executive Committee for approval. 

The Working Group has also formalised a document that defines the role and key tasks of a Country Champion. So far, Country Champions have been actively involved in organizing and arranging national calls, supporting smallholder engagement, and providing technical and linguistic assistance.   

As part of the Working Group’s revamp, it will be undergoing a membership refresh. Part of this will also involve smallholders being onboarded into the Working Group in 2021.  The Working Group is also looking into onboarding smallholders from Cambodia. Any GPSNR members who have operations in Cambodia or partners working in Cambodia who can help to identify potential smallholders for an onboarding workshop are welcome to reach out to the Working Group’s Co-Chairs, Ulrich Antoni and Julian Oram.

GPSNR Staff December 30, 2020

RubberWay Contributes to Achieving GPSNR Goals

By Nicole Tan, Project Manager, RubberWay

A couple of months ago, RubberWay was proud to introduce its contributions to sustainable natural rubber to members of GPSNR. 

Data obtained through RubberWay contributes to helping users meet the GPSNR Reporting Requirements. A crosswalk analysis done by the RubberWay team showed that it provides 89% coverage of the 37 GPSNR Policy Components, of which 18 Policy Components are directly satisfied by RubberWay while 15 are partially contributed to.

 

RubberWay meets 33 out of 37 GPSNR Policy Components through direct and indirect contributions.

 

The webinar hosted by GPSNR gave RubberWay the chance to provide an overview of its solution from the perspective of both tire makers and processors. 

The sharing by tire makers highlighted the motivations for their participation in RubberWay and the ways in which RubberWay’s results have enabled them to engage in efforts on the ground. 

Similarly, natural rubber processors are able to apply data from RubberWay to implement field actions while also using the tool as a channel to facilitate communication directly with smallholders.

 

Users are able to utilise data generated through RubberWay to inform risk mitigation measures. RubberWay also provides its users with a channel for supplier engagement. 

 

More detailed information on how RubberWay contributes to achieving GPSNR’s goals for sustainable natural rubber can be found in the RubberWay white paper. Access to the complete crosswalk analysis is also available upon request.

ABOUT RUBBERWAY

RubberWay is a digital risk mapping solution that helps upstream actors to detect environmental and social risks across the natural rubber supply chain. Risk data obtained through RubberWay generates actionable insights for users like tire makers and processors to drive change towards sustainability within the industry. 

With over 50,000 questionnaires completed to date, the RubberWay dataset is set to increase with growing participation of users, enabling expansive reporting of sustainability risks across sourcing countries globally. 

Find out more about RubberWay here. 

GPSNR Secretariat June 13, 2022

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POLICY FRAMEWORK
REPORTING REQUIREMENTS