GPSNR Policy Components: Demonstrating a Commitment to Sustainable Natural Rubber

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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.

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News

GPSNR Working Groups Update: August 2021

It’s been a month of progress! Here are the updates from each working group:

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

While the working group did not meet this month, they are focussed on finalising the Theory of Change and organising a workshop for the same in September. The group will also continue to work on refining the platform’s external partnerships approval process. 

Smallholder Representation Working Group

After a successful onboarding workshop for Indonesian smallholders, the group is welcoming new smallholder members at GPSNR. They are also planning  similar workshops for smallholders in Srilanka and Cambodia in September. Workshops in India, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana are also being kept in view and will be scheduled as soon as the COVID-19 situation allows.

At the same time, the smallholders will meet to discuss GPSNR’s agroforestry position next month (in tandem with the Capacity Building Working Group). 

Policy Toolbox Working Group

This working group has received draft documents from consultants on three significant aspects of the GPSNR assurance model: the Implementation Guidance, the Reporting Requirements and the Compliance Panel Guidance. 

They are currently focussed on finalising the reporting requirements. For this, they need members to send in their feedback by 30th August. If you haven’t yet done so, please take a look at the form here. This will make it possible for us to vote on the Reporting Requirements by the General Assembly in December 2021. 

The group is also busy revising and finalising the Implementation Guidance, which will be voted on at the General Assembly in early 2021. 

Capacity Building Working Group

The group has completed an initial review of documents on agroforestry, and will now initiate a task force to develop a position on agroforestry. If you are interested in being part of the task force, please contact Aidan and Si Yuan at aidan@gpsnr.org and yeo.siyuan@gpsnr.org respectively. 

They are also starting a national capacity building subgroup in Thailand after Michelin pledged funding for key projects in the country. Should you be interested in joining this subgroup, you can also write to Aidan and Si Yuan! 

Traceability and Transparency Working Group

This working group is currently finalising the definition and acceptable levels of traceability for GPSNR and developing data collection and reporting standards together with the Policy Toolbox working group.

Shared Responsibility Working Group

As a step forward on the discussion about the long term financial model, the group has discussed the preliminary concept of a rubber trust fund. It is now seeking inputs to refine and further develop the foundations of thel model.

Access GPSNR Working Group August Slides here

GPSNR Staff August 25, 2021
Members

GPSNR Company Self Assessment Form: Aligning Your Company’s Policy with the GPSNR Policy Framework

The Policy Framework was approved and adopted via a membership vote at the 2nd GPSNR General Assembly on 23 September. As part of the resolution, companies were given 6 months to align their public policies to include all the components of GPSNR’s Policy Framework, with the possibility of two extensions if evidence of progress is shown. Based on this timeline, companies will have until 23 March 2021 to submit their public policies for evaluation by GPSNR’s Compliance Panel. Full instructions on how companies should submit their public policies and other public documents will be provided in early 2021. 

The Self Assessment Form is a tool designed to help companies evaluate and track the degree of alignment between their public policies and other public documents and GPSNR’s Policy Framework. Conducting a self-assessment using this form does not constitute GPSNR approval of a company’s policies, and companies should avoid making public claims about approval of the policies before final assessment by GPSNR. Compliance with this requirement can only be confirmed by the GPSNR Compliance Panel and this will only be possible after member companies submit to GPSNR their policies or other public documents that reflect conformance with GPSNR’s Policy Framework in March 2021.

A summary timeline of the company policy approval process is depicted below:

Compliance Panel

In early 2021, the Policy Toolbox and Implementation Guidance Working Group will share the terms of reference for the three members of the Compliance Panel. GPSNR members will then be invited to nominate individuals to serve on the Compliance Panel. An Extra-ordinary General Assembly will be called in February 2021 for GPSNR members to vote on the candidates and three candidates will be voted to form the Compliance Panel. The panel will then assess the policies submitted by GPSNR member companies and determine if they are in compliance with GPSNR’s Policy Framework. More details on this will be shared with members once they are available.

Click here to download the GPSNR Company Self Assessment Form

GPSNR Staff December 30, 2020
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