GPSNR Working Groups Update: January 2024

It’s been a busy month, to say the least! If you haven’t had the chance to take stock of everything that has happened, here is the update: 

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

After conducting 2 sessions of the Theory of Change (ToC) Workshop last  month, the Strategy and Objectives working group will soon finalise the ToC document and potentially identify new strategies for GPSNR. They are also working on developing a Request for Proposals for the Economic Risk Study. If you are interested in working on this RFP, please let Aidan know (aidan@gpsnr.org)

Smallholder Representation Working Group

After three successful smallholder onboarding workshops for smallholders from Indonesia, India and Cambodia over the last two months, the working group is formally incorporating new smallholders from the three countries as GPSNR members. 28 new smallholders from Indonesia have already been accepted as members. The group will also be conducting onboarding workshops for Sri Lanka, Thailand and Ivory Coast, and is facilitating smallholder EC nominations ahead of the 2021 General Assembly on 14th December.

Policy Toolbox Working Group

As the General Assembly of 2021 comes closer, the group has met numerous times in October to finalize the Reporting Requirements. . 

Capacity Building Working Group

After finalising the agroforestry position paper via the Agroforestry Task Force, the Capacity Building Working Group is busy finalising the Good Agricultural Practices (GAP), a system to monitor impacts of capacity building activities, implementation plans for Ivory Coast and Indonesia as well as developing key deliverables and milestones for the Thailand national sub working group. 

Traceability and Transparency Working Group

This working group is conducting member consultations on the recently developed Traceability Benchmark, and will provide recommendations on the same to the EC based on traceability studies from last year. At the same time, they are developing a TOR for a new working group on risk assessment.

Shared Responsibility Working Group

The group has discussed and explored solutions to identified root causes for each focus area of shared responsibility. It is also continuing to draft activities and a framework for Shared Responsibility for integration into other processes such as the Implementation Guidance, which will include consultations with GPSNR members and WGs to ensure alignment on Shared Responsibility for the platform. 

Strategy 1 – A team led by Liza Murphy with the support of Proforest has been selected to lead the work on the Assurance Models study, which is expected to be finalised in January 2020 for review by the working group before Executive Committee approval, prior to the General Assembly in March. The working group is now fully staffed with members volunteers looking into identifying co-chairs for the group.

Strategy 2 – After the first working group call, the Capacity Building working group will start working on identifying the priority countries and capacity gaps needed, a work expected to be completed in the months of October – November.  Following that, the action plan will be developed and consulted before being submitted to the Executive Committee in March 2020.  

Strategy 3 – Enhancing Transparency and Traceability working group composition is currently being finalized to ensure balance amongst the different categories of ordinary members with the expectation to kick-off the first call in November. 

All three working groups will be reporting directly to the Executive Committee while keeping regular contact with the Strategy & Objectives working Group to ensure the consistency of work. The Strategy & Objectives working group remains active to review the desired state to include the identified impact metrics, finalise the theory of change, and look at the financial model for GPSNR in coordination with the Strategy 1 – Policy Toolbox working group.

All minutes of the working groups will be available in the members section of the GPSNR website www.gpsnr.org