Natural Rubber Supply Chain comes together to build unique sustainability assurance benchmark

Here are all their updates from the last month:

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

For the strategy and objectives working group, the development of the assurance model will be on priority for the next few months. To this end, they have finalised the draft terms of reference for an Assurance Model taskforce, which will be presented to the Executive Committee in their next meeting. Once approved, recruitment will begin extensively. The risk subgroup is also finalizing a document to be shared with the Executive Committee for their feedback.

Smallholder Representation Working Group

The group has submitted a resolution ahead of the July 22 General Assembly to restructure smallholder membership within GPSNR to enhance active participation. You can take a look at it in the GA Booklet here. In the next few months, they will begin planning smallholder workshops in Malaysia while also working on the smallholder policy equivalent. In case you missed it, they have also published an RFP recently to pilot agroforestry workshops for smallholders. Find it here. Preparations for a workshop for smallholders in Malaysia have also begun, which would be held in Q3 of 2022.

Policy Toolbox Working Group

In the last month, the group has finalised two major resolutions presented to the July General Assembly – one on the implementation guidance and the other on the disclosure requirements for year one reporting. Take a look here. Additionally, they have also finalised the guidance and templates for reporting for manufacturers and end users. If you are an end user or manufacturer who has not yet received the guidance and/or the templates, please write to the secretariat at info@gpsnr.org. 

For the next couple of months, the working group will be busy with finalising the operational guidance for the compliance panel and will continue conversations on the transparent reporting roadmap for years 2 and 3.

Capacity Building Working Group

After the kick-off of the GAPs coaching project in Indonesia with SNV and Koltiva, the group is  busy in the development of GPSNR’s knowledge sharing platform, which includes smallholder interviews, compiling and assessing responses of member surveys and holding focus group discussions. At the same time, they are working on advancing Capacity Building plans for Indonesia, Thailand and Côte d’Ivoire. 

They have also published two key RFPs for capacity building projects in Indonesia: one on disease fighting and the other on the provision of certified planting materials.

Shared Responsibility Working Group

The Shared Responsibility working group has prepared the Shared Responsibility framework resolution ahead of the GA, which you can read here. 

Since its establishment a few months ago, the Smallholders Representation Working Group has been working consistently and collectively to accomplish its mission. The group has been actively involved in understanding, strategizing and testing the methods by which the platform can ensure adequate and relevant smallholder inclusion. 

In its work to date, the group has selected 11 Working Group members as “Country Champions” who have extensive regional knowledge regarding the rubber supply chain. These members have been in charge of conducting interviews of various smallholder associations and organizations in their assigned country or region. The Working Group also refers to these “Country Champions” as “GPSNR Ambassadors” because of the role they play in creating awareness about the platform. In the past few months, they have helped promote the platform internationally, specifically in Natural Rubber producing countries, by interacting with several organizations, companies and government authorities in different regions of the world. This in turn has helped create curiosity and interest regarding the platform with local stakeholders and in the international rubber community.  

To further this process, the Working Group is currently planning on organizing a series of workshops in various rubber producing regions of the world, including Indonesia, Thailand and Vietnam in Asia Pacific, Brazil in Latin America and Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Liberia in Africa. The objective of these workshops will be to understand the local needs and motivations of smallholders and onboard organizations representing  smallholders to join the platform. The Working Group agreed these workshops will be a chance to facilitate an open and constructive discussion between the participants, including smallholders, smallholder representatives and other rubber stakeholders. By organizing multiple workshops in different regions of the world, the Working Group is trying to ensure appropriate coverage of the vast and diverse global natural rubber supply chain.  

Through these workshops and the onboarding work done by the Country Champions, the group will be able to identify relevant smallholder representatives, in view of onboarding them as GPSNR members, to ensure smallholders representation in the GPSNR governance is achieved by the next General Assembly in March 2020.

It has been encouraging to see volunteer members of the Working Group actively participate and contribute to fulfill the tasks and responsibilities assigned to the team. Going forward, the Working Group Co-chair expects more involvement of the members as the group implements its developed action plan of organizing regular events like the regional workshops aimed at the betterment of Rubber Smallholders.