Preparing Smallholders for their Role in GPSNR

Start here for a full update on the working groups since the July 2022 General Assembly!

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

The Executive Committee (EC) approved the creation of the Assurance Model Task Force, which will look into finalizing GPSNR’s Assurance Model design by the end of this year. Members interested to join the Task Force should look out for a call-for-participation that should be sent out soon. The Risk subgroup also received feedback from the EC on its plans and will discuss the feedback while continuing to refine GPSNR’s risk-based approach.

Smallholder Representation Working Group

In July 2022, the Smallholders WG began discussions on the following developments: Smallholders Policy-equivalent Framework with HCVN; ‘Intro to Agroforestry’ pilot workshops with CIRAD and Dr Maria Wang; and HCSA Toolkit field trials with HCSA. Preparations are also being made for an onboarding workshop for smallholders in Malaysia to be held in the first week of August!

Policy Toolbox Working Group

On updates for the Policy Toolbox Working Group, the Implementation Guidance was approved by the General Assembly and the latest version of the guidance is available here. The guidance will continue to be updated regularly, starting with updates for section 7.1 and 7.2 for all categories. The Reporting Requirements process has also started and the Secretariat is processing the responses from the PPT category.

Capacity Building Working Group

The Capacity Building WG is currently reviewing proposals for the Comprehensive Disease Fighting Approach in Indonesia, and will formalize a decision in August 2022. Projects in Indonesia, Thailand and Cote d’Ivoire are also being advanced, with concrete developments expected to be shared in August. 

Shared Responsibility Working Group

The working group is putting forward the plans to implement the shared responsibility framework, which was recently approved by the General Assembly. 

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.