Lots of businesses are already doing great things alongside us at the Fairtrade Foundation – and even going above and beyond sourcing on Fairtrade terms to support farmers. The ‘Fairtrade Alliance for Climate-Smart Supply chains in Africa’ (FACSCA) programme, for example, has seen Co-op partner with Fairtrade Africa to support producers to maintain resilience in the face of climate change and to protect their local environment. FACSCA targets 16,000 farmers and workers across twelve different Fairtrade producer groups in Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. The programme encourages farmers and workers to diversify revenue and reduce dependency on core products which are currently highly vulnerable to climate change. The wider community will also be supported to reduce the amount of fuel used in their households by investing in lower-emitting bio-gas cookers. Read more about FACSCA here: This COP26 it’s time to listen to farmers and workers - Business Fights Poverty.
Both examples highlight the values from Q1 - bringing together complementary expertise and understanding to blockers and pain points to solve for the challenges that individuals are facing.
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UK high street bakery, Greggs, is another brilliant example of a business that offers real value to consumers while still making sure they source more ethically and responsibly. Greggs sources all its coffee as Fairtrade and has other Fairtrade commitments on its apple juice, orange juice, sugar sticks and hot chocolate, to name just a few. Take a look at this case study to see why Greggs works with Fairtrade: Greggs case study: building back better with new Fairtrade commitments
many thanks for sharing this link
I will highlight one other partnership, around gender that Oxfam Great Britain has advanced: work with Tesco to equip its suppliers with tools to address gender. Oxfam Business Advisory Service worked with the UK retailer Tesco to develop a practical toolkit for their Tier One suppliers to increase the representation of women in management and supervisory positions at the stages of recruitment, retention and progression, including tips on addressing the barriers that women may face such as GBV, unpaid care work and stereotypes about certain roles being for men or for women. We are now providing additional support to help suppliers put the actions into practice, delivering content on key themes that suppliers have asked for more help with and providing direct support to selected suppliers.
Agree Ed, so much value from knowledge and skills that sit within the private sector. It is not just about access to finance, almost more important is access to networks and mentoring
I have mentioned the Resilience Fund, because it is one of the most innovative things I have ever been involved in. It’s a lot about companies letting go of control and listening to stakeholders on the ground. But also engaging in real dialogue with feminist fund leaders – learning from each others very different perspectives. Here’s a link for those interested… I’ve linked to a short video: VIDEO: Identity — The Resilience Fund
But so many others:
• Swasti/CMS in India has a cluster model where social and health services are provided in industrial zones and multiple brands and manufacturers support it. Our research on this found that this collective action approach was cost effective but more importantly enabled workers to get government benefits they were entitled to but had difficulty reaching due to bureaucracy…
• RISE is an interesting model of organizations and businesses coming together to create join curriculum and have industry wide impact. (RISE include BSR’s HERproject, Gap’s Pace program, Better Work and Care).
• UNFPA has put together a Coalition for Reproductive Justice in Business, and developed indicators for business that can be part of reporting and due diligence.
• Share Hope in Haiti – working in very difficult situations partnering with apparel brands to improve health service in factories and training workers in health and resilience….
There is so much out there. For me, the issue is business not duplicating approaches that already work or exist. Or wanting to brand their efforts.
I would only add one thing. So many people like to highlight making sure there’s alignment and trust etc. Those are all fine things – and useful. But I’ve found partnerships all require some leap of faith. Trust is built through action – it emerges for good faith efforts by all. Communication, yes, but people doing what they say or making clear when things go south. As most issues are complex, most important is that partners are flexible and recognize that the initial plans will change as reality meets intention.
Response to Question 2:
This example is from the clean cooking sector; I recently completed a learning project for the Clean Cooking Alliance, where I had the opportunity to engage with and learn from companies in their Venture Catalyst Program. One example of many that fit here is how Biolite, a clean cookstove manufacturer, partnered with Baobab+, a social enterprise with many functions such as microfinance and last mile distribution, to distribute BioLite cookstoves in West Africa – which is incredibly different from East Africa’s context to sell cookstoves. You can learn more about this and many other examples of impactful partnerships on this webinar. What I’d like to highlight is the division of roles and responsibilities to ensure a successful, sustainable and long-lasting relationship between these two companies. That being said, partnerships also come with complex challenges such as who shares the carbon financing, who is responsible for impact measurement, how to ensure no stockouts, how to identify the best sales channels - all of which requires close collaboration and truly understanding the needs of your stakeholders (here, the customers and distributors on the ground).
Qu 2 For this project we are really interested in partnerships that are related to a businesses core operations. I’ve been starting to try and think about these in 3 buckets
Firstly - initiatives that have become self financing ‘BOP’ businesses (eg Solar Sisters, Kiva, M-Pesa, Grameen Bank, One Acre). How did and do partners help these entities into being…
Secondly - initiatives that have been donor or multilateral led but seek to crowd in investors or businesses (IDRCs programme to link investors to care economy entrepreneurs, or IFCs effort to support renewable energy providers in Africa ‘Energy 2Equal, Or the ‘grand challenges’ like the Global Financing Facility or GAVI - the vaccines initiative)
Thirdly - MNC partnerships that seek to address supply chain or equity of access to their products and services. So eg Primark and Cotton Connect’s work with cotton farmers, or Mars and CARE’s work in the cocoa sector in west africa; or GSK’s work to improve global health outcomes working with Amref and Save.
What other ways might you try to categorise these sorts of business partnerships to address climate, poverty and inequity?
PATH is known for it’s partnerships and has come up with many platforms where core businesses and entrepreneurs can address global challenges. For eg, SACH (Sustainable Action for Climate and Health) is a collaborative effort to promote climate and health resilience, an initiative of the Centre for Health Research and Innovation (CHRI - PATH), is supported by USAID India. It aims to identify effective climate health solutions, facilitate private sector investments, and support local governments and community organizations in integrating adaptation and mitigation measures to address impacts of climate change on health in cities. The initiative is dedicated to addressing the vital climate and health nexus through on-ground, city level local solutions considering gender and social inclusion. Similarly, we have supported multiple platforms to help strengthen health systems, align supply chains and build networks for cross-learning especially for the global south. You can access the page here - LinkedIn Login, Sign in | LinkedIn
Love this! This great example of collective equity and re-centring value creation at commodity source
One business partnership example I’ll highlight has addressed commercial viability of smallholder farmers by strengthening their access to input resources in the system in which they operate. Feed the Future Ethiopia Alliance to Accelerate Agricultural Growth is a public-private partnership managed by ACDI/VOCA in coordination with USAID, Hello Tractor, John Deere, and Corteva. Over three years, this partnership coalition assessed producer demand and willingness to pay for mechanization and improved seed, resulting in improved productivity for smallholder farmers as well as new demonstration and distribution models and an expanded customer base for business partners.
Agree – it is more than just money… Although I would add expertise, structures and process that are major benefits.
I’d like to highlight another partnership approach that is more about the small entrepreneur, particularly farmers, and how we can leverage business ideals to help them diversify their incomes but also tackle complex issues like climate change at the same time.
In Ghana, MEDA’s GROW2 project collaborated with Carboneers and Beyond Karbon (formerly Eroceht), a certified carbon credit organization for West Africa based in Ghana. The partnership successfully raised awareness among 275 Savings and Loan Groups (SLGs) comprised solely of women about the production and utilization of biochar – a carbon-rich material produced through the thermal decomposition of organic biomass – that can be sold as an energy source to generate income. Through the partnership, MEDA is addressing climate change and poverty and, at the same time, promoting sustainable agricultural production and waste management. The produced biochar has generated carbon credits which amount to over US$50,000 (equivalent to $5 per bag), which were disbursed to the SLGs that represent approximately 7,000 women smallholder farmers. See The Biochar Opportunity: Enhancing Soil Fertility, Mitigating Climate Change, and Increasing Incomes for Women in Farming - MEDA
great Katie thank you very much
One other area I am very interested in, is the space that is created by a company or corporate platform commitment around areas such as climate change, inequality, human rights and gender, for implementation of such global commitments on the ground in the Global South, and the role of partners in the Global South in not only developing approaches to implement commitments, for example in agricultural supply chains, but in defining such global commitments from the start.
Its important to have an inclusive approach and our initiatives stand as a testament to bridging the gender gap, diversifying income sources to address poverty and combating climate change impact. These efforts aim to create a sustainable and efficient cotton production ecosystem, uplifting livelihoods and enabling greater opportunities in education and health for women and their families.
I think one challenge is in scaling or replicating the successes in different countries or sectors. How can we better ensure the sustainability of these various initiatives? How can we create dynamic, yet lasting partnerships?
The Poverty Stoplight (also known as PS or Stoplight) is a tool and methodology developed to measure and address multidimensional poverty at the household level. Businesses often partake in this program with their employees. The Poverty Stoplight methodology begins with a self-assessment survey given to all employees and communities. Throughout this survey, employees identify their levels of poverty/wellbeing within a series of indicators (or, questions) using stoplight colors; red represents a situation of extreme poverty, yellow represents poverty, and green stands for an ideal situation.
After employees take the self-diagnostic survey, the implementing business is able to see the aggregated data to build informed partnerships and alliances that address their reported situations. An example of this is the Paraguayan agrochemical company “Dekalpar.” They realized, throughout the Poverty Stoplight survey, that most of their female employees were not up to date on their required annual exams. Given this situation, they allied with a local health center and chose a date for all those who are interested in getting their check-ups. An employee reported that this partnership saved her life, since after her exam a cancerogenous mass was found. This mass was easily removed because it was found in a timely manner.
While businesses can aid their employees in reaching the optimal situation, an advantage the Poverty Stoplight has is that it has actionable indicators; participants can work to get to an ideal situation. After the survey is finished, employees can select indicators they would like to work on for the rest of the year and answer the following questions: “Why don’t I have it”, “How can I achieve this” “When will I achieve this.” This creates a commitment within employees to improve their situation while simultaneously gives information to businesses to support them in this process.
This is one example of how the Poverty Stoplight’s “Business Stoplight Network” works. This is a network of businesses that can work together to help each other improve their employees’ situations through strategic alliances and partnerships. Across this network, one can find businesses from different areas that can be mutually beneficial (for example, an optical shop can join with another business to help their employees afford glasses in exchange for other services).
Any organization that can work with a certain population can use the Poverty Stoplight and adapt their indicators to the people’s needs. Indigenous communities, business employees, farmers, and an additional great variety of people have taken the Stoplight and given data on how they could better their lives by gaining empowerment and aspiring to improve. The Poverty Stoplight overall helps businesses and NGOs make strategic partnerships and alliances based on what the participants report they need. By increasing the amount of people involved, there is more information on what they find are their strengths and weaknesses.
Thankfully, these indicators are adaptable and go through an adaptation process, therefore this tool and methodology is currently being used globally (59 countries). Victoria Peroni & Fernando Stumpfs