When it comes to production and distribution, soy, beef, and palm oil have some of the biggest chains in the market, covering vast areas. However, what comes with the profits in their business is a huge amount of pollution.
Good Growth Partnership (GGP) is taking the lead for a cleaner and safer Planet by bringing together a wide range of stakeholders and initiatives to reduce deforestation and enable sustainable development in these three global commodity supply chains.
This partnership has been working since 2017 in countries like Brazil, Indonesia, Paraguay, and Liberia. Moreover, it works with the civil society and private companies, so that the commodity supply can be done keeping sustainability in mind.
Growing/rearing and exporting soy, beef, and palm oil is a strong driving force for the rural economies in different countries. With the increase in population and choices of people, the demand for these products has also increased, making them one of the biggest factors of tropical deforestation, leading to loss of habitat of multiple species and increased CO2 levels, destroying the natural state of wilderness. An initiative was needed at this point, to curb the degradation of ecosystems and that’s how GGP was born.
Integrating supply chains
Instead of treating production, demand and investment interventions as separate tracks, the Partnership looks at where the layers of the supply chain integrate and overlap to enhance financial incentives and demand for sustainably produced agricultural commodities.
Good Growth Partnership aims at systematic reforms by working with the government to encourage clear land policies, nationally coordinated farmer support services, sharing knowledge of supply chain, and provision of economic incentives to the farmers. They also work for raising awareness and increasing demand for reduced deforestation commodities, which brings about a greener change in the lives of consumers as well as producers.
The FOLUR
Recently, the Good Growth Partnership joined the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program.
The World Bank (WB), leader of the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program Global Platform, has appointed the Good Growth Partnership to bring its assets, experience and network to support the work of the new Platform.
FOLUR is a US$ 345 million initiative supported by the Global Environment Facility (GEF) that seeks to transform the global food system by promoting sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient commodity value chains. The Impact Program consists of a Global Platform providing support services to 27 Country Projects targeting the production landscapes of eight commodities: beef, cocoa, corn, coffee, palm oil, rice, soy, and wheat.
The FOLUR Global Platform is organised around 3 Pillars of activity. GGP participates in all 3 in close coordination with the other Global Platform core partners alongside the WB: Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), the Food and Land Use (FOLU) coalition and the Global Landscape Forum (GLF).
In Pillar A – Program Capacity Strengthening – GGP will contribute to the training agenda by conducting a Training Needs Assessment (with FAO), which will help tailor its capacity strengthening offer to Country Project teams and stakeholders, including in relation to effective Multistakeholder Collaboration, Private Sector Engagement, farmer support systems strengthening, and Gender Equality and Empowerment of Women. GGP’s existing learning community, the Green Commodities Community, will expand to include Country Projects and the Global Platform with up to 60 virtual learning events scheduled.
In Pillar B – Policy and Value Chain Engagement – GGP’s expertise in private sector and finance sector advocacy and engagement will be to the fore. Training on sustainable sourcing operational guidance based on the Accountability Framework will be provided for companies wishing to raise their game. And, working in consultation with other Global Platform core partners, GGP will encourage the adoption of responsible investment practices in domestic banks, central banks, investors and trade finance specialists.
In Pillar C – Strategic Knowledge Management and Communications – UNDP’s collaborative digital learning platform will expand to cover FOLUR subjects, ISEAL’s Evidensia platform (a GGP Partner) will service the research and knowledge base needs of FOLUR stakeholders, and new knowledge products and case studies will be originated from Country Projects covering a range of innovations and success stories.
GGP Global Project Manager Pascale Bonzom said, “By using GGP’s four years of experience, we can hit the ground running with the FOLUR Global Platform. We bring our already developed partnerships, commodity value chain engagements, community of practice, and tools and knowledge products to this new work. We’re delighted to be taking everything we’ve learned in the first phase of GGP to the wider FOLUR community.”
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