The VOICE Network’s Cocoa Barometer links widespread poverty to the challenges facing cocoa farming communities. IDH’s new free Living Wage Action Guide helps companies find the best pathway to interventions for their circumstances.
Unless companies pay farmers significantly more for their cocoa beans, the environmental and social problems that pervade the global cocoa supply chain will persist, according to a major cocoa sustainability report released earlier this month. I will.
Families in cocoa communities face many challenges, including forced labor and child labor. gender inequality; (children) malnutrition; lack of access to education; inadequate health facilities and sanitation; Environmental issues such as deforestation and climate change remain a growing concern.
of voice networkof cocoa barometer I have found that peasant poverty is the underlying driving force behind all these problems. Current approaches to addressing this issue fail because they do not consider important issues. Commodity prices are still too low (and rising prices present an unsustainable set of challenges for farmers). The dynamics of colonial cocoa supply chains, with enormous wealth drawn from cocoa-producing regions, continue to influence corporate and political attitudes to the issue.
As Anthony Fountainsaid the director of the VOICE network
Reuters: “New data shows that you can’t have sustainable cocoa without raising prices for farmers. It just doesn’t work.”
VOICE Network says action is needed in three areas to realize a livelihood income for cocoa farmers:
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Good governance policies by public authorities.
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Good purchasing practices by the private sector.
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Good agricultural practices by farmers.
However, over the past two decades, almost all of the cocoa sector’s efforts have been directed at farmers themselves, and the necessary changes in government policies and purchasing practices needed to tackle systemic sustainability issues such as poverty are few and far between. been ignored.
Immediately after the release of Cocoa Barometer, IDH — Sustainable Trade Initiative launched a new free resource called Living Wage Action Guide Support companies working to close the living wage gap.
Part of IDH Living Wage Roadmap, the free Living Wage Action Guide helps companies find the right path to intervention for their situation. You can also freely browse the guide to identify potential challenges and solutions. Practical tips and examples are provided for each intervention.
The items in the Living Wage Action Guide and their links are based on a thorough evaluation of international frameworks, guidelines and publications in the area of living wages.
The Living Wage Action Guide aims to guide buyers, their suppliers and other stakeholders on the most appropriate actions they can take to close the living wage gap. Companies can use this guide to navigate the challenges inherent in efforts to achieve a living wage in their supply chains, address these challenges, and create the conditions that enable a living wage to be paid. You can find specific steps you can take to help. This guide was created by his IDH. Through cooperation and consultation with a wide range of experts, including
NewForesight, ergon, Schüttelar & Partnersand all partners of the IDH Roadmap on Living Wages.
“We have developed the Living Wage Action Guide with the aim of continuing to support businesses to improve living wages in their supply chains,” he said. Carla Romeu Dalmau, Senior Innovation Manager for Better Work at IDH. “Using IDH’s Living Wage Roadmap as a guideline, the Action Guide links to Step 4 of the Roadmap: Action to Close the Living Wage Gap in the Supply Chain. We provide tips, case studies, sector-specific information and more to help businesses on their journey to a living wage.The Living Wage Action Guide provides more information on how businesses can close the living wage gap. We hope it will help you make more informed decisions and support efforts to build a living wage economy around the world.”
Using the guide is easy. By choosing the type of actor, companies can choose the areas affected. This is linked to challenges that complicate paying a living wage. Interventions are recommended for each task. Under these interventions, companies will provide suggested solutions, actionable tips (separated by changemakers, as each actor has a role to play), case studies, and how to successfully implement this intervention. You can find other resources to help you.
There are 12 interventions on the list, including improving procurement practices (buyer-led interventions), enhancing social dialogue (buyer-assisted supplier-led interventions), and improving policies in producing and consuming countries. Practical tips come from real-world experiences from his IDH roadmap partners and other companies on living wages. Collected, codified, and conceptualized into action by IDH.Can be visited by supply chain stakeholders www.livingwageguide.org Explore what you can do on your own and where you need to collaborate with others.
IDH said it will continue to update and enhance the guide and include data and evidence where possible.
The Living Wage Action Guide is the latest component of IDH’s ever-expanding efforts to enable a living wage economy for smallholder farmers around the world. In 2021, NGOs joined forces with 10 global companies — Aldi Nord, Aldi Sud, Eosta, fifes,
Fairphone,
loreal, Sibbens,
super uni, Taylors of Harrogate When
Unilever — We are actively working to ensure a living wage for workers across our supply chain, and we expect other companies to do the same. And in July of this year, Company B Authenticator B Lab
Announced new guidance for businesses on living wage implementation. This guidance aligns with IDH’s Living Wage Roadmap approach to finding living wage benchmarks from quality-assessed methodologies. This makes it easier for B Labs to increase the number of accepted benchmarks. This means more companies will be able to factor living wage work into their B impact assessment.
