WHAT’S IN OUR 2020 CERTIFICATION PROGRAM?

Gender Equality

Gender inclusivity and women’s empowerment
for a more sustainable future
Photo: Sergio Izquierdo

An equitable future for all genders means a livable future for
us all. Addressing gender inequality and empowering womenin agricultural supply chains is an essential part of advancing
human rights and sustainable economic development. It’s also
an often overlooked climate solution and an effective way toincrease farm productivity.
Both male and female farmers and workers play an importantrole in agriculture, but female farmers and workers are often
undervalued due to social norms. They often have less access toresources, information, training programs, decision-making, andother kinds of opportunities related to agricultural production ascompared to their male counterparts.*
Gender equality is a human right for all. Moreover, when women
are granted equal access to power and resources, productivity
goes up and poverty goes down. Plenty of data shows that trained
and well-informed women have more productive agriculturalplots, steward their land better, and are more eager to embraceand use new innovations. When women are able to earn their own
income, they also typically reinvest 90 percent of those earnings
back into their families and communities. These are the reasons
why we’re taking a stronger and more consistent approach topromoting gender equality in our 2020 Certification Program.

What’s our new approach to gender equality?
In our new standard, we are going further to promote genderequality by giving farms and companies new tools to understand the gender gaps and issues in their operations and how
to address them. Certificate holders (including both farms andcompanies) are required to separate data for men and women to visualize gender gaps. Additionally, we are holding every
certificate holder accountable for promoting gender equality byrequiring them to create a written statement detailing their commitment to it which they then must share with group members,workers, and staff.
Certificate holders will also be required to appoint a person orcommittee dedicated to addressing gender equality. This person

or committee will carry out a basic risk assessment on gender
yearly using our new Risk Assessment Tool. This tool will help themidentify any gaps in their structure and procedures to address
gender inequality and propose mitigation measures to help close
those gaps. In addition to implementing those measures, the person or committee will be responsible for raising awareness about
gender equality and women’s empowerment with managementand (group) staff yearly. They will also provide support in remediating cases concerning gender-based discrimination andworkplace violence and harassment, following our Remediation
Protocol¬—a part of our new “assess-and-address” approach.

Gender equality Smart Meters for continuousimprovement
While both companies and farms need to fulfill all of the core requirements mentioned above, farms will also need to implement
gender equality Smart Meters starting their first year of certification. Smart Meters are a novel feature of the 2020 standard that
support farms in setting their own self-identified improvement
requirements best suited to their unique situation. Smart Metersalign with our reimagining of certification which emphasizes
continuous improvement and encourages farms to define theirown priorities.
Gender equality Smart Meters are based on an in-depth risk
assessment that helps farms identify and address more specific* There are also many non-binary (those whose genderdoesn’t fall strictly within the conventional categories ofmale or female) farmers and workers involved in agricultural production. We aim to help make farms and companies
more gender inclusive so that all genders in agricultural
supply chains have equal rights and opportunities. Supporting and empowering women specifically is one of the main
focuses of our certification program since women represent
the largest marginalized gender group.

The Rainforest Alliance 2020 Certification Program | Gender Equality

gender gaps related to their context. This assessment needs tobe carried out every three years. The results of this more detailed
assessment enable the responsible person or committee toaddress gender gaps by prioritizing and setting indicators, identifying mitigation measures that are most relevant to them, andtracking progress over time.

How is this different from our previous
standards?
Both the UTZ Code of Conduct and the 2017 Rainforest Alliance
Sustainable Agriculture Standard address gender equality andtake measures to raise awareness of women’s rights. Both require
training sessions to ensure equal opportunities for women and toprevent workplace violence and harassment. In both standards,
some data is collected separately for men and women as well.
The UTZ standard also requires appointing a person or committee responsible for promoting equal rights and opportunities forwomen. However, all of these measures apply only to the farmlevel. Gender equality at the supply chain level is not directly
addressed in the previous standards.
In our new standard we are taking this further through theintroduction of risk assessments on gender as part of the Risk
Assessment Tool that will allow farms and companies to gain
insights into gender issues specific to their context and identify
targeted ways to address them. By collecting all relevant data formen and women separately throughout the process, farms andcompanies will be able to better visualize gender gaps and prog-

JULY 2020

Reimagining Certification and the 2020
Certification Program
Reimagining certification is our long-term vision for thefuture of certification. It is part of our wider strategy at theRainforest Alliance to drive change through our four mainareas of work: climate, forests, livelihoods, and human rights.
In June 2020, the Rainforest Alliance takes the first stepon its journey towards “reimagining certification” with thepublication of its 2020 Certification Program. We’ve beenworking on this new program since 2018, when the Rainforest Alliance and UTZ merged.
The 2020 Certification Program—including a new Sustainable Agriculture Standard—is a unique opportunity to reallychange the way that certification works and how it delivers
value to the many people and businesses around the worldthat use it.
Between June 2020 and mid-2021, the Rainforest Alliancewill roll out the new program around the world, including acomprehensive training plan. Audits against the new program will begin in mid-2021.

ress made. Additionally, gender equality Smart Meters will enable
farmers to set their own goals for addressing the specific genderissues on their farm.

What other Rainforest Alliance interventions
support this work?
Beyond our work with farms and companies, we work withcommunities, local organizations, and governments to promote
both gender equality and women’s empowerment. Through ourSector Partnerships Program, we support local organizations innine countries producing cocoa, coffee, and tea to advocate forchanges in policies and programs that make the sector moresustainable and inclusive, especially for smallholders and female
farmers and workers. The program helps to empower women, make their voice heard, and put their issues on the political
agenda.

Want to know more?
Read more about what to expect in our new certification program. For specific questions, email us at cs@ra.org.

United States:
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tel: +1 (212) 677-1900
email: info@ra.org

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tel: +31 20 530 8000
email: info@utz.org

Rainforest Alliance@RnfrstAlliance@rainforestalliancerainforest-alliance.org