devinitorg/iati-policy-markers huggingface dataset:
Improving Production&Market Capacity of Smallholder Fruit&Vegetable Farmers in Southern Africa In Mozambique, South Africa, and Zambia, training in local-gap and global-gap has improved the food safety of horticulture in the project. 2,207 farmers are now meeting the agreed standard producing horticulture on 5,550 hectares. With good practices improving, access to capital and a more stable connection with the market become the major challenges. Slowly, market linkages are being developed but farmers continue to struggle to meet the market quantity, quality and food-safety requirements. Pilots with the “fresh-hubs“, downstream pack-houses for cold chain logistics, are promising but need time outside the Covid-19 reality to prove effective when conditions normalize. The pandemic caused a considerable reduction in logistics and therefore income and the capacity to contract loans. In 2020, we successfully supported 559 farmers to obtain new loans, a reduction of 42% compared to the year before. The programme is closely linked to the intensive policy dialogue on setting regulatory frameworks for sustainable and safe fruit and vegetables in the region, covered under our Advocacy for Change programme. The training and following practice has materialized the Mozbopa standard as the national reference for the sector in Mozambique. A nice example of how Practice and Advocacy projects can become complementary and reinforce processes.
From farm to landscape: capacity building, dialogue and action with multiple stakeholders in Honduras (Zona Litoral del Norte) The Paisajes Sostenibles (PaSos) platform joined producer organizations, private sector actors, local communities, CSOs and public sector actors to identify solutions for complex and interconnected issues, such as biodiversity conservation, sustainable production, climate change and land use change. PaSos formed a space for dialogue, and worked towards policy recommendations for improved spatial planning and responsible expansion of palm oil based on RSPO certification. Through the pilots we showed how well-managed palm oil plantations can play a crucial role in flora and fauna conservation and the preservation of several species. This conservation practice was scaled up to 3 palm oil companies (25% of the sector). One of the main successes of the PaSos Platform was the negotiation and signing of the first Zero Deforestation Declaration of Mesoamerica; 100% of the palm oil sector signed the declaration together with local CSOs, and national-level government actors. Together with the Honduran Minister of the Institute for Conservation of Forests and Biodiversity (ICF) we are looking into the possibilities to expand this Declaration to include coffee and livestock. 

Via PaSos, we developed an agroforestry initiative to enhance women participation in sustainable  cocoa production. The initiative benefitted 112 families and introduced agroforestry cocoa on 300 hectares. New partnerships with private and public partners were developed to further support the agroforestry initiative by providing seedlings, funds and training and so accelerate the restoration process, crucial after the two hurricanes occurred in 2020.
Enhancing the potential of the Sustainable Trade Platform for Sugarcane The aim of this project is to develop a national sustainability guide for the Colombian sugarcane sector.  National Association of Sugarcane Producers (Procaña)  started to implement Farming Solutions and Extension Solutions. After one year of implementation of Digital Solutions there was a 50% increase in the adoption of good practices by sugarcane producers
Sustainable Trade Platform for Banana in Colombia The Sustainable Trade Platform (STP) is an initiative that promotes partnerships between private companies, the Colombian government and civil society organisations to ensure that the supply of agricultural products in Colombia meets the growing and global demand of sustainable ingredients.  It also aims to position Colombian as a well-established origin for sustainable products.
Sustainable Landscape Innovation Network Competing land use and resource claims by a wide variety of actors converge at the landscape level. Landscapes are therefore increasingly seen as the spatial scale on which many stakeholders, from global to local level, need to cooperate. Solidaridad's strategy is to develop and/or strengthen policy neutral platforms that bridge the intrinsic tensions between production, farmers’ livelihoods and the environment. The platforms form the basis of a new governance structure that aims to formulate management frameworks for production and natural resource management, based on pilot tested technological solutions. By bringing together regional government and sourcing companies to the negotiating table with those living in the landscape, who were previously not involved, win-win solutions can be found and tested that are supported by local people.
Our Landscape Approach sees 5 major steps:

Connect stakeholders and create a space for dialogue and planning: we bring together stakeholders in multi-stakeholder partnerships and platforms to enable alignment and cooperation. 
Build a collective body of landscape knowledge: together with the variety of stakeholders and local and international research institutions. This shared knowledge base is a critical foundation for analysis, decision making, action, monitoring and communication.
Develop and test: Identified solutions need to be actionable, affordable and have to make business sense. We work with farmers, entrepreneurs, cooperatives, and downstream supply chain actors and we seek to develop business models which generate a viable income, support investment in improved practices, and contribute to protection and restoration of natural resources.
Bridge the gap between policy and practice: There are many ways in which landscape governance can fall short: policies are either not in place, are weak or conflicting, or simply unknown, and institutions often lack the capacity, incentives or means to implement and enforce policies. We raise awareness on existing policy frameworks which affect land use planning and resource management, and we identify the requirements to improve governance in practice. Solidaridad fulfils a key role through linking community level issues to district and national level planning and policy dialogues.
Unlock finance for sustainable landscapes: access to finance or capital investment is often required in order to change practices on the ground. Providing access to finance at producer level for replanting and enabling investment in renewable energy at municipal level require different means of financial support.
PanameriCaña Through PanAmericaña (PanAm) we promote best industrial and agricultural practices in sugarcane production. In 2020, we expanded our scope to 38 mills supported in Mexico, Honduras, Dominican Republic, El Salvador and Haiti to make the necessary investments and adjustments in sustainable sugarcane production, using Bonsucro as a benchmark. Through these mills we have reached 14,487 sugarcane producers and 28,532 workers, bringing 261,049 hectares under better management practices. The Covid-19 pandemic made us adjust to the new context, changing our communication channels with the producers, but it also brought opportunities in terms of visibility and scope of this initiative. Together with sugar mill San Antonio we have organized a virtual event to discuss occupational health and safety in sugarcane production with more than 100 participants from all over the continent. We also organized a conference to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of mechanized harvest, which was later replicated with the Mexican CNPR (National Association of Sugarcane Growers), bringing the discussion to the sugarcane producers. Our strategy in Mexico shows clear signs of a successful business case based on connecting sustainability issues with increase in productivity and cost reduction. We are exploring the best way to scale this up with resources from the sector. For the other countries in Central America and the Carribean we find difficulties to gain traction as productivity and efficiency in general are higher and require a more compliance based strategy. Compliance backed strategies are complex as they need a higher level of trust (more difficult to build during Covid-19 times) and the international market pull for sustainably produced sugarcane is currently not encouraging enough for the producers.
Solidaridad Sustainability Solutions (subproject) This is a specific sub-project under the larger Digital Innovation Strategy. As part of the Digital Innovation strategy we aim to develop a Network-wide IT platform and approach to support Solidaridad and its partners in analyzing producer performance in the relevant areas of entrepreneurial farming and good practices. These are benchmarked against various standards, including legal standards, market-based quality standards and sustainability (certification) standards. By applying Big Data comparison technology to this analysis, we can bring large numbers of farmers to the next level of sustainable production. As of mid 2017, senior IT capacity came in board throughout the Network and we started a much larger streamlining process of already existing IT solutions in the Network, towards a broader strategic platform offering a series of tools through a suite of apps.
Commodity Communities of Change: Soy We continued to support the RTRS but were increasingly active in other, more regional initiatives, including the National Soy Trade Platform in India, The Cerrado Working Group in Brazil and the Sustainable Soy Trade Platform (SSTP) in China. Solidaridad organized a visit to Sao Paulo, Brazil for Chinese soy industry players to engage with ABIOVE and APROSOJA to discuss on the developing SSTP soy purchasing guidelines. In Paraguay, Solidaridad participates in the National Committee of Ecology and Environment organized by the National Chamber of Deputies, as well as, the National Committee of Climate Change. While in our programme for South America a clear relation with the land-conversion debate is maintained, for the soy production in Asia and Africa our agenda is shifting towards the contribution of our soy programme for our food & nutrition objectives, which in turn opens the door for more gender inclusive programming.
Health Fruit and Vegetables for South Africa In Southern and Eastern Africa, we facilitated country-specific multi-stakeholder platforms in South Africa, Zambia, Tanzania and Uganda, bringing together private sector i.e. buyers, retail and traders, producers, and regulating and government bodies, and co designing and aligning food safety and sustainability policies for the fruits and vegetables value chain. Ultimately, we aim for a continental benchmarking system. A major success was achieved in South Africa, with making GLOBALGAP more smallholder inclusive by adopting the Primary Farm Assurance (PFA) Standard, a lower entry level standard for small scale fruit and vegetable farmers.
Better Mill Initiative Ethiopia The project aims to contribute to sustainable and inclusive growth of the Ethiopian garment and textile industry in line with international standards for production.
Sugarcane Programme for Southern Africa The sugarcane sector in Southern Africa is dominated by three large companies: lllovo, Tongaat Hullett and TSB; smallholders are contract farmers with limited, if any, negotiation power. In 2020, the sugarcane sector in Southern Africa was hampered by Covid-19, causing delays in the field work and in the negotiations in Zambia for possible continuation. Digital training materials were developed and WhatsApp groups were established to continue providing training and support to 4,675 farmers. The implementation of good production practices led to yields increase in Malawi (25%) and in South Africa (2%). In Zambia, although farmers experienced an improvement in 2019 of 17%, their productivity in 2020 was affected by severe droughts, which caused a yield drop (-20%). Therefore, we have initiated negotiations with Illovo and CRIDF, to start a revolving fund for small growers in Zambia, that allows them to convert their irrigation systems into water efficient systems such as drip irrigation. We have collaborated with Illovo in South Africa to deliver training to the growers and their contractors on business management and labour relations. This has led to the improvement of the relations between 2,133 growers and their contractors, holding them accountable for the service they are providing. Sugarcane farmers in Malawi, managed to raise funds (68,000 euros) to maintain their association, to influence the policy framework with the government. They have also negotiated a 7,5% sucrose price increase (from USD318 to USD342) with sugar giant Illovo. In Zambia, we assisted the sugarcane farmers to finalize the establishment of the Sugarcane Association of Zambia, where growers and millers agree on the legislation needed for the sector, and through which they advocate for the improvements in the regulatory frameworks.
Beyond BCI: Create an Integrated Approach to Promote Sustainable Cotton Production in China The chief purpose of this project is to create a viable model and business case working with China’s small holder farmers in Julu and Gaoyang of Hebei province through a holistic approach.
Enhancing the potential of the Sustainable Trade Platform in Colombia In Colombia, together with 57 members of the Sustainable Trade Platform (coffee and palm oil companies and cooperatives across the country), we supported 174,955 farmers to adopt sustainable agricultural practices, and brought 939,618 hectares under better management practices, in 2020. We saw important improvements in the protection of high conservation value areas and agrochemical use was reduced. 


2020 saw a boost in the use of digital technology to provide support and services to farmers, and our local partners are investing in these systems. We developed and published a toolbox for inclusive technical assistance for technicians and producers in the coffee sector, in the Agrolearning platform. We further developed the Extension Solution app for palm oil field technicians from the mills, which provided among other data indicating that 27% of the national production was sustainably produced by the mills in the STP. In 2020 we have developed AgroPréstamo, a financial tech tool designed to manage farmer credits and facilitate smallholder access to finance. We piloted this tool with 330 smallholder palm oil producers, of which 187 were able to obtain a credit for crop maintenance.
Climate Innovation Advocacy and Lobby Addressing climate contentious issues in our work will enable us to drive climate policy in regions to create enabling environments for climate adaptation and mitigation impact globally. In 2019, we f developed the climate risk/vulnerability analysis and the Climate Smart Index (CSI), both tools to measure climate -risk responsiveness and adaptation measurement, as well as GHG calculators to measure GHG mitigation impact. We developed commodity-specific definitions and climate-risk responsive measures for coffee, cotton, palm oil, and  tea. 

The CSI was tested with 52,012 farmers in 4 different projects (sugarcane Brazil, sugarcane India, Coffee East Africa and Palm Oil Nicaragua). It is an important tool to assess the impact and effectiveness of climate smart (adaptation) practices at farm level.
Oil palm, livestock and cocoa: An integrated landscape	management approach. In the South Caribbean Coastal Autonomous Region of Nicaragua, we have convened 49 producers, private companies, civil society organisations, and government agencies in the Paisajes Sostenibles (PaSos) platform to work towards sustainable landscape management, so as to enhance the fragile RACCS ecosystem. The palm oil companies that participated in the PaSos platform jointly identified High Conservation Value Areas (HCVAs) and developed action plans to protect these HCVAs in a cost effective manner. Incentives were developed to support the process towards jurisdictional RSPO certification. By the end of 2020, as a result of the RSPO National Interpretation process, the regional government, as well as the companies involved have shown interest in certifying the entire RACCS under the jurisdictional certification scheme of RSPO. In addition, the national government has shown interest in reviewing and adjusting the Nicaraguan Compulsory Technical Standard of Sustainable Palm Oil (NTON).  

We also worked with two companies to develop and implement a smallholder-inclusive business model. This model offers a mechanism through which smallholders receive a better price, while it reduces the chances of potential land conflicts between smallholders and companies, and supports smallholders’ livelihood diversification. In addition, we co-initiated the “Livestock Zero Deforestation” platform through which, together with private sector actors and CSOs, we aim to work towards a “deforestation-free label” for dairy and beef, and promote the diversification of livestock farms with cocoa and agroforestry.
Solidaridad East Africa Impact Investment Impact Investment is a project that strives to improve the partnership between investors and viable business opportunities . It strives to bring the current businesses to scale- able stage and improve livelihood.
Sustainable Trade Platform in Colombia - Café This project aims to strengthen and develop partnerships between business, the public sector, civil society and partner nations that promote national and international sustainable trade in different supply chains, focusing on efforts on the environmental, social and economic lines.  In collaboration with Syngenta we developed a new digital tool to support coffee companies and cooperatives, and their field extensionists, in a more effective pest management to control coffee borer.
Scoping study for dairy sector in Tanzania The western side of Tanzania has huge potential for dairy. However, there has been lack of successful professional dairy sector. This study intends to map and analyse the sector with a view of developing investable proposition for project development.
AfC and PfC Programme Management Team Programme Management Team, responsible for the correct Programme Cycle Management of the funds for Solidaridad's Advocacy for Change and Practice for Change.
Kahawa Kivulini (Coffee Shade Trees) Project This project is an adaptation and mitigation project
Fairtrade Gold Programme The programme supports the creation of a pioneering investment-model, enabling a selection of target
artisanal and small-scale mining organisations (ASMOs) to access finance and invest in capital
equipment to improve the processing and extraction of gold
 The investment-led model will establish immediate higher financial returns (with productivity
increases of up to 40%) allowing groups to re-invest in improved mining practices.
 Through proof of concept and establishment of the operational infrastructure to deliver the
investor-model, we will link in further investment commitments from industry and social
investors; generating a solution which endures beyond the life of the project.
Scaling CSA through investment in resilience of coffee production STIR UP Coffee focuses on climate-smart coffee production. This initiative, accelerates the BACK to REDD+ (B2R) model in Mexico and Central America which has, to date, seen considerable success increasing income and food security, farmer efficiency and resilience among farmers. The Comon Yaj Noptic cooperative in Mexico has become our climate-smart coffee laboratory from where we collect evidence to promote and upscale this coffee production model to Nicaragua and Honduras. Past years’ piloting showed that farmers in Mexico increased yields threefold, and carbon sequestration increased 14% as a result of the introduction of  rust-free genetic material, increasing the planting density and improving the nutrient application. We shared these results in the Nicaraguan Sustainable Coffee Platform (NICAFES), to encourage upscaling in Nicaragua. We have initiated new partnerships with Mercon, Illy and FARM-TRACE (a Canadian based company that catalyze investments into natural climate solutions) to introduce the climate-smart coffee model, train their technical team, and carry out the local adaptation and testing of digital tools (FARM-TRACE and Cool Farm Tool) with a small sample of producers. These case studies aim to create a replicable model for the coffee brands to invest in the incorporation of these practices in their supply chains, in order to reduce their carbon footprint and improve farmers' income. In Honduras, the climate-smart coffee model was shared through the Sustainable Coffee Platform (supported by Advocacy for Change programme) with the stakeholders of the sector. As a result, we started to implement a pilot to reduce the greenhouse gases emissions through biodigesters, and the test effluent management strategies.
Food security through improved resilience of small scale farmers in Ethiopia and Kenya (FOSEK) Food Security through Improved Resilience of Smallholder Farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia (FOSEK) is a seven year programme, partly financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Netherlands and partly by private sector players. With the main objective improving food security by increasing local agricultural production and income of 120,000 small-scale coffee farmers in Kenya and Ethiopia. Solidaridad NL and SECAEC is implementing the programme in partnership with Nestlé, Coffee Research Foundation Kenya, C. Dorman Limited, Coffee Management Services Ltd, Ecom Agro-industrial Corp. Ltd, Sustainable Management Services Ltd, Yirgacheffe Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union, Sidama Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union and Oromia Coffee Farmers Cooperative Union.
Climate Innovation Learning Agenda To identify the on farm climate mitigation and adaptation business case for Solidaridad
To capacitate the network to develop the climate mitigation and adaptation business case
Gender capacity enhancement Solidaridad South America Gender capacity enhancement of programme staff in Solidaridad South America.
Integrated Systems, RACS Integrated RACS (Palm Oil) is implemented in South Caribean Coast Autonomous Region of Nicaragua to engage industry and producers in the implementation of best practices and increased productivity through an inclusive business model that focuses on diverse production systems. In partnership with CIAT, Ritter Sport, ECOM and 3 producer organizations, we trained  822 cocoa and livestock producers on innovative agroforestry systems. By 2020, 1,365 hectares were brought under climate management practices, and the pilot showed promising results: an income increase by 6% and milk productivity increase of  24.5%. At the cooperative level, cocoa sales increased by 118% compared to 2019. The 2 cocoa cooperatives we work with obtained Rainforest Alliance certification, and we have strengthened them to provide more and better services to their members. We started to develop a business model for these farmer-led "service provision hubs" that is expected to increase access to technical assistance for smallholders in remote areas (e.g. vaccinations and insemination of livestock, to the use of digital tools for harvest estimation, rehabilitation of cocoa areas, cocoa post-harvest and collection, drying facilities, etc.). These hubs will function under a fee-for-service model. 
Through the PASOS platform (see Advocacy for Change), and in collaboration with FUNIDES and the EcoBusiness Fund, we supported small scale livestock producers that adhere to zero-deforestation production, to improve their access to credit. Feasibility and market studies were carried out for the establishment of cocoa agroforestry systems in their farms, and farmers were trained on the use of the Forest Watch platform to monitor land use changes in livestock farms (one of the key requirements to access credit).
Creating Shared Value in Agricultural Value Chains in Uganda Creating Shared Value in Agricultural Value Chains in Uganda