devinitorg/iati-policy-markers huggingface dataset:
Feeding the world: conducive policies for lower deforestation link to soy production in South America With the objective to reduce deforestation in high value conservation ecosystems, such as the Amazon and the Great American Chaco, we have focused on the major soy demand and supply markets (China, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia), which together account for 60% of the global soy trade. For this purpose we have established multi stakeholder dialogues in Bolivia, Argentina and China, and initiated an advocacy trajectory with the Environmental Commision of the National Chamber of Deputies in Paraguay. The MSPs in the producing countries were focused on improving the legal enforcement and public monitoring and control systems of the soy sector. In China, we engaged the main soy trading importers and associations to work towards responsible soy procurement policies. As a result of this work, the Chinese Soy Sourcing Guidelines were produced to set minimum sustainability requirements for soy imports. Among these requirements, a non deforestation requirement was included, which should have a positive impact on the main South American suppliers (Brazil and Argentina). In Argentina, to tackle the lack of capacity of governmental authorities to implement, monitor and control the National Forest Law, the MSP formulated recommendations to the Salta Province’s authorities to improve their procedures and monitoring systems; both recommendations are currently being implemented by the local government. In Paraguay, together with the National Union of Producers’ Cooperatives (UNICOOP) and the Biotechnology Institute (INBIO), we have been advocating for a comprehensive fire management law and a law that prohibits the export and trafficking of wood rolls, pieces and beams of species from natural, regenerated native forests, protected areas and legal reserves. We have also developed the first land use change analysis (1990-2020) in the Ybyturuzu Reserve Area, which is key to support the Municipalities to develop their local land use plans, and later on monitor compliance. The MSPs and dialogues initiated in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay will continue after 2020 with the
Programme Climate Innovation This Task Force supports the integration of landscape approaches, climate change adaptation and mitigation in Solidaridad field programmes, and aims to make climate and land restoration finance accessible to producers. In order to scale adoption of the CSI tool, the taskforce is contributing to the UNFCCC “process to develop methods and approaches for assessing adaptation, adaptation co-benefit and resilience” under the Koronivia Joint Work on Agriculture (KJWA). This is achieved through our active engagement in the ‘Measuring Adaptation Progress in Agriculture’ process managed by the African Group of Negotiators Expert Support (AGNES). We provide technical inputs to the process and promote the CSI as a science based tool to measure adaptation in the agricultural sector.

We have prioritised 5 key indicators to monitor climate climate adaptation and mitigation of our programmes: # of ha under climate smart practices; GHG emissions; water use; land cover change and energy use. This allows the network to have consistent data for these metrics. Hands-on support on how to monitor climate performance has been provided to all Regional Expertise Centres (RECs) and continues through workshops and webinars. 
Climate smart practices, and improved climate change resilience, are currently implemented across producer support programmes in our network, reaching 994,300 hectares under climate management practices. 

In 2020, our Climate Smart Index (CSI), an assessment tool for measuring and monitoring climate change adaptation in the agriculture sector, was accepted and published by the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change- UNFCCC. We completed the CSI toolbox with a climate vulnerability assessment instrument, commodity-specific cases for climate-smart agriculture, and greenhouse gas mitigation calculators.
Task Force Digital 3S As part of the Digital Solidaridad Sustainability Solutions (3S) strategy, this taskforce aims to develop an ICT 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. We are currently using the data gathering and information delivering platform in collaboration with major companies and leading producer associations.digital solutions, such as Farmer Solutions and Business Solutions, but also remote sensing, a cattle grading app, and soil testing services, are used in most of Solidaridad’s projects, in- and outside the Practice for Change programme, helping about 320,000 farmers to manage their businesses and make informed decisions,
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.
Sugarcane in the Americas: developing capacity for environmental, social, labour and economic transformation To accelerate the adoption of Occupational Health and Safety (OHS) practices and clean energy use in the sugarcane sector in Central America, we actively shared technical knowledge on innovative sustainable sugarcane production methods through events, exchanges, conferences and our virtual platform Panamericaña. We were able to systematize experiences and carry out advocacy trajectories towards the sugarcane mills, involving the producer organizations. The Panamericaña platform contributed highly to the uptake of better practices: 24 mills have adopted the OHS protocol and Clean Energy Use recommendations, benefitting the working conditions and the occupational and health safety for over 33,500 sugarcane cutters and workers in the region.
Advocacy for Impact Investments This project promotes agriculture impact investment across the world and tries to influence lending practices of impact investors in such way access to finance improves for smallholder farmers and their related business partners. In 2019, the innovative crowdfunding platform, PlusPlus, was developed together with Lendahand and ICCO. PlusPlus believes that capital in the hands of individuals in Europe can be a solution to fill the access to finance gap for these SGBs. This capital can be raised through an efficiently operating crowdfunding platform and affordable financing can be attracted on a large scale. PlusPlus successfully received AFM permission to act as a tied agent from Lendahand and is now moving towards a launch in Q2 2020. Other strategic partnerships have been established with Pan African Savings and FMO, geared towards developing financial instruments and the delivery of Technical Assistance support pre and post investments. We supported 80 SMEs and linked them to the PlusPlus pipeline.  Solidaridad facilitated an investment by OikoCredit in a satelite tea factory for Kayonza in Uganda, worth USD 3.2 million
Feeding the world: conducive policies for lower deforestation link to soy production in South America With the objective to reduce deforestation in high value conservation ecosystems, such as the Amazon and the Great American Chaco, we have focused on the major soy demand and supply markets (China, Paraguay, Argentina, Brazil and Bolivia), which together account for 60% of the global soy trade. For this purpose we have established multi stakeholder dialogues in Bolivia, Argentina and China, and initiated an advocacy trajectory with the Environmental Commision of the National Chamber of Deputies in Paraguay. The MSPs in the producing countries were focused on improving the legal enforcement and public monitoring and control systems of the soy sector. In China, we engaged the main soy trading importers and associations to work towards responsible soy procurement policies. As a result of this work, the Chinese Soy Sourcing Guidelines were produced to set minimum sustainability requirements for soy imports. Among these requirements, a non deforestation requirement was included, which should have a positive impact on the main South American suppliers (Brazil and Argentina). In Argentina, to tackle the lack of capacity of governmental authorities to implement, monitor and control the National Forest Law, the MSP formulated recommendations to the Salta Province’s authorities to improve their procedures and monitoring systems; both recommendations are currently being implemented by the local government. In Paraguay, together with the National Union of Producers’ Cooperatives (UNICOOP) and the Biotechnology Institute (INBIO), we have been advocating for a comprehensive fire management law and a law that prohibits the export and trafficking of wood rolls, pieces and beams of species from natural, regenerated native forests, protected areas and legal reserves. We have also developed the first land use change analysis (1990-2020) in the Ybyturuzu Reserve Area, which is key to support the Municipalities to develop their local land use plans, and later on monitor compliance. The MSPs and dialogues initiated in Argentina, Bolivia and Paraguay will continue after 2020 with the support of the Land Innovation Fund.
Mesoamerican Palm Oil Alliance (MAPA) In 2015, Solidaridad launched the Mesoamerican Palm Oil Alliance (MAPA) as a regional knowledge and exchange platform for accelerating the uptake of best practices and compliance with the RSPO standard. This programme accelerates our work in this arena, to increase market demand for sustainable palm oil in the region. MAPA spans four countries (Honduras, Guatemala, Nicaragua and Mexico) to accelerate the uptake of best practices, closing certification gaps, and bringing innovation and improved visibility to Mesoamerican palm oil producers. In 2020, we have been working with 43 (from a total of 53 existing mills in the region) palm oil companies to train a total of 12,631 smallholders and 43,820 mill and estate workers on  good practices across the four countries, bringing 306,982 hectares under better management practices. 
We have supported the RSPO National Interpretation processes in Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua. In Guatemala, the human rights policy was approved by the sector, as well as the mechanisms to implement the Zero Deforestation Agreement using a Satellite monitoring system. We trained 12 companies on Zero Deforestation Verification procedures, and 5 companies have uploaded their palm oil plantation maps to the monitoring system. Together with RSPO and the Honduran National Agrarian Institute, we continued supporting smallholders’ land titling processes and access to finance, one of the most important elements to access a certification scheme. We have developed a land title protocol to scale land title legalization for palm oil producers.
2020 was challenging for the sector in Nicaragua, Guatemala and particularly in Honduras. These countries have been very affected by hurricanes Eta and IOTA, causing severe production losses and damage to processing plants, equipment and road infrastructure, and washing away 18,600 oil palm hectares in Honduras. We will continue working with the palm oil sector to prevent and mitigate climate change impacts and seeking for other technical resources, such as involving experts from the Netherlands Water Authority to tailor and improve actions in a robust prevention and mitigation plan.
Promoting sustainable cotton & garment value chain from Ethiopian cotton to European consumers Bottom UP! Initiative (promoting a sustainable cotton & garment value chain from Ethiopian cotton to European consumers), match funded by the EU. This project promotes the adoption of responsible social & environmental practices by 14 cotton and garment factories and 2,000 cotton farmers along the value chain. The programme is partially implemented in Tigray, the region that was under a state of emergency in 2020. Despite the Covid-19 pandemic, the floodings  and the state of Emergency in Tigray, we were able to train 118 workers in ginneries on occupational health and safety (OHS) and cleaner production. 2.8 tonnes of improved cotton seeds were supplied to 554 cotton farmers (400 ha) and 832 cotton farmers (of which 125 were women) have been supported on integrated pest management and have access to improved seeds and crop protection inputs and their markets. We worked closely with Ethiopian Textile Industry, Development Institute (ETIDI), Ethiopian Textile and Garment Manufacturers Association (ETGAMA), and Ethiopian Cotton Producers Exporters and Ginners Association (ECPGEA), to train 728 workers to adopt Good Practices on safe working conditions. The global pandemic, the political instability (i.e. the Tigray conflict) but also the flooding in the Afar region, which affected the cotton farms, delayed the implementation and momentum of planned activities.  
tanneries have participated in cleaner leather production workshops. We have partnered with LIDI, Ethiopian Leather Industries Association (ELIA), UNIDO and GIZ to influence policy making in the leather sector in general. We partnered with LIDI to scale-up the adaptation of cleaner leather production, especially in chrome-free/less chrome leather for shoe upper upholstery. We organised a marketing visit for European buyers to 10 tanneries and leather product manufacturers. 10 tanneries and manufacturers were supported to participate in the 11th All African Leather Fair in Ethiopia.
Green Tanning Initiative (GTI) The Green Tanning Initiative addresses sustainability across the leather value chain from raw material production (abattoirs, skins and hides), to processing at tannery level, and via distribution through leather manufacturers for the domestic and export market, with the aim of contributing to green procurement and marketing of eco-friendly products in the EU market and the subsequent sustainable consumption of leather products. The project focuses on improving quality and traceability of hides and skins by abattoirs and collection centres, while supporting the adoption of improved environmental, economic & social practices at tanneries, as well as improved market linkages.
Scaling Investments 4 Resilience of East African Coffee Producers To address the high costs of coffee production, poor governance in cooperatives, and decreasing coffee productivity and quality of coffee, we have supported small and medium scale coffee farmers in Tanzania, Uganda and Kenya to adopt good agricultural and climate smart practices. There was a marked improvement in coffee production across all the farmer archetypes in the three countries: Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. In spite of lower coffee market prices over the period, farmer incomes improved due to improved yields and quality, as a result of the project's interventions. At the end of 2020, we have trained 22,663 farmers and workers in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania to adopt good practices, financial management and building resilience to climate change. The project was able to provide access to basic financial services such as savings, credit and insurance to 3,300 beneficiaries in 300 Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Uganda and Tanzania. As at December 2020, at least 225,000 euros had been mobilized through these VLSAs. The project supported the farmers with access to (digital) information such as weather forecast data, technologies such as varietal conversion through top working, financial support and linkages to service providers of essential services such as climate insurance. The project supported over 3,840 women and girls to overcome typical barriers for women participation in the coffee value chain, through training on agronomic and marketing decision making, access to coffee production and marketing intelligence, representing the family in coffee meetings, managing a share of the coffee trees and allocation of a share of proceeds and business skills building and provision of opportunities to start income generating activities (e.g. fish farming, beekeeping, fruits and dairy production).
Sustainable Trade Platform for Palm Oil 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.  The National Federation of Palm Oil producers (FEDEPALMA) and the Palm Research Institute (CENIPALMA)  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.
Global Communication The year 2020 was a year in which we reaped the fruits of many activities that we had started in earlier years. We successfully  launched the Sustainable Cotton Ranking in February 2020 and the Cocoa Barometer in December 2020, the latter together with our partners in the Voice Network. We engaged international media channels, such as the Financial Times, Reuters and Bloomberg, as well as trade magazines such as Fibre2Fashion and Confectionary News. We launched a new website and a new crowdfunding platform PlusPlus. Furthermore, we stepped up communication activities with our corporate partners, publishing joint statements with partners like Solynta, Hendrix Genetics, Stahl, Henkel and BASF, which created a lot of visibility in the media. And we announced the sale of Agrofair and STIP. All this resulted in the highest annual visibility figures ever, totalling a potential reach of over 750 million people world-wide.
Asian Sustainable Palm Oil Network:Sustainable Palm Production & Trade in Asia One of the most significant achievements of the project has been the development and launch of the Indian Palm Oil Sustainability (IPOS) framework. IPOS provides India’s own sustainability benchmark to the Indian palm oil industry for sustainable production and procurement. IPOS has been developed with the engagement of key Indian, Malaysian and Indonesian stakeholders. Through working committees and negotiations, this has resulted in “national standards equivalence agreements” between IPOS and the Malaysian Sustainable Palm Oil (MSPO) and between IPOS and the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil (ISPO), signed in 2019. 

In China, we engaged with the China National Vegetable Oil Association (CNVOA) and leading companies such as COFCO. We facilitated the China Sustainable Palm Oil Working Group to mobilize Chinese stakeholders to support sustainable palm oil production and trade in Asia. Further, we support the CNVOA to develop a China National platform for better sector governance and the development of CPOS (China Sustainable Palm Oil Framework). Our work with key national stakeholders has been instrumental in promoting national sustainability initiatives and greater Asian alignment. 

This resulted in the establishment of the Asian Sustainable Palm Oil Network (ASPN) with representation of leading stakeholders of the palm oil sector from Malaysia, Indonesia, India and China. ASPN fosters regional cooperation and facilitates coordination, cooperation and alignment of the national sustainability standards on palm oil production and trade in Asia. This provides an important alternative for international standards, which are often very much Western lead firm dominated initiatives.  

Due to the political tensions between India and Malaysia, especially in the palm oil trade, some of the planned follow-up of the IPOS-MSPO equivalence agreement could not be implemented. However, with the change in government in Malaysia, the situation has improved in 2020. The Covid-19 crisis has significantly reduced our ability to convene dialogue and organize Network conferences. Most meetings were held online.
China Footprint Programme In China, 2020 proved to be a very complicated year with severe lockdown and additional travel and operation restrictions for NGOs. Our training to cotton farmers was partially substituted with digital material and channels like WeChat. 5,512 farmers were supported, of which 2,441 farmers reported actually adopting the recommended good practices. Reported cotton yields were 6% up and income 8%. With international markets shifting, the coming years our strategy in China is shifting towards national production and regional trade, and subsequently more attention for the building of 4 national platforms on Soy, Tea, Cotton and Meat, and withcoming national standards for Soy, Tea and Cotton. We adopt a role as convenor and work in close coordination with major national players for each sector and the Dutch Embassy.
Solidaridad East Africa-Syngenta Food safety project Syngenta has quality pest and disease control products that are considered costlier than other products in the market that are usually of lesser quality. Farmers in most cases go for cheaper products which in most cases are of low quality thus ineffective in controlling pests and diseases. 



As an intervention strategy Syngenta Kenya and Solidaridad Eastern and Central Africa propose to:

1.      Train mango and coffee farmers on proper and judicious use of pesticides;

2.      Improve availability and access to quality pesticides by farmers; 

3.      Enhance skills of existing spray service providers (SSPs) with the aim of developing them into link agents for Syngenta products to farmers.
Gender capacity enhancement Solidaridad North America Gender capacity enhancement of programme staff in Solidaridad North America.