Dr. Eberhard Krain & Pelelefanga J.-M. Coulibaly International Certification Conference (ICC)

19.04.23

Certified sustainability: Only a burden to farmers or a tool to improve sustainability?

(Some GIZ experience)

Dr. Eberhard Krain & Pelelefanga J.-M. Coulibaly

International Certification Conference (ICC)

Yamoussoukro, Côte d‘Ivoire

15th-20th September 2014

Sector Programme Social and Environmental Standards & Promotion of Agricultural Value Chains and Biodiversity Programme (PROFIAB) - Sector Network Rural Development (SNRD) Africa

04/19/23

• GIZ at a glance

• The sustainability bottleneck

• Role of GIZ in supporting sustainability and certification

• Experience with certified sustainability

Experiences worldwide

GIZ experience with focus on Africa

Alternatives to certified sustainability

• Conclusions

Overview


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GIZ at a glance

• GIZ is a not-for-profit enterprise, owned by German Federal Republic

• Mandate: Sustainable development through international cooperation

• Thematic areas: economic development, governance, environment, energy, health, education, agriculture and food, etc.

• Present in about 130 countries, mainly developing countries and emerging economies

• 2012: business volume of € bn 2.1 , mostly development projects, advisory services, dialog platforms and training courses

• Major clients: German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ), other German ministries, European Commission, foundations and private sector

• Staff members: > 16,000 globally, about 3,100 in Germany


04/19/23 Sector Programme Social and Environmental Standards & Promotion of Agricultural Value Chains and Biodiversity Programme (PROFIAB) - Sector Network Rural Development (SNRD) Africa

The sustainability bottleneck

People - lacking capacity and incentives

Planet - limited natural resources

Profit - increasingMarket demands

xda-developers


Components of a Voluntary Sustainability Standards System (VSS)

1. StandardSetting requirements

2. Capacity BuildingKnow-how & skills

To fulfill requirements

3. AssuranceProviding evidence of compliance

4. Accreditation„Controlling the controller“

A standard is like a law, it is just a piece of paper that needs a corresponding system to make it work

Certification is just 1 of 3 assurance optionsThe bottleneck lever!

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Secretariat function

Network membership

Standard Systems Development

• African Cashew Initiative• Sustainable Cocoa Business• Competitive African Cotton Initiative• Cotton made in Africa• Better Rice Initiative Asia • …..

Dev. Projects & PPPs

Role of GIZ as international donor organization in supporting sustainability and certification


Selected worldwide Experiences (ISEAL)


1. Standard compliant production is increasing dramatically and market penetration is significant in some sectors

2. There is a gap between production and sales for some commodities

3. Sustainable production is skewed towards more developed countries

4. Certified farms are different and excel on numerous social, environmental, and economic characteristics

5. Certified operations do make improvements over time

6. Impact evaluation results are still rare. Recent studies suggest that observed changes cannot always be attributed to standard systems

7. Farmer incomes increase, but not always and more improvement is needed

8. There are some important limits to what certification and standards can do alone

(ISEAL = International Social and Environmental Accreditation and Labelling Association)


Certified vs. uncertified producers outcomes(% difference in results for important COSA indicators)

(COSA = Committee on Sustainability Assessment)

Certified producers perform better on average

Source: ISEAL presentation taken from the COSA Measuring Sustainability Report 2014

Survey methodology

•Survey sent to 48 member projects

•18 filled the questionnaire

For about 40% of the SNRD projects certified sustainability appears to be a matter of interest for their work


Experiences of GIZ-SNRD Africa projects with certified sustainability (SNRD = Sector Network Rural Development Africa)

Opinions about sustainability standards

2/3 positive attitude

They are interested in further exchanges on the subject

1/3 sceptical attitude

Concerns: complexity, costs sceptical about benficial impact

Mostly used standards

oUTZ > Rainforest Alliance (in the cocoa production)

oFairtrade, GlobalGAP, Organic (for fruits, vegetables, cashew, cotton, coffee crops)


SNRD Africa Experiences: Key Results

SNRD Africa Experiences: Lessons Learnt

Positive impact on productivity and quality

Increasing farmer negotiation power for better margins, growing reputation as export countries, positive environmental impact

Critical issues to pay attention to:

inclusion of smallholder, less organized producers and less competitive export countries

That benefits should also go towards farmers (not only towards buyers/processing industry etc.)

Complexity/ cost for farmers

Standards are one tool in value chain development; other measures need to be undertaken simultaneously

Ex: organizational development of farmer groups, access to founds and markets, road network

19.04.23 Sector Programme Social and Environmental Standards & Promotion of Agricultural Value Chains and Biodiversity Programme (PROFIAB) - Sector Network Rural Development (SNRD) Africa

• PPP projects implemented by GIZ in the cocoa sector between 2010 and 2013 had a big focus on certification

• Project private partners: CEMOI, SACO, KRÜGER, TOUTON

• UTZ : 1 Coop., 735 Prod., 3 900 MT certified

• Rainforest Alliance : 35 Coop., 19 010 Prod., 40 935 MT certified

• Projects objectives

• Support implementation of certification process in the coop. (information, internal management system, audit, …)

• Training of extension staff

• Monitoring and evaluation


GIZ Experience in Côte d’Ivoire

• Success

• cooperative organization were strengthened

• increasing rate of adoption of GAP by producers and there incomes

• Challenges

• capacity building of cooperative leaders should be increased

• sustainability beyond the projects

• Lessons learnt

• GIZ CIV is no more working on certification (only in marginal cases) but develops a more comprehensive capacity building for private partners and cooperatives


GIZ Experience in Côte d’Ivoire

19.04.23 Sector Programme Social and Environmental Standards & Promotion de Filières Agricoles et de Biodiversité (PROFIAB), Sector Network Rural Development (SNRD) Africa

• Assurance types

First party (assessment by producer)

Second party (assessment by buyer)

Third party (assessment/auditing by indpendent body = certification)

• Certification, most credible but most expensive way

• Alternatives

First party: farmer self-assessment on sustainability (SAI Platform) (now called farm sustainability assessment (FSA)

Peer review: MOAP, Ghana; IFOAM Pariticipatory Guarantee System

Smaller samples (e.g. ½ 4C vs. SAN/RA, Utz, FairTrade)

Longer auditing cycles for good performers (e.g. SAN/RA in Code under revision)

Zooming in on Assurance (Certification) 1


Zooming in on Assurance (Certification) 2

Is certification necessary for sustainability?

NO, however, it increases credibility

What is really important?

Acquisition of know-how & skills

Application of improved practices


Conclusions (Certified) sustainability has reached significant proportions of markets in

developed economies

Certified sustainability has developed from a niche into the mass market

Certification costs are high, but much lower than the costs that are necessary to build up farmers know-how and skills

The impact of certified sustainability is mixed, however, in the majority of cases the outcomes are positive and small farmers have benefitted, too

Certification is not necessary for sustainability, but helps credibility

The more certified sustainability becomes mainstream, the less will be the opportunity for better prices (premium), nevertheless farmers are well advised to go towards (certified) sustainability in order to ensure market access

Alternatives to certification (1st & 2nd party assurance) should be more explored

04/19/23

Thank you!

ContactDr. Eberhard [email protected]. +49 6196 79-1467

Pelelefanga J.-M. [email protected]. +225 2243 4392


Aimee Russillo (GIZ consultant): Overview Current State of Impact Measurements of Sustainability Standards Systems, GIZ, Eschborn 2013

COSA: Measuring Sustainability - First global Report on COSA Findings in Agriculture, Draft, 2013

FAO: Impact of international voluntary standards on smallholder market participation in developing countries, Rome 2014

IFC: Building a roadmap to sustainability in agro-commodity production, 2013

KMPG: Improving Smallholder Livelihoods: Effectiveness of Certification in Coffee, Cocoa and Cotton, 2013

Kristin Komives: Entry presentation to the Panel Discussion “Responding to Results”, ISEAL Conference, London, May 2014

NRI: Assessing the Poverty Implication of Sustainability Standards – University of Greenwich, 2013

State of Sustainability Initiatives Review 2014

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References


Dr. Eberhard Krain & Pelelefanga J.-M. Coulibaly International Certification Conference (ICC)

Documents

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