GPSNR Working Groups Update: August 2021

Share This Post

It’s been a month of progress! Here are the updates from each working group:

Strategy and Objectives Working Group

While the working group did not meet this month, they are focussed on finalising the Theory of Change and organising a workshop for the same in September. The group will also continue to work on refining the platform’s external partnerships approval process.

Smallholder Representation Working Group

After a successful onboarding workshop for Indonesian smallholders, the group is welcoming new smallholder members at GPSNR. They are also planning similar workshops for smallholders in Srilanka and Cambodia in September. Workshops in India, Liberia, Cote d’Ivoire and Ghana are also being kept in view and will be scheduled as soon as the COVID-19 situation allows.

At the same time, the smallholders will meet to discuss GPSNR’s agroforestry position next month (in tandem with the Capacity Building Working Group).

Policy Toolbox Working Group

This working group has received draft documents from consultants on three significant aspects of the GPSNR assurance model: the Implementation Guidance, the Reporting Requirements and the Compliance Panel Guidance.

They are currently focussed on finalising the reporting requirements. For this, they need members to send in their feedback by 30th August. If you haven’t yet done so, please take a look at the form here. This will make it possible for us to vote on the Reporting Requirements by the General Assembly in December 2021.

The group is also busy revising and finalising the Implementation Guidance, which will be voted on at the General Assembly in early 2021.

Capacity Building Working Group

The group has completed an initial review of documents on agroforestry, and will now initiate a task force to develop a position on agroforestry. If you are interested in being part of the task force, please contact Aidan and Si Yuan at aidan@gpsnr.org and yeo.siyuan@gpsnr.org respectively.

They are also starting a national capacity building subgroup in Thailand after Michelin pledged funding for key projects in the country. Should you be interested in joining this subgroup, you can also write to Aidan and Si Yuan!

Traceability and Transparency Working Group

This working group is currently finalising the definition and acceptable levels of traceability for GPSNR and developing data collection and reporting standards together with the Policy Toolbox working group.

Shared Responsibility Working Group

As a step forward on the discussion about the long term financial model, the group has discussed the preliminary concept of a rubber trust fund. It is now seeking inputs to refine and further develop the foundations of thel model.

Access GPSNR Working Group August Slides here

August 25, 2021

More To Explore

RubberWay Contributes to Achieving GPSNR Goals

By Nicole Tan, Project Manager, RubberWay

A couple of months ago, RubberWay was proud to introduce its contributions to sustainable natural rubber to members of GPSNR.

Data obtained through RubberWay contributes to helping users meet the GPSNR Reporting Requirements. A crosswalk analysis done by the RubberWay team showed that it provides 89% coverage of the 37 GPSNR Policy Components, of which 18 Policy Components are directly satisfied by RubberWay while 15 are partially contributed to.

RubberWay meets 33 out of 37 GPSNR Policy Components through direct and indirect contributions.

The webinar hosted by GPSNR gave RubberWay the chance to provide an overview of its solution from the perspective of both tire makers and processors.

The sharing by tire makers highlighted the motivations for their participation in RubberWay and the ways in which RubberWay’s results have enabled them to engage in efforts on the ground.

Similarly, natural rubber processors are able to apply data from RubberWay to implement field actions while also using the tool as a channel to facilitate communication directly with smallholders.

Users are able to utilise data generated through RubberWay to inform risk mitigation measures. RubberWay also provides its users with a channel for supplier engagement.

More detailed information on how RubberWay contributes to achieving GPSNR’s goals for sustainable natural rubber can be found in the RubberWay white paper. Access to the complete crosswalk analysis is also available upon request.

ABOUT RUBBERWAY

RubberWay is a digital risk mapping solution that helps upstream actors to detect environmental and social risks across the natural rubber supply chain. Risk data obtained through RubberWay generates actionable insights for users like tire makers and processors to drive change towards sustainability within the industry.

With over 50,000 questionnaires completed to date, the RubberWay dataset is set to increase with growing participation of users, enabling expansive reporting of sustainability risks across sourcing countries globally.

Find out more about RubberWay here.

GPSNR Secretariat June 13, 2022

News

Smallholders Representation Working Group Update – November 2019

With the input from the workshop in Indonesia, Thailand, Brazil (and soon Cote d’Ivoire and Vietnam), the smallholders representation working group is finalizing the definition of ‘smallholders’ which will be needed to open up a new category of membership. Recognizing the experience and effort that IRSG/SNRi had already invested in this work, Smallholders Representation Working Group invited IRSG to discuss the definition of ‘smallholders’.

While many countries have their own definition of ‘smallholders’ based on the size of their land, the Smallholders representation Working Group agreed other characteristics of smallholders (such as income provenance, level of dependency on family labour, economic constraints, etc) should also be considered.

As the definition of ‘smallholders’ are affiliated to the work scope Strategy 2 – Capacity Building Working Group, the Smallholders Representation Working Group members are working closely with Strategy 2 – Capacity Building Working Group members to ensure that there is alignment in definition between smallholders in the natural rubber supply chain and smallholders that will become GPSNR member.

In the meantime, a successful third workshop in Brazil concluded this week, with a series of learnings for GPSNR on the organisation of farmers in the region, and their expectations from the future collaboration with the Platform. The workshop also achieved good progress on the identification of potential candidates for membership in GPSNR, both by single farmers and producers associations.

GPSNR Staff November 21, 2019