In April of this year, 2021, 12 companies came together in a call to action to help eradicate poverty through a commitment to build a living wage economy together. IDH is working to secure living wages through the Roadmap on Living Wages - a platform of more than 30 companies that work to strengthen international alignment and build tangible solutions regarding living wage. Eosta, a leading importer, packer, and distributor of organically grown fresh produce, is a member of this platform and regards living wage as the most important topic in the social domain for the coming years. We spoke with Eosta’s CEO, Volkert Engelsman and Annelotte Crena de Iongh, Program manager at IDH, to better understand the work that is underway and what still needs to be done to secure living wages at a global level.

Eosta & IDH on Securing Living Wages

Slowly but surely, European commitments for using responsible and conversion-free soy are becoming concrete, as we can see in the 3rd European Soy Monitor that was recently launched. But what does responsible and conversion-free soy actually mean and how is uptake calculated in a commodities environment where transparency is lacking?

In the new Sustainable Trade Podcast episode, Guilherme do Couto Justo, Program Manager of Soy at IDH spoke with Heleen van den Hombergh, Senior Advisor and Convener for Sustainable Agrocommodities at IUCN Netherlands, Coordinator of the Dutch Soy Platform and CSI – the Collaborative Soy Initiative, and Doutzen Wagenaar, Sustainable Agriculture Expert at Schuttelaar & Partners in order to get the expert insight on the challenges and progress made in the sustainability of soy for a more transparent supply chain.

To see the data in-depth, read the recent Soy Monitoring Report: https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/publication/european-soy-monitor-report-2019/

Monitoring responsible soy through collaboration

Seafood MAP is a globally inclusive digital platform to compile, accelerate, and improve all fisheries and aquaculture efforts on the pathway to sustainability. In this podcast, both Angel Matamoro, Chief CSR and Institutional Relations Officer of Nueva Pescanova Group and Annika Mackensen, Advisor Sustainable Fisheries and Aquaculture at GIZ, explain why they support Seafood MAP.

Seafood MAP: How GSSI is supporting non-certified seafood producers to accelerate their performance

Meet Talash Huibers, a young Kenyan agripreneur who is passionate about using her business to bring a transformative change to the world and who proofs that agriculture is cool and lucrative especially for the youth and women. She is the founder of InsectiPro, a company that is in business of growing insects.

In this IDH podcast, our communication manager in IDH Kenya, Solomon Irungu, had a conversation with her and she explains how she sees the world in color, not in black and white.

Find out more about the work InsectiPro and IDH undertake together in this article: https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/news/is-this-black-soldier-fly-the-answer-to-food-security-in-africa/

How Kenyan entrepreneur is using insects to change the world

How is IDH working toward transforming the Palm Oil market? This podcast is a conversation between Neha Simlai, Senior Program Manager IDH, and Sneha Maheshwari, Program Officer, Palm Oil both based at the IDH India office. They discuss the potential of regional Asian markets, in particular India, to turn the tide towards responsible palm oil uptake and production.

Transforming the Palm Oil Market

Attempts to make our value chains gender inclusive can often mean adding women into the picture, but not really changing the power dynamics between men and women.

IDH believes that to make our value chains sustainable, traditional norms, behaviours, and power dynamics need to be challenged and transformed. And male engagement on gender issues will be an essential part of that work.

How can male engagement help make business gender transformative? Listen to the podcast in conversation with Cesar Maita, Gender Lead and Matthew Spencer, Global Director Landscapes at IDH. 

Learn more about IDH’s work on gender transformative business in this short video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wLVPKs-ywfM

How can male engagement help make our value chains gender transformative?

In this episode Celine Gilart, Director of Social Impact and Sustainability at Twinings, provides concrete examples of how women’s empowerment and gender equality can work to not only improve lives, but also be an engine for economic growth and business. It is clear there is a long way to go before we can say that all supply chains are safe and empowering for women, but efforts are being made to get there. IDH and Twining’s are collaborating, alongside Unilever, Ethical Tea Partnership, Tesco and Taylors, through “The Women’s Safety Accelerator Fund” to address the root causes of gender-based violence in the tea supply chain in Assam, West Bengal and South India. This program works with both management level, and the tea garden workers, along with government service providers, to tackle harmful social norms, such as patriarchal attitudes, as well as lack of access to information and knowledge. Listen to the podcast to find out more.

Creating safe workplaces, free from forms of violence

In this new podcast episode, we discuss with Veronique Bovee, Deputy Director at Proforest, what aspects the palm oil industry can improve to achieve sustainability goals and what are the risks of the EU deforestation regulation on smallholder farmers. During the discussion, Veronique also highlights the positive aspects of the collaboration between IDH and Proforest and how we can work together towards a more sustainable palm oil industry.

Exploring Pathways to Achieve Sustainability Goals in the Palm Oil Sector

Episode 1: Diversification Of Service Supply To Farmers

1 - Daan Wensing on Production, Protection and Inclusion in Brazil

Governments and cocoa companies have signed a framework for action to end deforestation in cocoa. Hear more about this from IDH's Senior Manager Learning and Innovation, Violaine Berger, who works closely with our teams on addressing deforestation.

2 - Cocoa and Forests Initiative

Jan Gilhuis, Senior Program Manager in the IDH Fresh & Ingredients Program, and Don Seville, Co-director of the Sustainable Food Lab, discuss the Sustainable Vanilla Initiative. Hear about the motivation behind setting up the initiative, gain insight into the activities carried out with private and public partners, and learn why investing in sustainable livelihoods for smallholder vanilla farmers is important to improve their living conditions and to secure the supply of this valuable crop.

3 - Sustainable Vanilla Initiative

In this month's podcast, we hear from Flavio Corsin, Program Director for Aquaculture. He sheds light on how IDH works with its partners to address the two biggest issues facing the sector today, disease management and (traceable) feed supply. Data and digital tools are crucial in this process.

5 - Data to the rescue in Aquaculture

Gender compared to our other impact themes is a difficult topic to address, as it is a topic close to culture. We have rightfully agreed globally that there should be gender equality and gender equity. At the same time we do not have the ambition to change cultures. We need to see from the global commitments and the cultural lenses side how we can effectively address gender topics, also given the fact we work with business. How businesses and governments can contribute to gender equality? Listen to our latest podcast on how we are addressing gender in our work in global supply chains. We hear from Judith Fraats, our Impact Lead on Gender and Steven Collet, our Operational Director.

6 - Gender: it is there when working with smallholder farmers and workers

In Padang Tikar village, West Kalimantan, Indonesia, a 'village forest' scheme is supporting communities to both protect their forest and increase their income by engaging in sustainable livelihoods.

Aris Wanjaya, IDH's landscape program manager in Indonesia,  explains how this scheme is helping ensure forest protection and economic development go hand in hand.

7 - Indonesia: Forest protection through sustainable livelihoods

Cassava, an edible root, is also known as the ‘insurance crop’ because it thrives in infertile soil and feeds millions of households all over Africa. But it also has major industrial potential as it can be processed into syrup, flour, starch and many other products.

This month, we hear from Cyril Ugwu, IDH’s regional coordinator for West Africa, on how developing the processed cassava sector can help not only with securing food supply but especially with uplifting livelihoods of millions of people.

8 - Cassava, the 'insurance crop' for improving livelihoods

How is maternity leave on the farm level connected to a favorable position in the international market?

In this month's podcast we share learnings and best practices on applying a gender approach in the flower sector in Ethiopia. Sonia Cordera, project manager Fresh and Ingredients at IDH shares about the women empowerment project she’s been involved in and and why a gender approach is not only important for farmers but also for business and the sector as a whole.

9 - Why a gender approach is good for farmers, business and the sector as a whole

IDH launched together with the Bill & Melinda Gates foundation and DIFD, and with the Rabobank, JDE, Unilever, Mondelez, USAid and the Dutch government respectively the 30M USD IDH Farmfit Business Support and the 100M EUR IDH Farmfit Fund.

11 - Farmfit Business Support and Fund

We are in the business of wicked problems: to make change within the complexity of international trade. The question is: how do we do that? In our newly published book Collaborative Transformation we reflect on the work we've done over the past 10 years to find what mechanisms. In today's podcast Carla Romeu-Dalmau, senior manager of Impact and Learning at IDH, and co-author of the book, dives into the five dimensions needed to drive change.

Curious for more? Download the eBook for free here: www.artofcollaboration.org.

12 - The Art of Collaborative Transformation

In this month's episode we hear from Richard Fairburn who shares his personal experience and lessons learned as senior advisor in many of IDH's programs. What conditions are important for a good and open discussion? How do you deal with priorities and interests of different stakeholders? Based on several practical field examples, Richard gives tips and advise on how to best ensure engagement within multi-stakeholder programs.

13 - Finding the common ground within multi-stakeholder programs

In this month's podcast we hear from Kebba Colley, Director Inclusive Business Development at IDH. Kebba works on Agricultural Value Chain Development in Africa, both with African SMEs and global brands. We'll dive into both perspectives: how can African SMEs reach domestic, regional and global markets; how can global brands increase their sourcing from Africa; and what does this all mean for the continent?

15 - Value Chain Development in Africa

A brand new chocolate bar from Ransiki sub-district in West-Papua, Indonesia, is one of the pioneers for green investment in the area. The cocoa is sustainably grown in Ransiki and the chocolate bar is the result of a collaboration between chocolate maker Pipiltin Cocoa, the local and provincial governments, the farmers' cooperative and IDH Indonesia. Melati from IDH Indonesia and Tissa Aunilla from Pipiltin Cocoa talk about the collaboration and how the local indigenous community is involved,  surrounding forests are protected and new investments are attracted to the area.

More about IDH, the Sustainable Trade Initiative: https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com

The chocolate bar that is a pioneer for green investments

17 - The chocolate bar that is a pioneer for green investments

On this World Food Day we put the farmer household at the centerl! Because despite most of the world’s food being grown by smallholder farmers, they also account for around half of the most undernourished people. This has to change, as not only does access to nutritious food have a significant impact on the overall health and resilience of smallholder farming families but also on rural economies.

In our latest podcast IDH's CEO Joost Oorthuizen and Gaël Lescornec, Manager Cocoa & Food Security, talk through the three pillars of food security: availability, affordability and nutrition, and how each contributes to a more resilient farmer household.

18 - On World Food Day let's put the farmer household at the center

This month we are talking about the first nation-wide commitment from retailers to close the living wage gap in the banana supply chain. You'll hear from Cindy Verhoeven from Superunie, a buying cooperative and Jordy van Honk, IDH’s Global Director agro-commodities. They will talk about how this commitment came about, the next steps ahead, as well as practical tips on how to work on living wage in your supply chain. For more information about the banana retail commitment visit: https://www.idhsustainabletrade.com/banana-retail-commitment/

19 - Closing the living wage gap: the ‘banana retail commitment’

Beyond Chocolate celebrated its 1 year anniversary on December 5. The Belgian industry wide commitment works towards ending deforestation and realizing living incomes in cocoa in 2030. We hear from key players of the Belgian cocoa and chocolate world about the progress so far, and what the next important steps are.

20 - Reflections on 1 year Beyond Chocolate

In this podcast Roel Messie, IDH's Chief Investment Officer is joined by Catalina Eikenberg and Carolin Ehrensperger from Neumann Kaffee Gruppe, the world's leading green coffee service group. They discuss new ways of smallholder farmer financing, with the potential to improve the lives of millions of farmers.

22 - Farmer finance as a new asset class

In this podcast we will explore digital finance solutions for agricultural supply chains in the current COVID-19 crisis. IDH Farmfit’s Kaushik Ramakrishnan is joined by Ad Rietberg and Faith Mulwa from Agri-Wallet, an inspiring fintech company, to discuss the ground realities of the COVID-19 crisis in Africa, and what role digital finance solutions can play to make supply chains more resilient, especially now.

23 - Digital finance solutions for agricultural supply chains during COVID-19

IDH’s Grown Sustainably in Africa (GSA) program works with international brands to strengthen and develop their supply base on the African continent, while empowering SMEs in Africa to enhance their agricultural productivity and become commercially viable. Through these partnerships GSA aims to increases intra-African trade, build stable regional food systems and create permanent and sustainable jobs. 

In this podcast, IDH’s Kebba Colley, Director of inclusive business, is joined by Fatih Ermis, Head of agricultural services West and Central Africa at Nestlé and Kwame Boateng, CEO of Sahel Grains. They talk about what the GSA partnership means for them, and how it brings value to both their businesses and the African continent.

24 - Building strong value chains in Africa

In this podcast Flavio Corsin, IDH director of Aquaculture, talks about the importance of avoiding diseases in aquaculture as a sustainability tool. Disease outbreaks can cause major fish mortality, leading to loss of income and waste of inputs, threatens farmers long-term business. Corsin explains how IDH addresses this issue, and how farmers can use technology in their favour.

25 - Avoiding diseases in aquaculture as a sustainability tool

The discussions you will hear in this podcast were all part of a learning event on cocoa traceability organized in October 2020 by Beyond Chocolate. Beyond Chocolate is a partnership for a more sustainable Belgian chocolate sector, and one of the critical targets that partners have committed to is “ending deforestation linked to cocoa production for the Belgian market by 2030”. The challenges and complexities within achieving this target are explored throughout the podcast.

For this conversation, IDH  brought together key cocoa experts such as, Andrew Brooks, Head of Cocoa Sustainability at Olam, Kristin Komives, Director of Programs at ISEAL, Dr Emmanuel Opoku, Deputy Chief Executive Officer at COCOBOD, Michael Ndoping the Managing Director at ONCC, Adegoke Adeola the President of the Cocoa Farmers Association of Nigeria and Cedric van Cutsem, Associate Director of the Cocoa Life Program at Mondelez.

Traceability as a tool towards deforestation-free cocoa

This is a podcast series for professionals working in the agribusiness industry that seek insights in sustainable value chain development. Together with our partners we dive into our work and share cross-sector learnings and best practices. We reflect on innovative business models related to topics as inclusive finance and gender equality. 

IDH convenes public-private partnerships, co-invests, constructs innovative pilots, and stimulates sustainable production and trade to create systemic change at scale.

IDH Podcast

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