SoC Community of Practice Gathers in Amsterdam to Accelerate Scaling of Inclusive Supply Chains

 

[to go to the presentations immediately; please scroll down]

 

Inclusive Business is an exciting concept. It offers a vision of thoughtfully designed trade that includes those typically left on the outside of formal commerce and brings much needed benefits to small farmers and workers while maintaining competitiveness. With the attention on inclusive business models on the rise, it is a good time to step back and look at what is working and what is needed to increase our scale of collective impact.

 

 

In early February, 60 practitioners from companies, NGOs, development organizations and third-party standards gathered in Amsterdam to do just this. Participants from Heineken, Oxfam, Unilever, Solidaridad, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development, Syngenta, Lindt & Sprüngli, and many other organizations, shared successes and challenges with one another over the course of a two-day workshop. They discussed lessons from cases of inclusive business from different sectors and places in the value chain. They identified what resources would be helpful to businesses that would like to promote smallholder sourcing, and provided support and feedback to peers with questions and challenges around their work on inclusive business models.

 

Participants came away with the sense that while there are many successful examples of inclusive supply chain projects, we have much to learn from one another about how to scale inclusive business models in order to increase benefits along the supply chain. The Seas of Change initiative can continue to play the role of a learning platform and convener to accelerate this learning.

 

 

Please have a look at the workshop programme here: Inclusive Business Workshop Agenda_SoC_Feb3 FINAL 2014-02-10. Here you can find a summary of the workshop: Seas of Change Inclusive Business Workshop Summary 2014

 

Below you can find an overview of all available presentations:

 

Wednesday 12 February

10.30h Welcome and opening

By Don Seville (Sustainable Food Lab, SFL) and Joost Guijt (Centre for Development Innovation of Wageningen UR, CDI WUR)

 

11.00u Motivations and learning on inclusive business

By Leonardo Lima (Arcos Dorados) and Robert Berlin (Syngenta Foundation). Reflections by Jefferson Shriver (Catholic Relief Services). What is working? Where are you stuck? What has been the value for the businesses and development organisations? Click here for a short video about the Qorichara project in Peru, and here you can find a factsheet about the project: 1. Qorichara Quality Vegetables At 3000 Meters

 

14.00h Break-out 1 What makes sense for farmers?

By Ellen Jobling and Gareth Davies (Syngenta’s Food Security Agenda), Yared Sertse (Depasa Agro Industry & Africa Juice, Ethiopia), and Jan Ubels (SNV). What’s the business case for smallholder farmers to want to connect to more inclusive supply chains? How do we tailor models and implementation to give the farmers real added value? Presentation: 2. PPT IBM Syngenta

 

14.00h Break-out 2 Inclusive business for SME’s and suppliers

By Elijah Kangara (Star Café, Uganda), Elias Geneti Simma (director Depasa Agro Industry & president Chamber of Commerce, Ethiopia), and Ed Shepherd (Ben & Jerry’s). SMEs, suppliers and lead firms are the ones who carry out the practicalities of inclusive business. What are the opportunities and challenges for smaller scale domestic businesses? Why would suppliers consider this, when does it make sense and when not? Presentation: 3. PPT IBM AAA

 

14.00h Break-out 3 Lead firms driving inclusive business

By Paul Stanger (Heineken) and Chris Claes (VECO). Although lead buying firms rarely work directly with farmers, they can drive a discussion in their supply chains on how to make them more inclusive. What are the goals and the key challenges? Presentation: 3b. PPT IBM Heineken

 

16.30h Performance measurement

By Don Seville (SFL), Dave Boselie (IDH Sustainable Trade Initiative), and Frank DeGiovanni (Ford Foundation). What does “success” look like? How do we measure improvements in livelihoods from more inclusive business? This session will share a draft framework for common indicators from recent collaboration that could provide greater consistency in language and metrics and better learning across supply chains. Presentation: 4. PPT IBM Shared Approach to Common Indicators

 

17.30h Wrap up

 

 

Thursday 13 February

8.30h Tools for procurement and supplier companies

By Ximing Hu (Unilever) and David Bright (Oxfam). Which tools are needed for procurement and supplier companies to scale inclusive business?

 

9.00h A guidance framework for suppliers

By Don Seville (SFL), Justin Tait and Michele Bruni (Unilever/Oxfam Sunrise project). Presentation of draft supplier framework of success factors from research: 5. PPT IBM Supplier Guidance Framework

 

10.30h A guidance framework for buyers

By Bill Vorley (IIED) and Filippo Veglio (WBCSD). Reflections by Jan-Kees Vis (Unilever). What can lead firms do to incentivize and support buyers? How do we change the culture involved? Presentation: 6. PPT IBM IIED & 7. PPT IBM WBCSD

 

13.30h Break-out 1 Making research work for business

By Monika Sopov and Yeray Saavedra Gonzalez (CDI WUR), and Wilfred van der Kooij (New Horizons, Mozambique). Many of the best inclusive business work has been extensively researched. Still the research often doesn’t convince other companies to follow suit, and the lead business itself rarely seems to benefit. How can we make in-depth research more useful? Presentations: 8. PPT IBM Research general & 9. PPT IBM New Horizons

 

13.30h Break-out 2 Quick and quality diagnostics

By Mark Lundy (CIAT). A persistent challenge for commercial actors is affordable and fast ways to assess opportunities and value (for farmers and business), and to decide what they can best do. What’s needed? Presentation: 10. PPT IBM CIAT

 

13.30h Break-out 3 Making partnerships work

By Carol Gribnau (Hivos) and Piera Waibel (Lindt & Sprüngli). A key success factor is working in partnership. Yet NGOs are questioned by business for their added value, government is an awkward partner. What do businesses need from their partners that will allow the business to be effective? And what builds partnerships of equals? Presentation: 11. PPT IBM Hivos

 

15.00h Future needs of the community of practice

By Don Seville (SFL) and Joost Guijt (CDI WUR). A strong community of practice helps each of us work more effectively and achieve more. What are priority topics to focus on for the coming 2-3 years? What really helps each of us learn, and apply what we learn? How could this be done together?

 

16.00h Wrap up and goodbye