An assessment of overall effectiveness of agricultural multi-stakeholder initiatives with specific attention to smallholder inclusiveness, and recommendations for improvement

Overview

Oxfam engages with multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) to discover how they can further move sectors towards social, economic and environmental sustainability. The main purpose of this report is to assess the current roles of MSIs on key social and human rights topics and to explore how they can improve their performance on these topics. In addition, this report provides reflections on what Oxfam could do to support MSIs to improve. It was commissioned by the Gender transformative and Responsible Agricultural Investments in South-East Asia programme (GRAISEA), funded by the Swedish government with some co-financing by private sector partners. The report does not represent Oxfam’s positioning on MSIs or the topics. It is written by Aidenvironment to provide Oxfam staff, its partners and MSIs with input to further reflect on whether and how MSIs could position themselves on these topics. The content of this report is based upon a literature review and 19 interviews with Oxfam staff, its partners and MSIs, and subsequently its first draft was commented upon by these stakeholders in writing as well as during a webinar on 1 December 2020.

This report is divided into two parts. Part A focuses on how GRAISEA’s target MSIs are able to include and create benefits for small-scale producers. These influential GRAISEA target MSIs are:

• Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) (in Phase 1 only)
• Sustainable Rice Platform (SRP)
• Aquaculture Stewardship Council (ASC)
• Asian Seafood Improvement Collaborative (ASIC).

Part B discusses the current and potential roles of MSIs in general, not only the four GRAISEA targets, on a number of key topics relevant to GRAISEA and Oxfam.