The Partnership Panels - Parallel sessions

Taking public private cooperation to the next level. IDH convened over 25 top level executives, ministers, ambassadors and directors to discuss concrete steps to shape the Future of Sustainable Trade. How can public and private sector support each other best? What is the next step in aligning retail and governments? How to make finance a tool for scale and not an end? What best practices are there already? What can we learn from each other? Read the panel outlines, look at the line-up of each panel and add the panel of your choice to ‘my schedule’ in the event app.

  1. Cocoa & Forest initiative 
  2. Finance for Landscapes
  3. The Future of Food and Retail
  4. Smallholder value chain financing
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Cocoa & Forests Initiative

Last year an unprecedented partnership was convened by ISU, IDH and WCF, creating the Cocoa and Forests Initiative. This is an active commitment of cocoa-producing countries Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Colombia with leading chocolate and cocoa companies. In each country, far-reaching Frameworks for Action have been signed to end deforestation and restore forest areas.

 

National Implementation Plans have been developed in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, by means of a multi-stakeholder process, turning the Frameworks into action. The signatory companies are finalizing their individual action plans.

 

This set of public-private actions represent unprecedented commitments on forest protection and restoration, and sustainable cocoa production and farmer livelihoods. The combined actions, which are aligned with the Paris Climate Agreement, will play a crucial role in sequestering carbon stocks and thereby addressing global and local climate change.

To drive the CFI forward there is a need for continued public-private partnership. How can government and private sector support each other? How will the implementation be financed? What is success?

Speakers joining this session :

 

  • Sir Graham Wynne

    Board member at the Institute for European Environmental Policy

    Facilitator

  • Kim Frankovich

    Vice President of Cocoa Sustainability for Mars Wrigley Confectionery

  • Ambassador Raymund Furrer

    State Secretariat for Economic Cooperation and Development (SECO) Switzerland

  • Gbogou Didier Lohoury

    Chief of Staff, Ministère des Eaux et Forêts - Côte d'Ivoire

  • Han de Groot

    Chief Executive Officer of the Rainforest Alliance

  • Harold Poelma

    President of Cargill Cocoa and Chocolate

  • Hon. Benito Owusu-Bio

    Deputy Minister of Lands and Natural Resources, Ghana

  • Antoine de Saint-Affrique

    Chief Executive Officer of Barry Callebaut

 

Finance for Landscapes

Implementing global commitments on deforestation and climate smart land use is complex, and requires multi-stakeholder partnerships in the sourcing areas through a landscape approach. IDH  implements this through Production, Protection, Inclusion compacts; agreements through which public, community/farmer and private powers set targets on sustainable and inclusive land use and protection of natural resources.

Landscapes with such targets require significant investment, and possibly new financial instruments.
Recently, a number of blended finance funds were established, including the Land Degradation Neutrality Fund, the &Green Fund and the AGRI3 Fund.

 

What innovations are proposed by these funds? What new experiences can we learn from? How will these financial mechanisms deliver on private sustainability commitments and our global goals?

This panel provides insight in the latest developments in the Finance for Landscape space.

Speakers joining this session :

 

  • Peter Bakker

    President of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

    Facilitator

  • Sylvain Goupille

    Managing Director Althelia funds

  • Nanno Kleiterp

    Chairman of the Board at &Green fund

  • Berry Marttin

    Member of the Managing Board

    Rabobank

  • Jennifer Morris

    President of Conservation International

  • Patrick Njoroge

    Governor of the Central Bank of Kenya

  • Hon. Augustus J. Flomo

    Deputy for Economic Management, Liberia

  • Sunny Verghese

    Chief Executive Officer of Olam; Chairman of the World Business Council for Sustainable Development

 

The Future of Food and Retail

The food industry is facing new trends: on one hand, consumers are requesting sustainable products and want to live healthier lives and, on the other, the UN Sustainable Development Goals demand coordinated action to deliver impact. Retailers face the challenge of ensuring sustainable supply chains that meet both consumers and governments expectations. Global attention on environmental and social themes is increasing, while the solutions for sustainable supply chains require collaboration not only within the supply chains, but also among retailers themselves. In the past IDH has successfully worked with different sector covenants where retailers’ role and support has been key for delivering change in procurement practices along supply chains, like the case of the Sustainable Initiative of Fruit and Vegetables (SIFAV) and of Landscape programs.

 

Cross-sectoral collaboration is needed to tackle themes like deforestation, living wages and working conditions, soil health and fertility, inclusive sourcing and water stewardship. Retailers are the best placed for supporting the development of common approaches across sectors on these themes. The panel includes leading grocery retailers and representatives of governments. The discussion will provide answers to questions like: What are the themes on which retailers need to collaborate to enable change? How does the public good agenda fit into this and where do interests merge? Is it possible to create fruitful public private cooperation? What is the next step in alignment between retail and governments to sustain the future of food?

Speakers joining this session :

 

  • Sonia Cordera

    Chair of the Roadmap on Living Wages Steering Committee; Deputy Director at IDH

    Sonia leads a team of professionals responsible for the aquaculture, flowers and plants, fruit and vegetables, juice, nuts and spices sectors and is responsible for the IDH living wage approach. She chairs/represents IDH in the Boards of the different sector and thematic initiatives with the aim of steering the industry towards the uptake of sustainable social and environmental practices.

  • Lasse Bolander

    Chairman at COOP Denmark

  • Mike Coupe

    Chief Executive Officer of Sainsbury's

  • Jan Ernst de Groot

    Chief Legal Officer

    Ahold Delhaize

  • Jos Huber

    Senior policy advisor at Ministry of Foreign Affairs, The Netherlands

  • Marc Jansen

    Director of the Centraal Bureau Levensmiddelenhandel

  • Ole Thonke

    Head of Department for Growth and Employment, Danish Foreign Ministry

 

Smallholder Value Chain Financing

More than 200 M smallholder farmers ln in Latin America, Sub Sahara Africa and Asia, rely on agriculture as a main source of income. Smallholder agriculture is an important generator of rural jobs and incomes, and plays a vital role in providing food security in developing countries. Yet, the majority of smallholder farmers live in poverty. As they are unable to invest in their farms, they are trapped in a cycle of poverty. A lack of financing is a key factor why farmers cannot reach their potential. Banks and value chain actors are reluctant to finance smallholder farmers because of the high perceived risks and operational costs. However, some innovative value chain actors and financial institutions have started to develop this space, enabling some smallholder finance to become available. Still, this is a nascent space and there is a huge financing gap left. What has changed that smallholder finance now has become possible? What is needed to scale up and close the financing gap? What can value chain actors and banks do to develop farmer finance as a mainstream investment class, and what should be the role of the public sector (donors)?

Speakers joining this session :

 

  • Beth Dunford

    Vice President for Agriculture, Human and Social Development

    African Development Bank Group

  • Roel Messie

    Chief Executive Officer IDH Invest

    IDH Investment Management

  • Andrew Halle

    Chief Executive Officer of Ecom

  • Svein Tore Holsether

    President and Chief Executive Officer of Yara International

  • Friso Koopmans

    Managing Director, Global Head Agri Commodities at ABN AMRO Bank N.V.

  • Dr. James Mwangi

    Group Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Equity Group Holdings Limited

  • Mahesh R. Patel

    Chairman of the Board of Export Trading Group S.A

Main sponsors

Sponsors of specific parts of the event

 

Jacobs Douwe Egberts     Refresco     Marfrig