Improve Prosperity
ECOM is helping farmers invest in secure, resilient businesses that empower them, their families and their communities to lead dignified and prosperous lives.
Implementation
Improve Prosperity
ECOM's commitments to our farmers and workers are:
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Empowering farmers, workers and their communities to optimise their profitability and ultimately remove poverty
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Eliminating breaches of human rights through proper risk identification and remediation
ECOM is working with several partners to carry out living income baseline analysis across every touchpoint of our supply chains. Once we understand the current status, we can then plan projects and activities to improve workers’ incomes. Already, our work on the cost of production and improving productivity is improving livelihoods at farm level.
Across the ECOM Group, we have a portfolio of projects covering more than 600,000 farmers, with a network of 1500 field agronomists and staff.
Areas for Strategic Focus
Assessing the risks
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ECOM does not tolerate child or forced labour in our supply chains and we believe that farmers can and should be given the support to uphold globally recognised human rights, including safe and fair workplaces. We have developed a set of policies that align with leading international standards, including: The United Nations Universal Declaration of Human Rights; The International Labour Organisation core labour standards, conventions 182 (worst forms of child labour) and 138 (minimum age); Applicable laws governing child labour, slavery, forced or compulsory labour, and human trafficking. Read our Modern Slavery Statement here |
What this means in practice
CLMRS
Child Labour Monitoring and Remediation System (CLMRS) is currently the foundation of child protection programmes. It is a trusted system allowing for the identification and monitoring of child labour incidences, and reducing the cases found through that monitoring. However, ECOM recognises the limitations of individual household monitoring systems in terms of prevention and its ability to solve a systemic issue. We believe that focusing on protecting and providing an environment where children can develop and learn should be a central part of our strategy to mitigate the risks of child labour and will support transformative change.
Working with experts
We currently serve on the global advisory council for the Farm Labour Due Diligence Toolkit, a Verité led collaborative initiative to define good practice and create open-source resources for companies, suppliers and other stakeholders to eliminate labour abuses in global agricultural supply chains. We are looking to evaluate those resources and define our priorities for our cocoa, coffee, and cotton supply chain and potentially test/pilot the resources.
Prioritising education
Alianza de Sueños (Dream Alliance) is a project that seeks to protect the children of coffee pickers who come to the AAA farms during the harvest season to avoid child labor. Having many children on AAA farms, it became necessary to look for alternatives that would allow the project to expand. This is how the opportunity to create Casas de la Alegría (Houses of Joy) in the coffee farms was born.
Read more about Alianza de Sueños
Living income gap analysis
The concept goes beyond traditional notions of poverty alleviation that are concerned with basic subsistence and survival. It puts a strong emphasis on earning enough income to afford a decent standard of living for all household members allowing for a higher resilience towards unexpected shocks.
As we recognize living income as a basic human right, we have committed to establishing a living income gap analysis in our origin sourced supply chain complete with action plans to close the identified gaps in an effort to formalize our approach going forward.
What this means in practice
Nestlé Income Accelerator Program (IAP)
In 2022, we piloted the Nestlé Income Accelerator Program (IAP) with two of our partner co-operatives in Côte d’Ivoire, to help farmers in cocoa-farming communities close the living income gap and secure additional sources of income. The programme aims to accelerate the adoption of sustainable practices at farm and household level by enabling and incentivising these practices. It has four clear objectives: (1) Increased adoption of pruning among participating farmers, (2) 100% of children aged between 6 and 16 in IAP attend school, (3) Promotion of agroforestry through the distribution and planting of multipurpose trees, (4) IAP farmers optimise their income from additional activities.
Enabling income diversification
We are committed to ensuring a dynamic and sustainable future for farmers and to implementing a comprehensive set of initiatives to tackle the financial health of our farmers from multiple sides. We are providing training in efficient techniques and capital investment for new tools that can empower women and youth in farming communities with skills to help diversify family incomes.
Making farm equipment affordable
Innovations in agriculture are helping farmers rapidly transition to new and more productive processes, but for many farmers, financial constraints can put these developments out of reach. At ECOM, our package of measures to engage with and improve life for farmers and their families includes: developing resilience through tailored training on new technologies; farm renovation and rehabilitation; providing digital support in the form of accessible, app-based platforms; making farm equipment affordable with low-cost machinery, flexible payment choices and post-purchase training.
Improving
gender disparities
Even though many women participate in farming, gender disparities remain in cocoa communities around access and support. This can sometimes be attributed to not considering the impacts of gender when developing programmes. For example, training sessions may be conducted at times when children are not at school, making it difficult for women to participate.
In 2021 ECOM collaborated with Equal Origins (formerly the Partnership for Gender Equity) and industry peers in order to develop the Gender Equity Index (GEI) tool to assess current farmer support practices through a gender lens and to see where we could improve gender disparities. In developing the tool, we explored what we wanted the Index to tell us and what questions we should ask stakeholders to get the right information.
What this means in practice
Gender Equity Index
During 2021, ECOM worked with Equal Origins to develop the Gender Equity Index (GEI) to assess current extension and advisory services through a gender lens. Following two pilots, in Ghana and Peru, the final index was launched by Equal Origins in early 2022 as a 67-question diagnostic tool that will help ECOM to identify precise areas for actions to improve gender performance. Innovative solutions like the GEI will be rolled out across the Group, taking us further towards our goal of improving farmer livelihoods across the world.
Empowering women
Women are key to agriculture, and their role in the supply chain is often misrepresented. ECOM works with its network to identify women who are community leaders and support them with specialised training and support. Through collaboration with stakeholders, ECOM is able to train women in areas such as farm and nursery management. Participation in these activities contributes to enhancing the women’s decision making power on the farm and in their communities, thereby empowering them to make strategic choices and put them into action.
Supporting communities
When work at the farm becomes tough and communities come together to work together, women are a key part of the process. In coffee communities where women coffee pickers are not able to leave their children in safe locations, ECOM unites with local partners to bring communities together and provide secure communal homes for children to stay and benefit from educational and health services as mothers are able to participate in economic activities during the coffee season.
Continuous Learning
Through a trusted network of specialists on the ground, we’ll be able to provide services and training on a range of issues, from soil management to labour practices. In this way we can support smallholder farmers to build capacity and resistance and gain greater market access, so that they can compete with larger producers in the international market.
Our incentives and training programmes encourage climate-smart agricultural practices and increase productivity. Diversification schemes help make farmer incomes more stable, while financial services allow them to invest in their own land. Wherever we source, we have roots in the community, for example with our programmes to educate and empower women and, with our partners, our work towards the eradication of child labour.
Cocoa
Partnering for sustainable management of landscape
ECOM Cocoa is collaborating in a 10-year multi-stakeholder (local government, civil society, private sector and others) programme developing a common strategy for sustainable landscape management in Peru. The aim is to help farmers deliver more efficient yield production, adapt to climate change, and protect the environment.
In 2022, our work has included training and supporting 116 producers on issues such as pest and disease control and sustainable production. Diagnosis and evaluation have also been carried out, with the aim of these producers reaching Rainforest Alliance certification. Where technology transfer has been carried out, farmers are adopting good practices that have been recommended.
More cocoa sustainability in action
Coffee
Dressing for success, Uganda style
Every part of Uganda has a different culture and traditional dress. In central Uganda, it is common for women to wear the gomesi, which is a colourful floor-length dress. Bold, brightly coloured prints are popular in east Uganda. The vibrant, floral styles are Congolese, and typically include headgear as well.
In partnership with Taylors of Harrogate, Kawacom has set up the Sipi Women Economic Empowerment Project (SWEEP), with the aim of empowering economically disadvantaged and vulnerable women, girls and young mothers in the Mt. Elgon Coffee Community. The project provides training on business management and entrepreneurship, VSLA's, and coffee farm management, as well as practical training in tailoring that provides a valuable source of income diversification. With access to micro-loans, the women can buy their own sewing machine or set up a local business. In addition, those participating in the project have a social network they can call on for support.
More coffee sustainability in action
Cotton
Incentivising change in Mexico
ECOM is the biggest buyer of cotton in Mexico, with Mexican cotton accounting for around 20% of our global volume annually. There are approximately 175'000 hectares dedicated to the cotton production. With 80% of production going towards national industry, public-private partnership will be pivotal to developing initiatives in the country.
ECOM is committed to playing a key role in transforming cotton farming in Mexico so that it can start consistently to meet global cotton standards. Our approach there is focused on water management, soil remediation, biodiversity and labour rights.
By incentivising the transition towards regenerative farming and sustainable cotton production, we can make farmers less reliant on institutional support and more resilient.
More cotton sustainability in action