Locations
Sustainable Production Landscapes
Agriculture drives some of the most pressing development challenges today including widespread poverty and vulnerability among smallholder producers and degradation of productive landscapes. Overexploitation and poor agricultural practices lead to soil erosion, and depletion of freshwater resources. Continued expansion of the agricultural frontier is the most important cause of deforestation and loss of biological diversity and is a major cause of climate change.
At the same time, millions of farmers in rural communities depend on agriculture for livelihoods, and farming must become compatible with better livelihoods and resilient and sustainable landscapes. Sustainable farming must become an attractive livelihood option for young generations of producers. Often solutions are well understood but need to be implemented at scale, in a collaborative effort between all stakeholders: governments, farmers, commodity companies and civil society. UNDP supports multi-stakeholder dialogue and effective collaborative action among stakeholders to transform the way food and agricultural commodities are grown and traded.
Led by the World Bank and funded by the Global Environment Facility, UNDP is a strategic implementing partner of the USD 345 million Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) initiative, which seeks to transform the global food system by promoting sustainable, integrated landscapes and efficient commodity value chains.
As part of the ongoing Green Commodities Programme (GCP) funded by the Swiss State Secretariat of Economic Affairs (SECO), in Indonesia UNDP FACS has been instrumental to ignite change and drive collaboration across the whole of government, supporting as many as 17 ministries and the entire sector to formulate the National Action Plan for Sustainable Palm Oil (NAP SPO). Launched in 2014, the plan is still under implementation.
The newly launched phase III of GCP expands its reach to five countries, catalysing changes in the sustainability of agricultural production for society, the economy, and the environment.
Our work areas
Catalysing the transformation across jurisdictional levels
A combination of a growing global population and increasing affluence means that demand for agricultural commodities could more than double by 2050. If on the one hand we will need to increase agricultural production, on the other the triple planetary crisis calls for a reduction of the environmental footprint while providing good livelihoods for millions of smallholder farmers and communities. Agriculture drives some of the most pressing development challenges today, including widespread poverty and vulnerability among smallholder producers and degradation of productive landscapes.
Private sector action is critical for supporting smallholder farmers to shift towards sustainable farming and achieve climate resilience across the agriculture value chain. It is also key for transforming agricultural supply chains in forest and peatland-dependent commodities such as soy, palm oil and livestock. Tracing of products to the farm level, drastic increase in third-party certified sustainable produce, and regular disclosure of nature risks and impacts by companies is key.
Engaging businesses as crucial players for a production shift
Against the backdrop of an urgent shift in our food systems, how can the private sector meet sustainability objectives while achieving long-term growth? How do we move away from a “business as usual” approach to a truly sustainable production system? Mounting expectations from governments, international NGOs, customers, employees and investors, an ever-changing sustainability ecosystem and limited resources may cast serious doubts on the chances of success.
At the same time, we need to strengthen inclusive approaches to multi-stakeholder collaboration, with governments being a major player in this transition.
Value Beyond Value Chains: driving private sector engagement
Rapid action to address unsustainable production can protect revenue and reputation, reduce risks, and ensure a stable operating environment. To drive this transformation, companies must act beyond their value chains in jurisdictional approaches. Companies currently invest significant resources into supply chain management approaches, but relatively little into effective collaboration with producer governments across sectors. This means that the most essential ingredient of any long-term solution is being comparatively neglected.
UNDP FACS has launched the Value Beyond Value Chains (VBV) guideline and events series to make the business case for private sector to strengthen collaboration with the government and civil society through multistakeholder processes, leveraging their role potential to improve sustainable production.
Working with governments in key producing countries, the UNDP FACS team designed an innovative approach for a Jurisdictional Dialogues series fostering a systems approach. The dialogue methodology ensures that all voices affecting the system are invited to the dialogue and given the space to engage. It provides an opportunity for South-South exchanges with other jurisdictions in similar processes, helping align stakeholders’ efforts to address complex but very specific local issues.
Shifting mindsets & fostering public-private partnerships
Through the promotion of VBV via ad hoc training sessions and related events, UNDP FACS aims at shifting mindsets and influence the private sector to take more systemic approaches. VBV is also providing practical guidelines and concrete steps for companies on how to influence the enabling conditions for sustainable production, as well as catalyzing more systemic public-private partnerships in key hotspot countries.
Workshops using the VBV framework to improve public-private collaboration for sustainable agricultural production under the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration (FOLUR) Impact Program have engaged so far more than 80 private sector companies together with government and civil society, including members of the Tropical Forest Alliance, the World Business Council for Sustainable Development and the UN Global Compact’s networks. VBV training series continues in 2023-2024 to FOLUR Country Project teams and private sector stakeholders, including multilateral Financial Institutions.
Improving sustainable production in over 60 countries
In addition, UNDP FACS is providing advisory support to several projects focused on sustainable production landscapes. In Ghana, UNDP FACS partners with Mondelez International, the world’s largest cocoa buyer, under the Cocoa Life project to manage cocoa production landscapes more sustainably and conserve ecosystems and natural resources in these communities. Under the Sustainable Productive Landscapes in the Peruvian Amazon, UNDP FACS has supported the planning and governance processes to reduce deforestation and sustainably intensify production at regional, provincial, and district levels, integrating environmental criteria in planning processes.
UNDP is implementing more than 60 projects aimed at improving the sustainability of production landscapes through capacity development, technical assistance, institutional mechanisms and system building, and convening partnerships.
Developing sustainable commodities in Indonesia and Colombia: Jurisdictional Dialogues
From the government perspective, UNDP FACS has supported the development of two successful series of Jurisdictional Dialogues in the province of West Kalimantan, Indonesia, and the department of Caquetá, Colombia. Each supported local governments entities with the convening of stakeholders to strengthen the participation in spatial data collection for sustainable commodity development in West Kalimantan Province, and to align visions for the creation of the forest extension system in the department of Caquetá. The Jurisdictional Dialogues have strengthened participants' potential for change in both Jurisdictions, applying a systemic approach to integrated land management in their own context.
Protecting forests through inclusive land planning processes
Food and agricultural commodity systems, land use, and land use change account for 25% of greenhouse gas emissions and are a leading driver of biodiversity loss. We must focus on transforming food systems, promoting regenerative and climate-resilient agriculture, ensuring deforestation-free commodities.
There are many diverse and competing interests regarding the use of land and its resources. Land use planning regulates the type of use, seeking desired social and environmental outcomes as well as a more efficient use of resources. Within the context of agricultural commodities production, the goal of effective land use planning is to enable land use approaches that remove incentives to convert forests, peatlands and wetlands to agricultural production and, ultimately, deforestation.
UNDP aims at ensuring that land use planning processes are inclusive and participatory. This means involving all landscape-level stakeholders in thorough consultations and dialogue to reconcile social, economic, environmental, and cultural interests. UNDP also supports the creation of dialogue spaces where stakeholders can work through conflicts encompassing the role of power dynamics.
Improving the sustainability of land use: the Good Growth Partnership
Over five years, the UNDP FACS-led Good Growth Partnership (GGP) pilot phase (2017-2022) has supported an improved enabling environment for sustainable land use by developing or improving 19 land use policies in Indonesia, Liberia and Paraguay, eight of which are in-force today. As a result, an estimated 58 million tons of CO2e emissions have been avoided through the protection of over 847,000 hectares[1]. Read more on the impact of the Good Growth Partnership here.
Supporting the transition towards sustainable agricultural production
The traditional focus on supporting producers and their organizations has not proven scalable to the degree needed to offset the enormous increase in demand for commodities. Support and finance for producers to shift practices needs to leverage all relevant public and private sector actors’ technical and financial resources. Multi-stakeholder collaboration is therefore essential to strengthen capacity to systematically support smallholder farmers, given that national/subnational farmer support systems are often weak: only a systemic approach, with all stakeholders working together can create meaningful change at scale.
UNDP Farmers Support Systems Toolkit
UNDP has rolled out a Farmers Support System Toolkit that facilitates a systemic approach to producer support by identifying and harnessing public and private sector knowledge and resources. The Toolkit guides governments to engage in collaborative processes, to develop new partnerships, enable innovation, and strengthen financing for stronger producer support systems.
Supporting the transition towards sustainable agricultural production, the toolkit uses a Diagnosis Scorecard to identify key gaps in existing support systems in a collaborative way, including solutions and their financing.
Through the first five years of operation, the UNDP FACS-led Good Growth Partnership (GGP) pilot phase (2017-2022) has piloted the UNDP Farmers Support System Toolkit and strengthened producer support systems by enabling national and subnational governments to develop strategies that build-on and scale-up the results of training and private sector engagement.
Good Agricultural Practices for over 7,000 producers
The over 7,000 producers involved adopted more than 80% of all the Good Agricultural Practices shared during training sessions, and almost half immediately reported economic gains. To scale-up these good results, four new national and subnational farmer support strategies owned by the Ministry of Agriculture and its local representatives were developed and are under implementation in Indonesia, Liberia and Paraguay. By integrating businesses, farmers, and governments into a coordinated strategy, less resource intensive and more resilient practices can reduce agricultural expansion and its pressure on natural ecosystems. The Good Growth Partnership continues its work through the Food Systems, Land Use and Restoration Impact Program (FOLUR), as funded by the World Bank. Read more here.
A "learning and adjusting" mindset to measure deforestation changes
Landscape and jurisdictional approaches which attempt to address food and agricultural commodity sustainability issues are complex interventions, attempting to change the interplay of political, economic, and social forces at play in the landscape. Their Theories of Change tend to include multiple assumptions and risks, relying on many factors working alongside project efforts. As these landscape and jurisdictional approaches are designed and implemented in dynamic environments, implementation teams must be comfortable in dealing with uncertainty. A "learning and adjusting" mindset is crucial, since these ambitious projects try to pull several levers of change at once.
UNDP FACS aims at supporting implementation of landscape and jurisdictional approaches in a reflective and agile way. Being capable of leveraging insights from implementation is crucial, allowing adjustments in real time and increasing their chances of success. This implies engaging in a continuous reflection on what is working and not, calling into question the validity of the Theory of Change – and its assumptions – and its interplay with the complex system dynamics driving deforestation in the landscape or jurisdiction.
Filling the monitoring & evaluation gap: the Causality Assessment for Landscape Interventions (CALI) guidebook
UNDP FACS has just launched the Causality Assessment for Landscape Interventions (CALI) methodology, providing an integrated, systems-informed approach for global project teams to continuously reflect on the validity of their Theory of Change. With a strong emphasis on unpacking causality between results at different levels, this tool fills a major gap in current monitoring and evaluation and is expected to become a vital tool for project adaptive management in the future. As current agricultural practices lead to deforestation, land and ecosystem degradation, the CALI guidebook will help practitioners deepen their understanding of the causal pathways through which their interventions contribute (or not) to mitigating deforestation at the landscape or jurisdictional level.
The cornerstone of the assessment is the engagement of key landscape stakeholders as partners, which is aimed to uncover insights on relevant system dynamics, while discussing their role in the Theory of Change of the project. The findings of the assessment will allow project teams to adopt corrective and/or catalysing actions to increase the chances of success of the Project. CALI has already been piloted in Indonesia, Liberia, Paraguay and Peru, while continuing to expand to more countries at global level.
