Learning Event summary
About the event
There are many ways to move towards a living income through policy levers. One of these is by integrating living income into market policy. A prominent example of this is the integration of the living income into the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD).
The CSDDD requires companies to track and address human rights issues in their supply chains – including living income. The case describes the process of negotiation around the CSDDD and shares lessons on advocacy and policy development.
The CSDDD imposes a form of mandatory due diligence on companies in the EU, regarding the identification, assessment, prevention, mitigation and remediation of human rights violations, including living income (among others). This puts the burden of proof on companies, who will be expected to more actively engage with their supply chain – including with smallholders.
It heavily involved governments of the European Union, civil society, farming households, governments of exporting countries, and companies (both importers and exporters).
This case yielded several lessons for policy-oriented living income practitioners, including the need to:
- Recognise the interaction between policy at the level of ‘importing governments’ and ‘exporting governments’
- Trust the influence of step-by-step mobilisation around a common theme, such as living income
- Be consistent in language, solutions, and arguments around living income
- Continue building a structural, consolidated advocacy coalition around living income, reaching the right people
- Integrate living income in a wider, multidimensional agenda of other social, environmental and economic issues
In this workshop, we will unpack these lessons and see how they can be translated to similar initiatives, as well as share other examples of advocacy.
This is the second in a three-part series exploring living income policy case studies. Register for other two sessions on the Living Income Differential (LID) in Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana and Vietnam’s national coffee sector strategy.
Publication links:
- Read the CSDDD) case study here: Components for creating living income policy initiatives: Integrating Living Income into the CSDDD
- Read the full report here: Components for creating living income policy initiatives: Insights from 3 policy case studies
Project researchers:
- Joost Backer, Lead Project Researcher
Joost brings over seven years of experience in sustainable agricultural supply chains across 15+ sectors, working with national governments, multinational corporations, NGOs, and foundations. His expertise spans policy design, multi-stakeholder coordination, and systems and trends analysis. Joost is based in Amsterdam and currently works on a guidebook for transition professionals in international trade, sustainability, and development. He has previously worked for NewForesight – the sustainability consultancy for systems change. Feel free to contact him at [email protected]
- Anna Laven
Anna is a social scientist and senior cocoa value chain expert with 20+ years in the sector as a researcher and adviser. She has deep knowledge on major sustainability topics, including living income, gender equality, farming household segmentation, and price mechanisms.
- Christopher Wunderlich
Christopher has over 30 years of experience in international development and sustainable commodity trade, with a particular focus on sustainable agriculture and the coffee sector.
With contributions on the LID case study from:
- Friedel Hütz-Adams
Friedel Hütz-Adams has been a researcher at Suedwind-Institute since 1993. His research interests are in cocoa, coffee, palm oil, automotive and technology value chains. He is a well-respected expert in the sustainable cocoa field, having co-authored several Cocoa Barometers and an active participant in the VOICE network. In this report, he co-authored the LID case study with Anna Laven.
We would also like to thank Abdulahi Aliyu, Global Program Director, cocoa and coffee at Rikolto International for his contribution detailing Rikolto’s experience with policy, facilitation, and system change.
With support from:
