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May 25, 2021

Sustainability Standards and Economic Concerns: An Academic Roundtable Discussion

When Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) emerged in the late 20th century, they were heralded as innovative new instruments to help meet some of the most pressing sustainability challenges. Disappointment in the lack of meaningful government policy commitments and/or ineffective implementation of traditional ´command-and-control´ regulatory systems spurred the emergence of these market-based instruments. The question is whether VSS have been able to deliver on their promise to bring about fundamental, lasting changes in sustainability practice. Putting focus on the economic benefits, SDGs

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May 18, 2021

Harnessing the strategic use of trade instrument like VSS to address Social Concerns

Global supply chains have been an engine of growth and a significant driver of job creation, especially in developing countries. However, questions have been raised as to whether participation in global supply chains will continue to be a viable development strategy for inclusive growth and poverty reduction. Despite a wide range of interventions set at international level to ensure economic development and decent work in global supply chains go hand-in-hand, decent work deficits and governance gaps continue to exist, undermining

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April 6, 2021

Sustainability Standards and Social Concerns: An Academic Roundtable Discussion

Economic growth alone is not enough to ensure equity, social progress and to eradicate poverty. Up till today, hazardous workplaces continue to exist, and discrimination remains a challenge. According to the latest global estimates, 152 million children are in child labor and 25 million adults and children are in forced labor. Improving workplace practices beyond legal compliance fosters sustainability. It can as well result in higher morale and job satisfaction, and foster creativity

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March 23, 2021

Podcast Feature: Trade Policy and Voluntary Sustainability Standards

The integration of Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) into trade policies is a potential powerful means to upscale its adoption as trade policies today are increasingly being used to pursue non-trade objectives, including those related to sustainability. In the last few decades, complemented with the exponential growth in international trade, VSS have increasingly been incorporated into some trade policy instruments, although it may be too early to detect clear trends as of today. Nevertheless, such inclusion reflects the commitment of trade

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March 17, 2021

Addressing gender blind spots in sustainability standards

Achieving gender equality and empowering all women and girls sits as one of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 5) set by the United Nations. At international level, the attainment of SDG 5 has galvanised interest by the standards community to innovate gender responsiveness in core technical issues like assurance, standard-setting, and monitoring and evaluation. The need for standards to be more responsive to gender issues is growing recognition in leading standards bodies and Voluntary Sustainability Standards (VSS) schemes to integrate gender

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February 24, 2021

Applying Gender Lens on Sustainability Standards and Certification Systems for International Trade

Women account for almost half of the total labour force in many countries, and in 2019, at least 33% of women make up the exporting workforce compared to 24% of non-exporting workforce in developing countries. International trade has created better jobs for women, where the probability of women working in the informal sector have reduced from 20% with low levels of exports to 13% with high levels of exports, providing them with opportunities for benefits, training and job security, to

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February 16, 2021

Elevating environmental governance with sustainability standards requires a mélange of political powerplay

The existence of good governance can be attributed to shared knowledge base and values, and a good environmental governance takes into account the role of all actors that have an impact and have been impacted by the environment. Although developing countries are the most vulnerable to environmental shocks, a shared knowledge considers the need for them to expand their agricultural supply chains in order to diversify their economy. So, how do we balance this double-edged sword? Taking the last roundtable dialogue

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January 12, 2021

Sustainability Standards and Environmental Concerns: An academic roundtable discussion

Human’s impact on the environment led to changes that triggered environmental crisis, including climate change, biodiversity loss, and deforestation, among others. Climate change is one of the most concerning issues of our day; it interrupts national economies and affects lives. Its impacts such as severe storms, heatwaves and the melting of glaciers and ice sheet are accelerating. Biodiversity loss is another significant concern, a 2019 report that assessed a total of 28,000 plant species concluded that close to half of

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December 21, 2020

Build-back-better from COVID-19 with sustainable agri-food supply chain in developing countries

The novel COVID-19 pandemic has been detrimental not just as a health crisis but also an economic and a humanitarian crisis. The nationwide lockdowns due to the spread of COVID-19 has forced developed and developing countries to halt their economies. With respect to its impact on the global food system which also considers the pre-and post-production of food as well as its distribution and consumption interrelationship with political, social and environmental dimensions, this economic slowdown has greatly affected the progress

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November 26, 2020

Reflecting on current and future trends affecting standards and similar systems

There are hundreds of standards and certification schemes on the market – but some are more credible than others. The ISEAL Credibility Principles aim to represent the core values on which effective sustainability systems are built. ISEAL developed the Credibility Principles through a global consultation with a diverse group of more than 400 stakeholders with the guidance of an international multi-stakeholder Steering Committee. Their goal was to pinpoint the fundamental qualities that make sustainability systems most likely to achieve positive

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