Mercados y Comercio

Pilot project on the implementation of the OECD-FAO Guidance for Responsible Agricultural Supply Chains

In 2018, FAO and the OECD launched a pilot to review the practical application of the OECD-FAO Guidance and its recommendations, providing companies with an understanding of how others were implementing its main findings. Over 30 companies and industry initiatives participated in the pilot, the final report can be found here.

A baseline report evaluated the extent to which the recommendations of the Guidance were addressed by participants, further supported by information sharing on good practices and peer-learning webinars. The pilot project was completed with a final report released in October 2019. It presented approaches to due diligence and key challenges that companies face in addressing impacts on their operations. The final report looks at how companies can address challenges, while taking into account the OECD-FAO Guidance.

Findings of the pilot project were validated at a joint OECD-FAO multi-stakeholder roundtable in October 2019 which brought together over 60 participants from government, business, civil society, intergovernmental organizations, worker representatives and academia. The roundtable meeting discussed lessons learned during the pilot project and suggested activities to further promote the uptake of the Guidance. In 2021, FAO’s Pilot Project on the Implementation of the OECD-FAO Guidance was selected by the UN Secretariat (UN/DESA) as a Best Practice in implementing the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).


Takeaways:

Businesses have taken steps to strengthen their approach to due diligence, with several demonstrating sophisticated management tools to identify and mitigate risks.

The adoption of due diligence strategies is often driven by external pressure or attention to certain thematic areas in supply chains.

Gaps still exist in how companies translate policy commitments into actions, particularly in organizing and maintaining regular stakeholder cooperation.

Many businesses are reliant on industry schemes, audits or third party platforms which may not be tailored to their business models, or effective for identifying or mitigating risk.

A lack of information on individual due diligence practices among businesses has been observed in public reporting, preventing a culture of sharing practices and lessons on due diligence tools.

Digital Tools

FPMA

Food Price Monitoring and Analysis

AMIS

Agricultural Market Information System