IDH 2023 Annual Report showcases impact of actionable collaboration

IDH is proud to publish its 2023 annual report, detailing how we are working towards better jobs, better income and better environment.

In 2023, IDH celebrated its 15-year anniversary, evaluating 15 years of impactful partnerships and starting the development of a strategy towards 2030. Key to both the current and the new strategy: actionable collaboration.

In 2023, we worked with 905 partners worldwide in 67 countries, convening 141 multi-stakeholder coalitions and platforms, and  leveraging over 43 million euros private sector co-funding in sustainable business practices and field level innovations. In a year of environmental challenges and social unrest, this intensive collaboration has led to positive change for farmers, workers and the environment.

According to the United Nations Global Compact, more than 630 million workers worldwide in the last decade did not earn enough to lift themselves and their families out of poverty. Moreover, almost 2 million people die from work-related causes each year. IDH strives to break this cycle of inequality by creating better jobs that ensure living wages, worker representation, safe working conditions, and equal opportunities for men and women.

In 2023, IDH continued to guide companies to identify and close living wage gaps through its Roadmap on Living Wages. The roadmap was expanded to 20,000 global companies through partnership with the United National Global Compact. 2023 also saw the expansion of the retail commitment to living wages in the banana sector with 9 UK retailers signing a commitment to provide banana supply chain workers with a living wage by the end of 2027.

Furthermore, IDH continued to work towards safe working conditions through its Life and Building Safety (LABS) program, leading to improved working conditions for 1,032,949 workers (of which 718,730 were women) and through its Women Safety Accelerator Fund (WSAF) which aims to protect 200,000 tea producers and estate workers against gender-based violence. Lastly, through the Grains for Growth program, over 100,000 work opportunities were created for farmers in Ghana.

Only a fraction of the value generated by agricultural commodities makes its way to the smallholder farmers producing the world’s food supply. Many of these smallholders are living in extreme poverty, unable to meet the basic needs of their household or to invest in their farm. This in turn increases the risk of forced and child labour and environmental degradation such as deforestation. IDH aims to achieve better incomes for smallholder farmers in agriculture and for women and men across the value chains and landscapes in which we operate.

In 2023, IDH continued to guide companies to identify, monitor, and close living income gaps through its Roadmap on Living Income. The roadmap was further developed, stressing the need for complementing field-level approaches with change in business practices, particularly through sustainable procurement practices. To put theory into practice, IDH has partnered up with Tony’s Chocolonely to upscale their Open Chain model, as well as with several other multinational brands.

In 2023, IDH also continued to close investment gaps for smallholder farmers by scaling up solutions based on insights and learning through the Farmfit Fund. Our work on income diversification, access to finance and sustainable agricultural practices has led to 1.3m farmers achieving access to input and technology and 374k farmers with improved access to finance.

2023 was the warmest year on record, characterised by extreme weather events that severely affected yields, leading to food insecurity and income losses. IDH recognizes the interconnectivity of climate change, environmental degradation and social inequality and therefore addresses these challenges through an integrated approach.

In 2023, IDH shifted its approach to climate change adaptation and mitigation, beginning work on climate action roadmaps for businesses and policymakers, that provide a data-driven link between corporate carbon commitments and the needs for producers to adapt to the impacts.

We also continued to protect and restore natural ecosystems by bringing together public authorities, civil society organisations, producers, farmer organisations, and companies at a landscape level. In these landscapes, we co-designed Production, Protection and Inclusion (PPI) compacts, ensuring necessary investments as well as market linkages.

2023 marked the year in which the European Union Regulation on Deforestation-free Products (EUDR) came into force. While IDH welcomes this legislative framework, we also acknowledge the risk that companies might adopt sourcing strategies that exclude marginalized smallholder farmers and high-risk areas from their supply. Therefore, IDH has worked together closely with public and private sector on EUDR pilots, including the development of the first national action plan in the world on deforestation and degradation-free sourcing areas and supply chains in compliance with the EUDR in Vietnam.

IDH keeps gender equity front of mind in everything we do. In 2023, 80% of the projects in the IDH portfolio were gender intentional and 12% were gender transformative. As from 2022, every funding opportunity that goes before our investment committee must have a gender intentional approach.

Similarly, in IDHs organisational development, gender is put forward as a priority. As such, a gender balance is reached in the executive board, procedures are in place to protect employees from sexual harassment and HR puts a specific effort in analysing turnover and attrition rate of female staff.

Find out more about our work with partners in the report.