IDH and BCI are strategic partner to the BCI Growth & Innovation Fund – with IDH providing the fund management services, in addition to IDH’s role as a public funder. From 2009 on IDH has managed to bring scale to the implementation of Better Practices by cotton farmers and the market uptake of Better Cotton. We will continue to do so through the partnership in the Growth and Innovation Fund.
The BCI Growth & Innovation Fund will be funded by the Volume-Based Fee (VBF), a market driven funding mechanism whereby, the BCI retailer and brand members are charged against their Better Cotton procurement as declared on the Better Cotton Tracer. The VBF will populate the Fund and will be match-funded by public funders, which will then cover the costs of farmer capacity building. BCI is expecting uptake to grow steadily as the retailers and brands continue to work closely with their supply chain partners in 2015, and they re-launched a focused BCI Demand Strategy to drive this increase in procurement amongst the membership.
From the beginning IDH has supported the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI) with numerous activities:
- Institutional Support
- Project implementation support
- Co-funding private BCI implementers
- Program management
- Project funding
- Outreach activities