SCI Setting-up New Reporting Service
March 18 2009, Lansdowne VA
The International Advisory Panel to the State of Sustainability Initiatives (SSI) met last month to begin developing an innovative new project that aims to improve the availability of information about sustainability standards and related voluntary initiatives worldwide.
The SSI project, coordinated by AIDEnvironment, IIED, IISD, and UNCTAD, seeks to improve the efficiency of decision-making by private, public, and non-governmental actors involved in voluntary initiatives by providing comparable information on their performance and progress towards promoting sustainable development. By sharing information through reporting and workshop activities, the SSI will create a forum in which initiatives and other interested parties can interact to improve the effectiveness of sustainability standards and track their performance.
The project will revolve around the publication of an annual report, the "State of Sustainability Initiatives Annual Review", to be published in September 2009. As of October/November 2009, the SSI will also begin publishing policy-themed briefs and regular reports on individual initiatives and commodity markets.
Using a cross-sector, multi-stakeholder approach, the SSI aims to fill the current ‘information gap' on the characteristics and performance of voluntary standards and initiatives that have multiplied over the last two decades. Advisory panel member Tim York, of the Markon Cooperative, observed that the recent development of sustainable standards has resulted in programs of differing levels of effectiveness and efficiency but that it remains very difficult to determine where these differences exist.
By reporting as a third-party, under the guidance of a high-level advisory panel, the SSI has the capacity to serve as an international reference for informing policy makers, civil society organizations, finance, food manufacturing and retail sectors up-to-date on the best practices and performances of the voluntary sector. A Cadbury representative highlighted the fact that comparability metrics are extremely important and the private sector stands to gain from participating in the conversation.
The Advisory Panel of the currently SSI includes: The World Bank, WTO, Cadbury, John Deere, Global Reporting Initiative, ISEAL Alliance, Sustainable Food Lab, ICONE Institute for International Trade Negotiations, International Centre for Trade and Sustainable Development, Markon Cooperative, Convention on Biodiversity, International Trade Centre, ADM, Ryerson University, and IPC International Food and Agricultural Trade Policy Council will oversee the SSI project implementation and its activities.
