General

Assessed contributions are made to a number of UN agencies arising from Ireland’s membership of organisations such as the UN Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO), the International Office for Migration (IOM), the UN Convention on Biodiversity (UNCBD), the UN Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD). Contributions are also made to initiatives that reflect Ireland's commitment to multlateralism, such as the UN75 initiative to make the 75th anniversary of the UN's establishment.

Objectives

UNIDO serves as a forum and broker for knowledge transfer on industrial development for poverty reduction, inclusive globalisation and environmental sustainability. IOM works to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration and to promote international cooperation on migration issues. UNCCD works to improve the condition of affected ecosystems, combat desertification/land degradation and promote sustainable land management.

General

While WLRs are suppressed by several factors including: negative social norms and practices, legal illiteracy, dysfunctional infrastructure to track WLRs, neo-liberalism, etc., one of the major problems relates to fractured women’s agency and weak voice. Interventions by government and NGOs in the form of legal awareness have yielded little as many women still struggle to assert and defend their rights to land in the absence of external backing. The inclusion of women in land governance institutions like Area Land Committees, District Land Boards, Local Council Courts as well as the broader affirmative action slots in local government, parliament andCabinet have not necessarily translated to stronger WLRs in Uganda. On the contrary, existing literaturesuggests that women in influential positions have on some occasions instead frustrated pro-women laws and policies since their portfolios puts them in a position of privilege. Whereas it is still important to leverage women in leadership roles to advancethe WLRs cause, it is still critical to diversify options by empowering the rural woman and transforming power relation in favour of WLRs. Through strengthening women civic groups, the project hopes to enable them to identify problems, set goals, make choices and then act upon them to realise WLRs. Inability of women to access and utilize land in Uganda: In Uganda, land is male dominated and patriarchal. Most of the land in Uganda is not titled and is owned customarily. Customary land is governed and administered by norms and customs which often impede ownership of land by women. The fact that a section of the population cannot own and utilize land has led to food insecurity, increased poverty levels, negative climate impacts and in dependence on the male gender. This financial dependence is the reason we have many issues of gender-based violence to start with. Many injustices have arisen from the inability of women to access and utilize land. Lack of capacity for women to develop land: In the few cases where women own land, they are incapacitated to develop it. For land to be used in such a way that brings economic development and reduces poverty, it has to be commercialized. Uganda’s land is undeniablyvery fertile and most of it is arable. However, most of the women who own land can only practice subsistence farming on a small scale. Most of the produce is used to feed their families which does not create a shift in poverty levels. Land has to be commercialized and used for the growth of perennial cash crops for example coffee. The growth of these crops usually requires modern methods of farming for example ploughing, modern technologies, chemical fertilizers which are all costly and most women cannot afford them. Thisrequires empowerment of women.

General

The cocoa value chain in West Africa is at risk for CSR violations such as child labor, deforestation and low income. Often small cocoa farm households find themselves in a situation where they are unable to afford basic necessities of life, like food, housing and shelter. Farmers get trapped in a vicious poverty cycle of low productivity, market gluts, lack of access to credit and production inputs, all resulting in low income. This often fuels the occurance of other CSR risks and impacts such as deforestation and child labor. As farmers get desperate to increase their production and improve household earnings they resort to cutting down natural forests or preserved areas in order to expand their cocoa farms and/or sell fire wood. This again will lead to adverse impacts such as climate change (increased greenhouse gas emissions due to loss of the trees’ carbon storage function), desertification, soil erosion and land degradation, flooding, and loss in biodiversity (fauna and flora). Further, due to insufficient funds to send their children to school and to hire external labor for support on the farm during labor-intensive periods under-age children are put to work on the farms, or engage in other income earning activities such as street hawking and housekeeping. Thereby especially concerning is work which is classified as “hazardous” or “worst forms” of child labour. Hazardous work includes e.g. working with pesticides, or tasks carried out under conditions that are particularly risky for children, such as work for excessively long hours or in high temperatures. Worst forms of child labour comprise slavery, trafficking, or debt bondage. All of these activities negatively affect children’s physical and mental development and interefere with their education and ultimately their future opportunities. In order to obtain a clear picture of the current situation and fully understand the underlying reasons for the occurrence of these risks the partners have embarked on a project with RVO to conduct an in-depth risk assessment within their Nigerian cocoa supply chain. The targeted beneficiary group are 2,400 small-scale cocoa farmers and their families in Cross River State in the South East of Nigeria. Through the planned in-depth risk assessment the partners expect to gain an improved understanding of these supply chain risks and therefore will be in a position to address these issues in a targeted and impactful manner.

Objectives

The interventions to be conducted for the in-depth risk assessment on the 3 identified supply chain risks low income, child labor and deforestation include a stakeholder assessment, a Living Income GAP assessment, a household survey, a child labor assessment and vulnerability assessment, development of a sustainable diversification strategy (taking into account market potential, income potential, farmer adoptiveness, swat analysis), and a deforestation risk analysis. The methodologies applied for the data analysis comprise the Simpson Index of Diversity (SID), the anchor method and possibly other approaches for the Living Income assessment. In addition to the data analysis data collection represents one of the key components of this project. In order to gather the required information for the envisaged analyses project activities will include identification, interviews and workshops with the primary, secondary, direct and indirect stakeholders. Depending on the stakeholder group these interviews will be conducted in focus groups and/or (semi-)structured via questionnaires. The process will further comprise consultations with communities and cooperatives. In order to ensure quality data and information are captured a technical expert team will conduct spot visits to support and supervise the local team of the imlpementing partner.