Ksapa Events Podcasts

Partner Session – 2024 OECD Forum on Responsible Mineral Supply Chains.

As underpinned in the Paris Agreement, it is critical for the transition to a green, low-carbon economy to be both fast and fair. As investors address climate change challenges in their strategies, it is imperative that they also incorporate the social dimension and impacts on people.

As influential capital allocators and actors, Investors should play a crucial role in tackling the impact on people, namely forced labor, as it is identified as a salient risk in the green transition value chains, which is at the heart of responsible investment. Under the OECD Guidelines for Multinational Enterprises, institutional investors are expected to act responsibly and determine their exposure to human rights risks in their portfolios, and conduct due diligence to prevent or address adverse impacts.

Forced labor and other human rights violations in the green transition value chains could expose investors to material reputational, operational, and regulatory risks.

The session will zoom on the expectations and role investors should play in identifying, addressing and mitigating forced labor in the green transition.

Session recording

The blog post The Role of Investors in addressing forced labor in the green transition first appeared on Ksapa - en.

The recent wave of inflation has dramatically impacted vulnerable workers at risk to work and stay in poverty. The CSRD requires that eligible companies disclose whether direct workforce as well as workforce in the value chain are operating above living wage. Growing human rights regulations are also calling for due diligence and action plans wherever appropriate. This requires clarity on definition and concrete thresholds to define what living wage can be. This also requires digital tools enabling informing workers and collecting data to ensure companies and their suppliers can conduct due diligence despite the sensitiveness of the topic.

In reality, there are several problems at hand. First, defining living wage remains controversial. Secondly, most data providers in the space are unable to generate reliable, up-to-date, granular data to reflect the actual cost of living across geographies. Thirdly, including workforce in the value chain remains complex.

In the context of these challenges, this webinar engaged in a discussion addressing the following concrete aspects of solutions:

Session recording

The blog post Webinar: Living Wages in Value Chains: ESRS & Human Rights first appeared on Ksapa - en.

Multistakeholder coalitions to support farmers in the cotton and rubber value chains

The 10th OECD Forum on Due Diligence in the Garment and Footwear Sector will take place on 21-22 February 2024 at the OECD Conference Centre, Paris, and online.

The Forum brings together representatives of government, business, trade unions and civil society to review progress on the implementation of the OECD Due Diligence Guidance for Responsible Supply Chains in the Garment and Footwear Sector to address emerging risks, and to share learnings on implementing due diligence across geographies in a neutral environment. As part of the 2024 Forum, the OECD will encourage attendees to also participate in a limited number of selected virtual side sessions, organised and hosted by partner organisations. These sessions will take place alongside the Garment Forum on 19, 20, and 23 February 2024.

This event is led and moderated by Ksapa, a global initiative designing and deploying programs mitigating human right risks at level of vulnerable beneficiaries including smallholders in agricultural value chain the like cotton, natural rubber and others.

Krystel Bassil, Ksapa, senior consultant human rights will moderate the session with contributions from Stefan Hoerr, Fair Rubber Association, Executive Director and Chelsea Reinhardt, BetterCotton, Director of Standards and Assurance.

Smallholders account for 99% of world’s cotton production across 70 countries, and 85% of global production of natural rubber. Cotton is a primary fabric. Natural rubber is essential for components like elastic bands in garments. These highly fragmented supply chains present several challenges including:

Addressing these issues requires comprehensive multistakeholder action that support smallholders through training, access to finance, improved infrastructure, and market linkages.

Join us for an exciting online event focused on creating multistakeholder coalitions to support farmers in the cotton and rubber value chains. This event will bring together experts, and industry leaders to discuss challenges and opportunities in these industries.

Whether you are a policy maker, industry professional, or stakeholder interested in sustainable agriculture, this event is a must-attend. Don’t miss this opportunity to connect with like-minded individuals and contribute to the resilience of these vital value chains.

Session recording

The blog post Webinar: Multistakeholder Coalitions to Support Farmers in Agricultural Value Chains first appeared on Ksapa - en.

Voluntary carbon markets (VCMs) have gained traction among corporates & investors in recent years and are expected to grow tremendously over the next decade. In particular, agriculture & land use projects have emerged as nature-based solutions to address climate change mitigation & adaptation.

However, many controversies have risen recently questioning the performance and impact of some of these projects: underestimated baselines to maximize profitability, false additionality of already conserved natural areas, eviction of indigenous communities, double counting, questionable credit integrity…

Nonetheless, transitioning to sustainable practices is absolutely necessary, although progressing too slowly. As such, VCMs offer a promising framework to contribute to this transition. They not only help drive the agricultural transition, but are also a powerful tool to deliver social impact. The guiding question then is: what are the conditions necessary to ensure that VCMs generate socially & environmentally impactful projects?

Alongside practitioners, this webinar will thus explore up-and-coming initiatives trying to set criteria for impactful VCMs and try to frame the necessary conditions for VCMs to deliver their goal.

Our distinguished guest speakers for this webinar are:

– Carla Orrego, Transformative Finance Lead & Lab Portfolio Manager, Climate Policy Initiative

– Hugh Salway, Senior Director, Market Development & Partnerships, Gold Standard

– Adrien Covo, Senior Program Officer, Finance & Development, Ksapa

The blog post Webinar: How to ensure socially & environmentally impactful Voluntary Carbon Markets first appeared on Ksapa - en.

Businesses can – and should – play a key role in enforcing and promoting respect for Human Rights for all.

Legally-binding instruments are on the rise which ultimately lends more teeth to Human Rights Due Diligence. While this creates a mosaic of risk management efforts, various initiatives provide a framework for non-financial risk management (including the upcoming broad EU Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive, country level due diligence initiatives the like France’s Duty of Care Law, Germany’s Supply Chain Due Diligence Act or recently released Norway’s Transparency Act or much more targeted initiative the like USA’s Uyghur Forced Labor Prevention Act – UFLPA).

However, they operate on different methodologies and even culture. Risk management endeavours to remedy challenges to an organization; Human Rights due diligence seeks out the perspective of rightsholders. So just how do we ensure Human Rights performance is not another check-the-box exercise but in fact demonstrates impact and actual risk mitigation?

Moderated by Farid Baddache from Ksapa, this webinar will address actionable methodologies, tools and collaborative initiatives to help organizations mainstream Human Rights due diligence solutions as a tool to streamline their compliance efforts. All this in a granular yet scalable manner, while adapting to fast-evolving risk management regulations.

The blog post Webinar: Human Rights Due Diligence: Streamlining Compliance first appeared on Ksapa - en.

Mission-related investments (MRIs) and program-related investments (PRIs) are designed to create positive social impact combined with a certain degree of financial return. Despite this similarity, however, each type of investment has different legal and tax consequences for investing, particularly for private foundations.

The question then arises as to what are the relevant legal and tax considerations around the use of PRI and MRI? How can the board, management and staff become proficient in transitioning towards impact strategies? What are the fiduciary considerations? Is the organization prepared and positioned to make an impact policy decision?

The webinar will address actionable methodologies, tools and collaborative initiatives to help foundations better navigate the legal and tax landscape around impact strategies using MRI and PRI.

During this webinar moderated by Julie Muraco, our team will be in discussion with: 

·     Christine Looney, Deputy Director, Mission Investments at Ford Foundation

·     David Miller, Partner at Proskauer Rose LLP  

·     Raphael Hara, Managing Director at Ksapa 

The blog post Ksapa Webinar | Leveraging Foundations’ Assets for Impact first appeared on Ksapa - en.

Ksapa delves into better mitigating Human Rights risks affecting global organizations.

Issues pertaining to social justice, Diversity, Equity and Inclusion. Black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) communities. Worker and gender rights. Those are but of a few of the Human Rights risks that have hoisted themselves at the forefront of our collective political, business and philanthropic agendas.

To what extent do Human Rights risks weigh in on supply chain risk management? How can organizations react to – and anticipate – growing regulatory risks in an ever-changing global political landscape? Such considerations no doubt gained traction in the wake of the new European Green Taxonomy. Together, they push organizations to consider and document whether their activities cause any significant harm.

Moderated by Julie Muraco from Ksapa, the webinar will address actionable methodologies, tools and collaborative initiatives to help global organizations better navigate the fast-evolving regulatory and societal shifts affecting them. We are pleased to count with contributions from Karin Ryan, Senior Policy Advisor on Human Rights and Special Representative on Women and Girls (Carter Center), Vincent Siegerink, economist and political analyst at the Center for Well-Being, Inclusion, Sustainability and Equal Opportunity (OECD) and Farid Baddache, Ksapa’s CEO and Human Rights expert.

Session recording

The blog post WEBINAR: Mitigating Organizations’ Human Rights Risks first appeared on Ksapa - en.

Numbers show that one third of the world’s fruit and vegetable crops will be lost due to climate change. In the face of our ever-growing food demand, We need new and more innovative production models and relationships to build a more sustainable and responsible world.

Smallholder farmers in emerging countries are the main lever to solve this environmental and social challenge, as—according to FAO—they produce more than 70% of the food consumed across the world.

To this end, KSAPA created SUTTI, an initiative dedicated to farmers’ trainings and products’ traceability in emerging countries. Because sustainable agriculture help decrease the carbon intensity of supply chains. The objective of the SUTTI program is to embark investors and corporation into the collaborative efforts to effectively impact real people.Together, KSAPA and PALO IT co-designed the SUTTI Digital Suite, to bring training, impact and traceability to these small agribusiness players.

During this webinar we will tell you the story behind SUTTI and how we are helping farmers in Indonesia, scaling sustainable farming practices adoption.

Speakers:

Session recording

The blog post WEBINAR: Tech-Driven Solutions for Sustainable Farming first appeared on Ksapa - en.

Last March, Ksapa organized a demo of our Scale Up Training, Traceability and Impact (SUTTI) flagship initiative. We indeed package capacity-building, impact measurement and procurement mapping to bolster the productivity, livelihoods and resilience of smallholders. It also affects the sustainable transition and traceability of supply chains across Asia and Africa. But what about sourcing raw materials, often as sensitive as they are strategic? Socio-environmental and Human Rights issues linked to key procurement categories are usually well identified by businesses, yet they still end up clinching supply flows, generating costs linked to delays, lack of quality or customer dissatisfaction.

Session recording

The blog post WEBINAR: Solutions for Resilient Raw Materials Supply first appeared on Ksapa - en.

In its upcoming webinar, Ksapa will examine key challenges and concrete solutions to match commitments with SDG Impact Metrics.

There is a $12 trillion in business opportunity and 380 million potential job creations in comprehensive corporate action against the 2030 Agenda. While most jumped on the bandwagon, stakeholders have repeatedly accused them of greenwashing.

Our current context is marred by health and economic crises. Ours is indeed a volatile investment world, with changing politics. With that in mind, how can companies and investors highlight the positive impacts of their activities ? How can they develop impact measurement systems aligned with international standards? In short, what is the soundest approach to matching pledges with concrete SDG Impact Metrics?

For this webinar, Ksapa will convene expert perspectives from Carla Orrego (Project Manager at The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance @Climate Policy Initiative), Priscilla Boiardi (Policy Analyst, Private Finance for Sustainable Development @OECD) and Roberto Fernández Albendea (CSR Director @Iberdrola).

Our collective goal will be to outline actionable solutions to mainstream SDG Impact Metrics.

The blog post WEBINAR: Matching SDG Pledges with Impact Metrics first appeared on Ksapa - en.