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One of the most essential building blocks of sustainable agricultural commodities production lies in policy reform. If the policy environment for valuing and protecting natural ecosystems is weak – or if it is not well enforced – then producers will find few impediments to expanding their agricultural activities into forests, peatlands, and wetlands. The UNDP through GGP hopes to provide essential support and facilitation in this next phase of transitioning to sustainable palm oil production.Please help us to continue this important work.

As the World Bank Commodity Markets Outlook states, food insecurity and inflation will continue at least until 2024. Record high prices impacting on hunger and malnutrition are some of the signs highlighting the need for the urgent transformation of food systems that the UNDP Good Growth Partnership (GGP) has advocated for in the last half decade. Many lessons can be extracted from the 5-year implementation of the Partnership. One of the most important is that collaboration between businesses and government is the only path forward to generate change in the long-term.

We urgently need systemic change in commodity supply chains if we are to mitigate the combined threats of catastrophic climate change, biodiversity loss and food insecurity. Now, a new report on the Good Growth Partnership Integrated Approach reveals that the four and a half-year programme has had real impact in laying the foundations for systemic change in palm oil, beef and soy supply chains, in partnership with four major producer countries: Indonesia, Brazil, Paraguay and Liberia.

After almost half a decade of piloting the Integrated Approach to enable zero deforestation in palm oil, beef and soy, the Global Environment Facility funded Good Growth Partnership is keen to pass on what has been learned to other commodity sustainability programmes. Research into the most important levers of change underpins the suite of 5 Impact Briefs now featured on the GGP website.

That strong, positive vision is what Liberia has been working towards, with the Good Growth Partnership1 (GGP)’s support, through multistakeholder dialogue and collaboration. And in April 2022 Liberia launched its National Oil Palm Strategy and Action Plan (NOPSAP), aiming to put sustainable palm oil production at the heart of Liberia’s national and inclusive rural economic strategy. The results of this ambitious, collaborative process show that during the multistakeholder process, trust and compassion for the perspectives and needs of others significantly increased. Even sensitive issues, often denied and avoided where there are low levels of trust and engagement, were proactively explored for greater understanding, solutions proposed and discussed, and actions identified to address the most significant issues.

As the Pilot Phase of the Good Growth Partnership draws to a close, the Adaptive Management and Learning (A&L) part of the project has successfully been through an independent review: “the performance of the A&L Project has been excellent in spite of great challenges from the COVID-19 Pandemic.”