In 2024/25 ISEAL supported its members to reflect and take action towards embedding equity and producer empowerment within their systems and practices. To date, this support has included: the development of an equity framework; the strengthening of equity within the ISEAL Code of Good Practice; a guidance note for embedding equity within monitoring and evaluation systems; and grant funding for specific projects to advance equity. These resources have been designed to help members to develop their own thinking and approaches to equity and producer empowerment in their sectors and value chains.

During this project ISEAL provided grant funding to The Marine Stewardship Council and Better Cotton Initiative for pilot projects to take action on embedding equity and producer empowerment within their systems and practices. ISEAL has developed summaries of these pilots.

Better Cotton Initiative commissioned a piece of research to capture best practices in relation to advancing gender equity implemented by two programme partners in India, Cotton Connect in Maharashtra, and World Wide Fund for Nature in Telangana. The topic of the study was ‘Identifying Approaches to Advance Producer Empowerment’, with a particular focus on the partners’ support to women to take on leadership roles and the impact that women field staff have on mainstreaming gender.

With support from: