Gender and sustainable palm oil

Transforming the Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil for greater gender equality and women’s empowerment: FTA prepared a report for Oxfam Novib and USAID evaluating the Roundtable for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO) principles and criteria (P&C) and Guidance. The report is the basis of a “gender strategy” for the RSPO and for revisions that would enable greater gender responsiveness of the RSPO P&C and Guidance. It was used to organize a workshop by the RSPO Human Rights Working Group during the most recent RSPO annual meeting in Bangkok. It prompted some company representatives (BASF, Sime Darby, Agropalma) in the room to indicate their interest in becoming members of the RSPO Human Rights Working Group, and some in the newly established subgroup on gender.