06. November 2018

Oxfam Novib Living Income Expert Meeting: Influencing Private Sector Actors - The Hague

Thirty-seven experts from Oxfam Novib and 21 active organizations and companies gathered at Het Nutshuis in The Hague on November 6th, 2018 to discuss how best to support small scale food producers in their struggle to earn a living income. Oxfam Novib organized the meeting to share strategies and the latest thinking on living income with partners from other organizations and companies on how to drive change on this topic. The meeting focused specifically on strategies for influencing private sector actors such as food brands and retailers to do more to make a living income a reality.

In summary, the following were presented and discussed in the meeting:

  • Friederike Martin (GIZ) provided an overview of the living income concept and some compelling examples of how to close the “living income gap” between what small scale food producers earn and what they actually need to earn to afford a decent standard of living for all members of their household.

  • Ioan Nemes shared how Oxfam Novib approaches securing a living income as part of its work on helping people achieve sustainable livelihoods.

  • Madeleine Brasser (Oxfam Novib) addressed the potential of multi-stakeholder initiatives (MSIs) to drive change towards living income among private sector actors.

  • Susanne Boetekees (Fairtrade Netherlands) shared the integrated living income approach of Fairtrade in cocoa in which price is included as a crucial element alongside other factors such as yield, diversification and cost efficiency.

  • Johan Verburg (Oxfam Novib) ran an expert panel discussion with Andrea Rusman (TruePrice), David Short (Aidenvironment) and Arjen Boekhold (Tony’s Chocolonely) to discuss what advocates can do to get private sector actors to commit to ensuring living income for small scale food producers in their supply chains.

  • Workshop participants took centre stage during afternoon breakout sessions to think together about common strategies for advancing a living income.

For further details of the meeting click here to read the event report. This document presents an overview of the day’s many engaging presentations and discussions about how to best drive positive change on living income for small scale food producers in developing countries.

For more information on Oxfam's work on Living Income please contact Anouk Franck (Anouk.Franck(at)oxfamnovib.nl) or Ioan Nemes (Ioan.Nemes(at)oxfamnovib.nl).