Growing interest in addressing sustainability issues at scale have seen the emergence of a number of landscape and jurisdictional approaches in recent years. Comprehensive and strict social, economic, and environmental indicators are urgently needed to ensure the effectiveness, transparency and credibility of landscape approaches. Baselines must be established, and indicators tracked to monitor improvement over time. For many landscape approaches, the measurement of social indicators at scale has proven challenging. There is no comprehensive and practical landscape wide assessment framework for social standards. Without continuous and novel monitoring approaches, social issues like forced labour and worker’s rights are elusive and difficult to track.
Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension
Introduction
Project details
Title: Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS)
Lead organisation: Max Havelaar-Foundation (Switzerland)
Project partners: Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
Duration: July 2020 – June 2022
Contact details: Peter Huber - p.huber@maxhavelaar.ch
Funded through the ISEAL Innovations Fund, which is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO
Lead organisation: Max Havelaar-Foundation (Switzerland)
Project partners: Helvetas Swiss Intercooperation
Duration: July 2020 – June 2022
Contact details: Peter Huber - p.huber@maxhavelaar.ch
Funded through the ISEAL Innovations Fund, which is supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs SECO
The challenge
Tackling the social dimension
In Peru, the second largest global producer and exporter of fine flavour cocoa (a type of speciality cocoa that is in increasingly high demand in the EU), cocoa production is associated with a range of socio-economic and environmental challenges. In San Martin, 36% of cocoa smallholder farmers live below the poverty line. Such endemic poverty is a driver of environmental challenges in the region, including high rates of deforestation and land degradation.
In an effort to mainstream diversified and resilient agroforestry systems in the region, a number of public and private organisations, through the support of the Swiss Platform for Sustainable Cocoa, have come together to develop and implement a participatory, multi-stakeholder approach at a landscape level. Recognising the expertise that sustainability standards bring in verifying social standards at farm level, Fairtrade and FLOCERT were invited to develop and pilot a landscape monitoring framework for socio-economic indicators.
Developing socio-economic indicators
A set of socio-economic indicators, aligned with the sustainable development goals, were developed for the project. This involved conducting a baseline assessment in San Martin, Peru, to understand the specific social context, as well as desk-based research drawing on existing landscape frameworks. The Covid-19 pandemic presented challenges for testing the indicators, but a sub-set of priority issues were identified and validated in San Martin, and an assessment conducted using the LMS in early 2022.
The landscape monitoring framework
The landscape monitoring framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) consists of a library of indicators that initiatives can select from based on the topics most relevant to the local context, and guidance on a stepwise approach for assessing and monitoring landscape level interventions. The LMS was designed for use by landscape initiatives, but discussions with sustainability systems have also identified broader applications. These include helping to enhance and inform location and commodity specific risk maps and standards setting.
Download project outputs
LMS Executive Summary
LMS Executive Summary | MH
The Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) is a tool that provides practical guidance to assess the socio-economic status of a landscape to monitor progress and facilitates action for development. The LMS targets the stakeholders of the landscape initiative, and in particular the initiators of the initiative, as the main user group. It was developed to meet the growing needs for landscape assessments to look deeper into socio-economic matters in a structural manner and give the socio-economic dimension the same attention as environmental and economic dimensions.
This document provides an executive Summary of the project and findings.
LMS Executive Summary | MH911.12 KB
LMS Library of Indicators | MH
The Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) is a tool that provides practical guidance to assess the socio-economic status of a landscape to monitor progress and facilitates action for development. The LMS targets the stakeholders of the landscape initiative, and in particular the initiators of the initiative, as the main user group. It was developed to meet the growing needs for landscape assessments to look deeper into socio-economic matters in a structural manner and give the socio-economic dimension the same attention as environmental and economic dimensions.
This database provides a list of socio-economic topics and indicators for assessing and tracking landscape-scale improvements in social sustainability over time.
LMS Library of Indicators | MH250.58 KB
LMS Guidance Document | MH
The Landscape Monitoring Framework of the socio-economic dimension (LMS) is a tool that provides practical guidance to assess the socio-economic status of a landscape to monitor progress and facilitates action for development. The LMS targets the stakeholders of the landscape initiative, and in particular the initiators of the initiative, as the main user group. It was developed to meet the growing needs for landscape assessments to look deeper into socio-economic matters in a structural manner and give the socio-economic dimension the same attention as environmental and economic dimensions.
The LMS Guidance Document guides through an inclusive and stepwise approach to assessing and monitoring landscape interventions along three application areas: 1. Initial assessment of the landscape: The LMS provides resources and guidance to conduct a systematic analysis of the landscape. This includes gathering relevant data and information for learning, for further decision-making such as collaborative planning, as well as reporting for accountability. 2. Prioritisation of socio-economic topics to focus on: The LMS facilitates a process of identifying the most relevant socio-economic topics and helps identifying overall goals for the landscape initiative for these topics. This is done by providing both a list of relevant socio-economic topics and practical guidance on how to select the relevant ones based on specific criteria. 3. Customisation of Monitoring, Evaluation and Learning (MEL) system: The LMS provides support for the design of a customized MEL system, which can include a Theory of Change, the definition of relevant indicators and data sources as well as a baseline assessment.
LMS Guidance Document | MH1.61 MB
LAF Pilot Phase Report: Validation of Social Indicators | Helvetas, Max Havelaar
This report reports on the pilot phase of the Landscape Assessment Framework in the context of the Sustainable Cocoa Landscapes project in San Martin, Peru. The social indicators that have been proposed by Max Havelaar / Flocert based on the prioritized social issues for the landscapes (see documents "social study of the landscapes" and "social issues in the Mariscal Caceres landscape") have been applied as a test in the landscape. The process followed for this pilot phase is summarized in paragraph 2, and the process of validation of the indicators is presented in paragraph 3.
Prioritization of Social Issues in the Mariscal Cáceres Landscape | Helvetas, Max Havelaar
Between 29 September and 5 October 2021, Helvetas conducted a stakeholder consultation of the project "Sustainable Cocoa Landscapes in San Martin". The consultation was carried out through face-to-face workshops in the different districts of the province. This resulted in the prioritization of social issues to be taken forward by the project.
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