Developments

The most significant external developments in the Asia region in 2018 came as a result of the trade war between the US and China. The effects are visible through China’s 25% levy on soybean. China is the world’s largest importer of soybeans, accounting for 60% of global trade. 2018 witnessed the lowest Chinese imports of US soybean since 2011, while the volume of soybeans exported from Brazil to China grew 15%. Such colossal demand created in a short space put pressure on the deforestation-free soybean production agenda, not only in Brazil but also in Argentina and Paraguay.

Solidaridad, therefore, worked to create the Sustainable Soy Trade Platform. In 2018, under a programme financially supported by NORAD, we facilitated the signing of a memorandum of understanding (MoU). This MoU, focussed on responsible sourcing, was signed by the China Soybean Industry Association, Brazil’s Vegetable Oils Association and the Soy Producer Association for the state of Mato Grosso, Aprosoja.

In January 2018, the European Parliament voted to ban the use of palm oil for the production of biofuels in the European Union by 2020. This led to wide-scale protests in Malaysia and Indonesia. It will likely lead to a further fall in palm oil prices and, in turn, demand will increase outside the European Union, in countries such as India and China. Solidaridad’s activities are therefore focused on engaging India and China (two of the world’s largest importers of palm oil) with Indonesia and Malaysia. Together we want to find a regional solution for sustainable growth of palm oil as a healthy, economically viable, edible oil in Asia while taking care of the environment and society. In 2018 we supported the creation of the Indian Sustainable Palm Oil Framework and signed MoUs with the Indian Solvent Extractors Association, the Indonesian Palm Oil Board and the Malaysian Palm Oil Board as positive steps in this direction.

Achievements

Good practices

We worked to optimize food production as part of the bigger agenda to feed the ever-growing population in Asia, as well as responding to the increasing global demand for food. We deployed IT tools to support farmers in the production of soy, tea, sugarcane, palm oil and cotton, which have proved to be effective. Sustainable farming concerns a wide range of social and ecological dimensions of production. Our strategy of working with national sustainability assurance frameworks (Trinitea, I3SF, ISPO, MSPO, SUCCESS, CORE, LESTARI) has helped farmers significantly and is considered as a best practice model.

Robust infrastructure

To support Indian cotton farmers during the drought we worked alongside experts from the Indian government to revive 3000 ponds. Through the Sustainable Agriculture, Food Security and Linkages (SaFaL) programme, we constructed two village supermarkets in Bangladesh which are now in operation. Through our soybean programme, we directly supported 12 farmer producer companies to aggregate inputs and outputs. In our tanneries programme, we created a state-of-the-art model tannery for training tanners in India with the support of project partners STAHL.

Sustainable landscapes

In 2018 our SaFaL programme focussed on four landscapes: The Merapi volcano landscape in Central Java; the Green Village concept in West Kalimantan; the Ganges landscape in Northern India; and the coastal areas of Southwest Bangladesh. In all these landscapes, unlike other civil society organizations, we engaged with local governments instead of businesses as the starting point. This strategy helped us to focus on the critical issues in the landscape.

Enabling policy environment

Solidaridad Asia is increasingly working to influence policy to achieve speed and scale in sectoral transformations in a sustainable way. For example, we are working closely with the Indian government on cleaning Ganga river, and with the Indonesian government on palm oil production and trade, and making Merapi volcano region more sustainable. We are working with the Bangladeshi government on sustainable fisheries and fruit exports, with the Sri Lankan government on the health and nutrition of tea workers and surrounding communities, and with the Malaysian government on creating sustainable livelihoods for palm oil smallholders. In China, we are working with traders and government officials to support them with the sustainable procurement of soy, livestock and palm oil.

ORGANIZATION

In 2018, the number of Solidaridad Asia employees reached 300, or 267 full-time equivalents, up from 185 in 2017. The number of offices managed by Solidaridad Asia increased to 28 during 2018. We invested in an experienced fundraising team to cater to different proposal development. This includes domain experts, specialist writers, planning, monitoring, evaluation and learning, budget experts, and the managing director.

Each of the country offices regularly conducts internal training and orientation on Solidaridad’s policies in close coordination with the HR department.

The most significant change in the organization was the merger of the China office with the South and South East Asia office, joining to become the Solidaridad Asia continental office. The Solidaridad offices in China, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Malaysia were officially registered or began the process of becoming registered, and country managers appointed.

We launched a new matrix-based performance appraisal system with an emphasis on continuous improvement and learning for staff. For individual staff members, the country offices organized internal and external training for personal and professional growth. At group level, the region arranged exposure visits to other countries in the network. During 2018 the Gender Team organized workshops in various Solidaridad offices throughout Asia including India, Indonesia, and Bangladesh, among others. The Finance, Operations and HR teams regularly conducted remote, online training and interaction.

Solidaridad organized a two-day conference for its Asia staff and the global Executive Board of Directors along with key governmental and industry partners. The conference celebrated ten years of Solidaridad’s work in Asia to develop innovative sustainability solutions for businesses, farmers and governments.

The conference included workshops around sustainable landscapes, blockchain technology, impact communication, use of technology in agriculture, pollution management in industrial sectors, food and environmental security and national sustainability standards. See more on the event: https://youtu.be/QHZWlPnL6wQ

Finance and control

At the end of 2017, Solidaridad China ceased to exist as a separate expertise centre and from 2018 onwards the whole continent came under the management of Solidaridad Asia. At the end of 2018, Solidaridad Asia had one parent legal entity in Hong Kong with branches in India, Sri Lanka, China and Bangladesh. Other legal entities were established in Indonesia. The Continental Supervisory Board of Solidaridad Asia remains the parent legal entity in Hong Kong.

In 2011, Solidaridad Asia contributed less than 0.1 million euros to the total aggregated income of 18.3m euros. This increased to a contribution of 5.5m euros in 2018, representing 10% of Solidaridad Network’s total income. This is slightly less than in the two years prior, when the contribution was around 8m euros, and also lower than the foreseen growth to 10 million euros in 2020. This is due to Solidaridad Asia’s preference in 2018 to spend funds that were contracted by other regional expertise centres, therefore delaying the use of funds that were contracted from within the region. The trend will therefore correct itself and contribution to income by Solidaridad Asia will continue to grow.  

For further details, please see the official audited annual accounts of Solidariad Asia which can be found here.

Partnerships

In 2018 Solidaridad maintained 100 close partnerships with businesses, business associations, government departments, NGOs and smallholder associations. The Embassy of Netherlands in Bangladesh remained the main funding partner for Solidaridad. Solidaridad Asia also received direct support from the Netherlands regional office. We work closely with the Embassy of the Netherlands in India, Indonesia, China and Malaysia.

The partnership with regional government agencies further intensified in 2018. We continued our cooperation with Indonesia’s Ministry of Economic Affairs, the provincial governments of West Kalimantan and Central Java, the Malaysian Palm Oil Board, Indian Tea Board and Uttar Pradesh Jal Nigam. The National Mission for Clean Ganga under the Ministry of Water Resources in India also gave Solidaridad special-partner status. During 2018, Solidaridad Asia signed MoUs with different government departments in Sri Lanka, including the Ministry of Hill Country, New Villages, Infrastructure and Community Development, Department of National Community Water Supply and National Water Supply and Drainage Board.

Our main corporate partners with whom we worked closely throughout 2018 were Unilever, Coca Cola, BASF, Arkema, Jayant Agro, PepsiCo, Olam, Renuka Sugars, DSCL, Henkel and Godrej. C&A Foundation became Solidaridad’s major supporter in cotton programmes across Asia. Vippy Soya emerged as Solidaridad’s biggest partner for soy in India.

The partnership with STAHL in the leather sector is unique. It brings together the products and processes of a global Dutch company and Solidaridad’s skills for training and motivating the tanners to adopt good practices.

We further strengthened our partnership with some of the oldest and most influential associations in Asia. This includes our partnership with Indian Tea Association, United Planters Association of Southern India, China Tea Marketing Association, Ceylon Planters Association and Indonesian Tea Marketing Association. In palm oil, Solidaridad continued its close partnership with Solvent Extractors Association of India as well as Oil and Fat Industries Association of China.

communication and campaigning

For increased visibility, Solidaridad Asia’s communications team promoted news stories about events, launches and training, along with the creation of impact stories for donor and stakeholder engagement. Mainstream media such as newspapers and news channels provided good coverage of Solidaridad’s work. For example, the Village Supermarket project was covered by a telecast on Bangla news channel, and the TRINITEA signing was covered by the Hindu and other English newspapers in India. Province-level meetings with the government and workshops in Uttar Pradesh were covered by prime Hindi newspapers and the signing of MoU between the Indonesian Sustainable Palm Oil and the Indian Palm Oil Sustainability Framework was covered by vernacular and English newspapers in Indonesia.

Solidaridad Asia published 30 blogs in 2018 with 2060 views and 1149 visitors. The communication team also made five videos.

The communications team supported the Planning, Monitoring and Evaluation team with brand and content alignment during award submissions. Field visits to programme areas were organized to cover events, impact stories, photo and video shoot, and to interact with stakeholders and partners.

Staff training sessions were organized in programme and field offices to train colleagues on social media and presentation skills, which resulted in trained personnel posting on social media such as Facebook and LinkedIn. Additionally, country managers and programme managers were active with their own updates on social media. Solidaridad country offices also published newsletters from Indonesia and Bangladesh to keep the local stakeholders involved and informed.

The communications team supported programmes with branding and content guidance in creating print and online materials including reports, brochures, backdrops, display panels, leaflets, e-invites and posters, among others.

The focus was to strategically position and align the communication towards different target groups as per the requirement of the programme.

The official audited annual accounts of Solidariad Asia can be found here.