Supporting Policy Development to Advance Sustainable and Inclusive Value Chains

The number of policies and measures aimed at making the way we produce and trade goods more sustainable is growing faster than ever. Governments and other actors, such as standard-setting bodies and development organizations, are seeking to address a variety of sustainable development concerns—from environmental challenges such as biodiversity loss, climate change, and deforestation to social and economic challenges like market inclusion and gender equality.

Policy-makers do not need to solve these challenges in isolation. IISD’s Sustainability Markets Hub aims to provide governments and standard-setting bodies with a platform to share resources and learn from others' experiences. Our support for policy development includes three main aspects:

• the Sustainable Value Chain Policy Navigator,
• policy self-assessment tools and checklists, and
• tailored advice and support.

Sustainable Value Chain Policy Navigator

The Sustainable Value Chain Policy Navigator is an interactive dashboard that maps out promising policies and measures that aim to address key sustainability challenges associated with commodity production. Such measures can directly or indirectly help producers and businesses comply with voluntary and mandatory access requirements in sustainability markets. It focuses on measures currently being implemented by producing countries in the Global South that have the strongest potential to improve sustainability across commodity production in the agriculture, food, forestry, and textile sectors. 

For each measure included in the dashboard, you can find descriptive information such as the type of measure, where it is implemented, which sector it covers, and its delivery status. Most importantly, the tool highlights evidence of impact, lessons learned, and examples of relevant voluntary sustainability standards that can contribute to the policy measure's objectives. Its aim is to inform and inspire governments interested in designing similar policies and measures within their own jurisdictions to support sustainable commodity production and access to sustainability markets.

Policy self-assessment tools and checklists

We are developing practical needs assessment tools to help governments identify policy, institutional, and capacity gaps, prioritize actions, and strengthen the design, review, and alignment of sustainability-related measures and policies. The first tool in development will offer governments a structured self-assessment framework to strengthen forest protection measures.

Tailored advice and support

We provide tailored technical assistance to governments and standard-setting bodies to help them develop and implement policies that make value chains more resilient, sustainable, and inclusive. From improving the design of voluntary sustainability standards to meet international best practices and evolving regulatory sustainability requirements to informing the design of national policies that seek to drive inclusive, sustainable production practices and access to sustainability markets, our work has a tangible impact on the ground.