2020 Annual Report
Contents 3
A Message from the CEO
4
The BCI Journey | Mainstreaming Better Cotton
5
2020 Year in Review | Supporting Smallholder Farmers Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic
6
2019-20 Field and Market Results
7
Updates from the Field
8
2019-20 Season Data
10
2010-20 Annual Data
11
Programme Highlights 2020
12
Updates from the Supply Chain and Market
13
2020 Year in Review | Strengthening Our Capacity to Promote Decent Work and Prevent Forced Labour
14
2020 Strategy in Numbers
15
Taking Better Cotton Mainstream | Performance to 2020
16
2020 Year in Review | Mainstreaming Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Across BCI
17
A Global Network | BCI’s Stakeholders
18
Stakeholder Insights | Bilal Israel Khan, BCI Farmer and Outgoing BCI Council Member
19
2020 Year in Review | Delta Project
20
Financials
21
BCI Governance at a Glance
22
2020 Year in Review | 2030 Strategy Development
23
Outlook to 2021
24
2020 Donors and Partners
Cover image: Tata Djire, Agronomist, with cotton farmers in a field in Togoya, Mali. Image: BCI/Seun Adatsi.
A Message from the CEO In 2020, with our partners and stakeholders we rallied together to keep farmers, BCI employees and partners safe, while transforming the way we work to build cotton farmers’ capacity to grow cotton sustainably amid the Covid-19 pandemic. As many of you know, the cotton sector has seen a real impact from the global slowdown in apparel production. At the same time, smallholder farmers in particular, who are already on the frontline of climate change and resource scarcity, faced significant health and safety challenges, with cotton farmers in India continuing to suffer considerably. While continuous improvement and working towards our goals was still important, we understood that in such unexpected times, it was crucial to remember the impact of the pandemic on the people delivering on our work. As the pandemic unfolded, we took steps to ensure that funding uncertainties caused by the pandemic did not adversely affect the ability of BCI or our Implementing Partners to support staff or run programmes. Retaining staff at Implementing Partners was prioritised, as was retaining farmers with active licenses. All BCI staff were assured of continued full pay despite any challenges resulting from the pandemic. We rapidly transitioned to delivering online training for Implementing Partners, enabling our teams to provide the best possible support and exploring new ways to keep our on-the-
We want to deliver real impact for cotton farming communities.
3
ground partners informed of the latest best practice. This included an online learning system for Field Facilitators in India.
capacity building and innovation in the field. When we established our 2020 targets back in 2012, we were consciously ambitious so as to encourage continuous improvement and avoid complacency. For a variety of reasons, including the Covid-19 pandemic, we have not met all the targets but have still made huge strides towards them.
Despite the challenges of the pandemic, we remained dedicated to our mission, working with nearly 70 partners to deliver training and support to 2.7 million farmers in 23 countries. 2.4 million licensed BCI Farmers produced more than 6 million tonnes of Better Cotton in the 2019-20 season, reaching nearly a quarter (23%) of global cotton production. This is an extraordinary collective achievement that we can all celebrate.
Collaboration remains central to our work, and I am pleased that BCI is playing a leading role in the Delta Project, an ISEAL-funded project designed to help develop a common standard for reporting on sustainability progress for agricultural commodities, starting with cotton and coffee. We have also worked with many distinguished partners to build our own capacity to address decent work and forced labour issues in global cotton production.
Our membership base continued to grow in 2020, with more than 400 new members joining us across five membership categories. By the end of the year, we had exceeded 2,100 members, a 14% increase on 2019 across 60 countries.
However, we know there is still more to do. Our 2030 strategy is testament to our determination to help cotton farming communities build climate resilience, conserve natural resources and promote decent work, strengthening our sector while supporting the global push to achieve the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. We want to deliver real impact for cotton farming communities. That’s why the work we have undertaken with our stakeholders in
BCI has come a long way since we first launched over ten years ago. Today, we are the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world. We have exceeded our aim of nine countries adopting the Better Cotton Standard System at a national level, and our secretariat is entirely self-sufficient, enabling us to invest all our donor funds into supporting
Phase
1
2007-2009
Phase
Preparation
3
Generate interest for supply and demand of Better Cotton.
2010-2012 Phase
2
2013-2015 Implementation Connect supply with demand.
2020 to refine our strategic approach and align our climate efforts with science-based targets is so important. I am confident that our strategy will serve as a solid foundation from which to reach the next stage of our evolution, and we will be communicating more about it later in 2021.
Image: Jay Louvion
Finally, I’d like to extend my sincere thanks to the farming communities with whom we work as well as to you: our members, donors, partners and the wider BCI community for your cooperation and understanding during the unprecedented time. Together, we’ll deliver our ambitions, improve lives and livelihoods in rural communities, and transform the cotton sector – for good.
Phase
Expansion
5
Grow supply and demand.
2016-2020 Phase
4
Transformation
Expand reach and deepen impact.
2021-2030 Mainstreaming
Achieve critical mass. The Better Cotton Standard System becomes part of day-today business in the cotton sector.
The BCI Journey | Mainstreaming Better Cotton In 2016, BCI began its journey towards Better Cotton being recognised as a mainstream sustainable commodity by 2020. We call this our Mainstreaming Phase. We envisaged that the Better Cotton Standard System would become part of day-to-day business in the cotton sector, with supply and demand driven by the momentum of the market. The BCI membership network has expanded further and now includes more than 2,000 members, spanning 60 countries.
Follow our journey. In 2016, five ambitious targets set by the BCI Council in 2012 are reaffirmed for BCI’s Mainstreaming Phase towards 2020. The targets focus on embedding socially and environmentally sustainable practices in cotton farming, while driving the adoption of the Better Cotton Standard System and demand for Better Cotton.
The BCI Council approves the first comprehensive revision of the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria.
Retailer and Brand Members source 461,000 tonnes of Better Cotton.
BCI’s membership base reaches 986.
2016
By 2016, Better Cotton has been harvested in Australia, Brazil, China, India, Madagascar, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Senegal, Tajikistan, Turkey and the USA. The BCI programme reaches 1.5 million farmers, who produce 2.5 million tonnes of Better Cotton.
Retailer and Brand Member sourcing passes the 1 million tonne milestone, as members source 1.1 million tonnes of Better Cotton and send a clear signal to the market that there is growing demand for more sustainable cotton.
The first harvests of Better Cotton take place in Kazakhstan and South Africa. 1.5 million farmers are now part of the BCI programme and produce 3.4 million tonnes of Better Cotton.
10
2018
Three sustainable cotton standards have now been benchmarked with the Better Cotton Standard and recognised as equivalents – myBMP in Australia, ABR in Brazil, and CmiA across multiple African countries. Farmers growing cotton in line with these standards can opt to also sell their cotton as Better Cotton.
Retailer and Brand Members source 1.5 million tonnes of Better Cotton.
BCI and its nearly 70 Implementing Partners reach 2.7 million farmers in 23 countries – 2.4 million receive a BCI license.
2019
The BCI membership network reaches 1,400 members.
Retailer and Brand Members source 736,000 tonnes of Better Cotton.
BCI and partners reach 1.9 million farmers, who produce 5.1 million tonnes of Better Cotton.
The BCI programme reaches and trains 2.1 million farmers, who produce 5.6 million tonnes of Better Cotton.
Recognising that BCI’s partners reach many more individuals, including farm workers, co-farmers and sharecroppers, BCI develops a Farmers+ framework to measure the programme’s true reach. Learn more here.
Retailer and Brand Members source 1.7 million tonnes of Better Cotton – a record for BCI members and the industry. This accounts for 6.5% of global cotton production.
BCI now has 1,200 members.
2017
The Better Cotton Growth and Innovation Fund (formally the Better Cotton Fast Track Programme) launches to identify, support and invest in fieldlevel programmes and innovations.
BCI celebrates its 10-year anniversary, after officially launching as an independent initiative in 2009.
There are now 1,800 BCI Members.
4
2020
Looking ahead to the next decade, BCI researches the legal, political, environmental, technological, social and economic trends that are likely to have the most impact on BCI and the cotton sector in the coming years.
BCI approaches the end of its current strategic period and reflects on the achievements of all stakeholders.
Licensed farmers produce 6.2 million tonnes of Better Cotton, accounting for 23% of global cotton production.
The BCI programme launches in Egypt and Greece.
2030 BCI, its Council and stakeholders begin work on BCI’s ambitious strategy to 2030, ready to launch new targets in 2021.
2020 Year in Review
5
Supporting Smallholder Farmers Amid the Covid-19 Pandemic
More than 250 million people worldwide depend on cotton farming for their livelihoods, and the majority of cotton is cultivated by smallholder farmers in lower income countries. Farmers sit at the heart of our work, and BCI has remained committed to improving livelihoods and supporting cotton farming communities throughout the Covid-19 pandemic. The past year has brought serious health and safety risks for cotton farmers and workers, together with fluctuating prices due to store closures, home working and the associated global slowdown in apparel production. Rural communities in India in particular, one of our largest cotton producing countries, continue to suffer significantly. To help keep farmers safe while also protecting and supporting our employees and partners, we transformed the way we work, so our on-the-ground partners could continue to implement the Better Cotton Standard System and build farmers’ capacity to adopt sustainable practices without risking their own or the farming communities’ health and safety in the process. In particular, we considered how best to leverage our tools, resources and partnerships to promote resilience within farming communities. This was part of a broader effort to support all our key stakeholders at this difficult time, including through various relief mechanisms where relevant.
Equipping our partners with tools and resources We continued to support our Implementing Partners (IPs) in developing and reinforcing the skills and expertise they need to help BCI Farmers, prioritising online learning over in-person training. For example,
we developed two online learning systems for Field Facilitators in India and Pakistan. With the support of a ¤20,000 grant from the Laudes Foundation, we launched the system in India in September 2020, with all Field Facilitators there now able to access videos in six languages on topics including soil health, pest management and the cotton growth cycle. We’re exploring how the system could be scaled up to reach more on-the-ground partners. To help our own teams to deliver online training, they themselves received guidance on how to deliver effective webinars and online training sessions. A new online Capacity Building Resource Library was also developed to support them with their training, which we aim to make available to IPs too.
Continuing assurance and licensing activities Keeping our assurance activities going is vital to understanding whether farmers have grown their cotton in line with the Better Cotton Principles and Criteria and, ultimately, whether their cotton can be sold as Better Cotton. We therefore sought to uphold our assurance processes – shifting to remote monitoring in light of travel restrictions and, in some cases, postponing activities that could potentially comprise people’s health and wellbeing. We successfully piloted remote assurance processes in Mozambique and South Africa in early 2020, integrating the lessons learnt into our guidance for BCI Teams and third-party verifiers in other countries, including Egypt, India, Kazakhstan, Pakistan, Tajikistan and the USA.
Raising funds to help keep communities safe We would like to thank the Laudes Foundation for its Covid-19 emergency grant. In particular, we distributed these funds to IPs in India, Pakistan, Mozambique and Mali. The majority of the funding was used to provide information on preventing the virus and distributing face masks, soap and hand sanitisers to farmers, Field Facilitators and local communities. The masks were often made locally, including by women participating in groups designed to help them gain greater economic independence. We would also like to recognise the efforts made by our IPs, as many of them have invested both time and money in support of the rural communities in which they operate. We are happy to know that staff employed through funding from us have been able to contribute to helping communities stay safe.
BCI has remained committed to improving livelihoods and supporting cotton farming communities.
Looking ahead We will continue to expand access to high quality remote training for our partners and maintain robust assurance processes to provide farmers the opportunity to achieve or retain BCI licenses. This means monitoring the situation in production countries, reviewing our guidelines and even considering how remote monitoring could provide inspiration for future assurance processes. Finally, to keep improving our efforts to support farming communities, we have created a working group to share experiences and best practices, and identify opportunities to strengthen our activities on the ground, both during the ongoing pandemic and beyond.
Farm worker Shahida Parveen picking cotton in her family’s cotton field. Punjab, Pakistan Image: BCI/Khaula Jamil
2019-20 Field and Market Results
Farm worker Shahida Parveen picking cotton in her family’s cotton field. Punjab, Pakistan Image: BCI/Khaula Jamil
6
The field-level data presented in this section of the report is accurate as of the 2019-20 cotton season (July 2019-August 2020).
The BCI membership and cotton uptake data is accurate as of the end of 2020.
Updates from the Field
THE THREE COUNTRIES THAT PRODUCED THE MOST BETTER COTTON IN THE 2019-20 SEASON WERE BRAZIL, INDIA AND PAKISTAN
7
“ In the 2019-20 cotton season, we strengthened our capacity building approach, dedicating more resources to helping farmers adopt sustainable practices and finding new ways of building lasting relationships with our partners as well as developing new partnerships with technical experts. This provided a robust foundation from which to respond rapidly to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020.” Jyoti Narain Kapoor, India Country Director, Better Cotton Initiative In the 2019-20 cotton season, some 2.7 million farmers in 23 countries participated in the Better Cotton programme. Despite the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic throughout 2020, BCI’s nearly 70 Implementing Partners (IPs) remained dedicated to providing farmer support and training, rapidly adapting their practices to the evolving circumstances. In particular, they innovated to create digital materials and resources to deliver training remotely and took on critical new roles in distributing personal protective equipment, Covid-19 updates and safety advice to remote cotton farming communities.
6.2 million tonnes of Better Cotton – that is a 10% increase on the 2018-19 season and equates to approximately 23% of global cotton production. Note: In March 2020, BCI suspended its assurance programme in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autononous Region (XUAR) of China, and later in October, ceased all field-level activities including capacity building, as well as data monitoring and reporting.
Thanks to their efforts, more than 2.4 million farmers received a BCI license, producing
INDIA HAS THE GREATEST NUMBER OF BCI FARMERS
BRAZIL PRODUCED THE LARGEST VOLUME OF BETTER COTTON
Field Facilitator Abdul Ghafoor (left), BCI Farmer Noor Muhammad (middle) and BCI Lead Farmer Muhammad Sajad (right). Punjab, Pakistan Image: BCI/Khaula Jamil
mers Around the World 2018-19 Cotton Season 8 6.2 2019-20 Season Data TOTAL BETTER COTTON PRODUCED
MILLION METRIC TONNES
Volumes of Better Cotton Grown (metric tonnes)
USA USA
ISRAEL
TURKEY
241,000 MT
9,000 MT
103,000 MT
PAKISTAN
KAZAKHSTAN
TAJIKISTAN
945,000 MT
3,000 MT
13,000 MT CHINA
885,000 MT INDIA
BRAZIL (ABR)*
1,022,000 MT
2,334,000 MT
MALI
AFRICA (CmiA)*°
SOUTH AFRICA
23,000 MT
578,000 MT
12,000 MT
MOZAMBIQUE
MADAGASCAR**
AUSTRALIA (myBMP)*
6,000 MT
0
31,000 MT
*BCI recognised equivalent standards. **Madagascar’s only Producer Unit did not earn a BCI license in the 2019-20 season, hence the figure for production is zero. °The CmiA countries in the 2019-20 season include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique (farmers in Mozambique which are both CmiA and BCI licensed are only counted once.), Nigeria, Tanzania, Chad, Uganda, Zambia. Note: The BCI programme launched in Egypt and Greece in 2020 – licensing and production figures will be available from the 2020-21 cotton season.
(MyBMP)
2019-20 Season Data
TOTAL FARMERS LICENSED
2.4
9
MILLION
BCI Licensed Farmers Around the World USA
KAZAKHSTAN
BRAZIL (ABR)
*
289
360
TURKEY
3,299
MALI
TAKJIKISTAN
311
CHINA
104,035
876
ISRAEL
19,515
53 PAKISTAN MOZAMBIQUE
AFRICA (CmiA)
61,341
*°
460,220
INDIA
1,002,149
756,001 MADAGASCAR**
0 SOUTH AFRICA
559 *BCI recognised equivalent standards. **Madagascar’s only Producer Unit did not earn a BCI license in the 2019-20 season, hence the figure for production is zero. °The CmiA countries in the 2019-20 season include: Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Cote d’Ivoire, Mozambique (farmers in Mozambique which are both CmiA and BCI licensed are only counted once), Nigeria, Tanzania, Chad, Uganda, Zambia. Note: The BCI programme launched in Egypt and Greece in 2020 – licensing and production figures will be available from the 2020-21 cotton season.
AUSTRALIA (myBMP)*
48
2010-2020 Annual Data 2010-11 to 2019-20 Licensed BCI Farmers
2010-11
2010-11 to 2019-20 Volumes of Better Cotton Grown
28,368
2012-13
665,789 MT
2012-13 997,848
2013-14 2014-15
1,528,537
2015-16
2016-17
1,524,914
2016-17
2017-18
1,938,795
2018-19
2,113,869 2,409,056
2019-20 1 million
Farm workers on BCI Farmer Mustafa Bülbül’s cotton farm moving the irrigation system. Sanlıurfa, Turkey.
1,945,699 MT
2014-15
2015-16
0.5 million
1,529,266 MT
2013-14 1,220,843
image: BCI/Morgan Ferrar.
454,500 MT
2011-12
193,656
0
73,647 MT
2010-11
89,607
2011-12
10
1.5 million
2 million
2,504,613 MT 3,426,000 MT 5,140,500 MT
2017-18
5,627,700 MT
2018-19
6,205,000 MT
2019-20 0
1 million
2 million
3 million
4 million
5 million
6 million
Programme Highlights 2020 Greece BCI welcomed Greece as a new programme country after completing a comprehensive process to establish that the Greek AGRO-2 Integrated Management Standards could be considered as equivalent to the Better Cotton Standard System. This means farmers certified under the AGRO-2 standards will now be eligible to sell their cotton as Better Cotton from the 2020-21 cotton season. We estimate that 5,000 farmers will be implementing more sustainable practices and growing AGRO-2 licensed cotton by 2022. Find out more.
Egypt Following a successful pilot project and the completion of BCI’s new country start-up process, Egypt also became a new BCI programme country in 2020 as part of a renewed national drive to increase sustainability and improve conditions for Egyptian
11 cotton farmers. The programme is funded by the Italian Agency for Development Cooperation as part of the Egyptian Cotton Project. Some 2,000 smallholder cotton farmers will benefit from training and support on how to grow Egyptian cotton more sustainably while also improving their livelihoods. Learn more.
Innovation Challenge The Better Cotton Innovation Challenge – a challenge launched to uncover fresh ideas to scale more sustainable cotton production – received more than 100 submissions in 2020. Solutions focused on two key challenges: 1) new ways to deliver tailored and customised training on more sustainable farming practices to hundreds of thousands of cotton farmers and 2) reducing the time and cost of data collection to help make BCI licensing more efficient. Meet the challenge winners.
“ We remained strong in an unprecedented year, helping farming communities to navigate the challenges brought by the pandemic while continuing to encourage adoption of sustainable practices. BCI’s success in expanding our field-level programmes is testament to our teams’ and partners’ commitment, and more farmers recognising the benefits of adapting their practices in the face of climate change”. Dr Shafiq Ahmad, Regional Director, Pakistan and Central Asia, Better Cotton Initiative Farmers celebrate their hard work during the cotton harvest. Kafr ElSheikh, Egypt. Image: Magued Makram/UNIDO Egypt
Updates from the Supply Chain and Market Supplier and Manufacturer Members play a critical role in connecting demand and supply of Better Cotton and are committed to sourcing increased volumes year on year. In 2020, spinners sourced 2.7 million tonnes of Better Cotton, ensuring there was an ample supply available on the global market. Despite the significant impacts felt by the textile and apparel markets due to the pandemic, 204 BCI Retailer and Brand Members sourced 1.7 million tonnes of cotton as Better Cotton in 2020 – a record for BCI and the industry. That’s enough cotton to make more 131 billion face masks. This achievement represents a 13% increase on 2019 sourcing volumes and accounts for 6.5% of global cotton production. In 2020, BCI welcomed more than 400 new members across five membership categories. By the end of the year, our membership base had exceeded 2,100 members (a 14% increase on 2019) spanning 60 countries.
Better Cotton Uptake 2020 RETAILER AND BRAND MEMBERS SOURCED
Access to the BCP allows organisations to participate electronically in the Better Cotton Chain of Custody by recording information about cotton-containing orders sourced as Better Cotton, managing the required documentation and recording information about cotton-containing sales to customers.
CIVIL SOCIETY
PRODUCER ORGANISATIONS
16
ASSOCIATES
219
FIND ALL MEMBERS HERE
RETAILERS AND BRANDS
MILLION TONNES OF BETTER COTTON
1,821
2108
SUPPLIERS AND MANUFACTURERS
Better Cotton Uptake 2013-2020
BCI Membership 2010-2020
Uptake by Retailer and Brand Members
Membership growth by category*
1,700,000 MT 2020
2019
The Better Cotton Platform (BCP) is an online system owned by the Better Cotton Initiative (BCI). The platform is used by more than 10,000 ginners, traders, spinners, fabric mills, garment and end product manufacturers, sourcing agents and retailers to electronically document volumes of cotton sourced as ‘Better Cotton’ as they pass through the supply chain.
20
32
1.7
1,500,000 MT
WHAT IS THE BETTER COTTON PLATFORM?
BCI Membership 2020
Retailers and Brands Producer Organisations Civil Society Associate Members Suppliers and Manufacturers
1842
1433 1199 986
1,100,000 MT 2018
736,000 MT
706
2017
461,000 MT
468
2016
251,000 MT
313
2015
117,000 MT 2014
85,000 MT 2013
197 48 2010
110 2011
2012
2013
2014
2015
2016
2017
2018
2019
2020
*This graph shows the net amount of members at the end of the calendar year.
12
Additionally, the number of people using the Better Cotton Platform increased by 30% in 2020. Approximately 10,000 ginners, traders, spinners, fabric mills, garment and end product manufacturers, sourcing agents and retailers are now using BCI’s digital platform to document volumes of cotton sourced as ‘Better Cotton’ electronically as they pass through the supply chain.
“ BCI Members remained focused on their sustainability commitments throughout this challenging year. From civil society members supporting farmers on protective measures for Covid-19 to commercial members continuing to source Better Cotton, BCI Members were more active and engaged than ever, continuing to invest in cotton farming communities. Now we look ahead to 2021 and supporting even more ambitious sourcing plans from our growing membership.” Paula Lum Young-Bautil, Deputy Director, Membership and Supply Chain, Better Cotton Initiative.
2020 Year in Review
13
Strengthening Our Capacity to Promote Decent Work and Prevent Forced Labour
Cotton farmers around the world face many decent work challenges, ranging from protecting workers from pesticide exposure to preventing or identifying child labour. Decent work challenges typically stem from low wages, the informal nature of working relations in agriculture and often weak enforcement of laws and regulations. Sometimes solutions also require mindset shifts, whether that means raising awareness among communities that it’s best for children to attend school rather than work in the fields or working to transform long-held social status or gender norms. BCI’s commitment to promoting decent work for all is restated in our 2030 strategy. In particular, we have revisited our approach to addressing decent work challenges with the help of the Task Force on Forced Labour and Decent Work, convened in 2020 to review the current Better Cotton Standard System. The aim of the Task Force was to highlight gaps and develop recommendations to improve the effectiveness of this system in identifying, preventing, mitigating and remediating forced labour risks as an urgent step to addressing wider decent work concerns. The group comprised 12 experts drawn from civil society, retailers and brands, and responsible sourcing consultancies. In parallel, BCI ran extensive consultations with a wider group of retailers and brands, field-level Implementing Partners and worker-focused organisations, among others.
WHAT IS ‘DECENT WORK’?
To drive systemic, positive change, BCI will prioritise collaboration with key stakeholders on the ground, internationally and across supply chains. This work culminated in a comprehensive report, published in October 2020 and available in full on the BCI website. The report outlines key findings and includes nine main recommendations to help BCI strengthen our systems to identify and prevent forced labour risks. The BCI Council has since approved the phased implementation plan to address the Task Force recommendations. Additionally, we have developed a Decent Work Strategy, which takes a risk-based approach and will unfold across multiple years, linking into the BCI 2030 strategy. The foundation of the recommended approach is understanding the root causes of poor labour practices as a necessary first step to address the circumstances that perpetuate exploitation and abuse. The role of freedom of association and collective bargaining was especially emphasised. At the same time, the Task Force findings recognised the tremendous potential that BCI has – as a truly global network of partners – to help improve the
Decent work is understood by BCI as the concept developed by the International Labour Organization (ILO), the UN specialised agency on work and employment, to describe work that provides opportunities for women and men to work productively in conditions of freedom,
equity, security and human dignity. For the ILO and BCI, decent work encompasses four pillars: fundamental principles and rights at work, and international labour standards; employment and income opportunities; social protection and social security; and social dialogue.
working conditions for millions of cotton farmers and workers. Therefore, to drive systemic, positive change, BCI will prioritise collaboration with key stakeholders on the ground, internationally and across supply chains. We will implement our Decent Work Strategy at a global level and within individual countries. In the short and medium term, we’ll focus on building our country teams’ expertise in this area, developing context-specific risk assessment, adapted assurance and capacity building approaches as well as carrying out extensive stakeholder engagement. Globally, we’ll raise awareness among all our teams and partners, revise our assurance protocol, improve our partner management processes and update the organisational-level grievance mechanism. We’re currently piloting our Decent Work Strategy in India and Pakistan as our largest programme countries. Looking ahead, we will focus on raising funds to expand activities to all BCI countries. We will also continue to support collective action and share knowledge and best practice on promoting decent work in agriculture. Please see our website for the detailed implementation plan.
BCI Farmer Sharipov Habibullo leads a farmer training session. Khujand, Tajikistan . Image: BCI/Emma Upton
2020 Strategy in Numbers
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Summary of the Results from Our 5-year Strategic Phase Ending in 2020
Total Production of Better Cotton
Farmers Reached by the BCI Programme
Uptake of Better Cotton by Retailer and Brand Members
5
10%
30% TARGET
22%
ACHIEVED
MILLION FARMERS TARGET
2.9 MILLION
ACHIEVED
BCI Secretariat Financially SelfSufficient
9
TARGET
6.5%
FARMERS
National Embedding of the Better Cotton Standard System (or benchmarked equivalents)
100%
COUNTRIES TARGET
10 COUNTRIES
SCRETARIAT SELF-FUNDED TARGET
100% ACHIEVED
ACHIEVED
3.8
MILLION INCLUDING FARMERS +DATA
W e are proud that, in less than a decade, the collective effort of our stakeholders has led to Better Cotton reaching nearly a quarter of global cotton production. ovid-19 and the suspension of the BCI assurance C programme in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autononous Region (XUAR) of China had an impact on the volume reached, but we have confidence that with the addition of new BCI programme countries, enhanced focus and support in existing countries, and increased demand for more sustainably produced raw materials, production of Better Cotton will continue to increase in the coming years. The data used to calculate Better Cotton production is taken from the 2020-21 cotton season estimates and therefore may be liable to change (the season concludes in July 2021).
When BCI set the target to reach 5 million farmers, we knew it was ambitious and would stretch us and our partners. While we did not quite reach our target, we would like to thank our Implementing Partners for their continued dedication and support for farming communities, particularly during this past year. They demonstrated considerable flexibility and passion for our mission amid a constantly evolving set of circumstances and challenges. Beyond farmers, we reached an additional one million individuals who participate in farm-level decision-making and share a financial stake in their cotton farms. These are co-farmers, sharecroppers and certain types of farm workers, and they also receive support and training delivered by BCI’s Implementing Partners. You can learn more about Farmers+ and how BCI will calculate the reach of its programmes in the future here. The Farmers+ figure above is a cumulative estimate of additional people reached through BCI’s programmes since the 2010-11 cotton season. The data used to calculate BCI’s programme reach is taken from 2020-21 cotton season estimates and therefore may be liable to change (the season concludes in July 2021).
Retailer and Brand Members were on track to source 8% of global cotton production as Better Cotton in 2020, which would have brought us close to our 2020 target. However, we fell slightly short of this target, largely due to the Covid-19 pandemic and the suspension of the BCI assurance programme in the Xinjiang Uyghur Autononous Region (XUAR) of China. Despite this and given the increasing demand for Better Cotton over the past eight years, we are confident that demand for more sustainable materials will continue to grow in the coming years.
N ational embedding’ is achieved when an organisation or institution within a country has established a formal, nation-wide responsibility to fund and uphold the Better Cotton Standard or has a benchmarked equivalent standard in place. T en countries demonstrated various levels of national embedding by the end of 2020: Australia (myBMP), Brazil (ABR), Egypt, Greece (AGRO-2), Israel (ICPSS), Mozambique, Pakistan, Turkey, China and South Africa.
B CI achieved this target in 2017. 1 00% of core operational costs (running the organisation, providing membership services and support, and maintaining the Better Cotton Standard System) are covered by earned income, and all donor funding goes to field-level activities and innovation. This figure was calculated as of the end of the 2020 calendar year.
This figure was calculated at the end of the 2020 calendar year.
This figure was calculated at the end of the 2020 calendar year.
THE 2020 TARGETS IN FULL
B etter Cotton will represent 30% of global cotton production. B CI and partners will support five million cotton farmers to improve their livelihoods by adopting sustainable agricultural practices.
1 0% of all cotton produced globally will be sourced by retailers and brands as Better Cotton. Nine countries to take direct responsibility for funding and implementing the Better Cotton Standard (or its benchmarked equivalent standards).
1 00% of BCI’s core operational costs are to be covered by earned income, and 100% of donor funds go to farmlevel innovation or capacity building projects
Taking Better Cotton Mainstream | Reflecting on Our Performance to 2020
15
Just over a decade ago, the first bale of Better Cotton was produced in Pakistan. Now, nearly a quarter of the world’s cotton is produced as Better Cotton. This rapid growth has enabled the Better Cotton Initiative to reach scale, with nearly 4 million farmers, workers, sharecroppers and others benefitting from support and resources in 23 countries. Collaboration has been central to this achievement, and a relentless focus on making the Better Cotton Standard System accessible to all farmers, from smallholders to large, mechanised farms. And as farmers adopt more sustainable practices, we’re also helping to improve lives and livelihoods in rural communities.
Cotton communities are more in need of support than ever in the face of worsening impacts of climate change and environmental degradation. So, as we look ahead, we remain committed to taking Better Cotton mainstream, and will renew our efforts to transform the sector, guided by our 2030 strategy. In conclusion, we have travelled a significant distance from designing the Better Cotton Standard System to making Better Cotton a reality on the ground, to engaging the world’s largest textile and apparel companies to drive demand for Better Cotton, and scaling up production to meet this growing demand. Now, we are ready and fully determined to leverage our scale, reach and partnerships to deliver even more real and lasting impact - for farming communities and the entire cotton sector.
This is great progress, but there is still some way to go. In particular, while we know that we have fallen short of the fieldlevel goals we set ourselves for 2020, we are encouraged by the progress made. These were bold, ambitious targets, and we have learnt a lot along the way. We are committed to applying the lessons we have learnt from our first decade as we embark on our strategic phase towards 2030.
Cotton communities are more in need of support than ever in the face of worsening impacts of climate change and environmental degradation.
We were successful in engaging with production countries to encourage ownership of implementing the Better Cotton Standard System, exceeding our goal of nine countries, with ten countries demonstrating various levels of national embedding. And in 2017, we achieved our goal of our secretariat becoming financially self-sufficient, enabling us to direct all our donor funding to supporting innovation or new development projects. Now, we want to celebrate what we, collectively, have achieved, recognising the remarkable commitment of our partners and farmers worldwide, while acting decisively to address the pressing challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity and social inequality. There is no time for complacency.
UNDERSTANDING BCI’S REPORTING PERIODS
BCI Farmer Vinodbhai Patel, harvesting Neem leaves that he will use to prepare biopesticides. Gujarat, India. Image: BCI/Florian Lang
2019-2020 Cotton Season Results
2020 Strategic Period Results
Farmers reached by the BCI programme
2.7 million farmers
- 2.9 million farmers - 3.8 million individuals using Farmers+ data
Licensed Farmers
2.4 million farmers
2.6 million farmers
Volume of Better Cotton produced
6.2 million metric tonnes
5.4 million metric tonnes
Better Cotton as a % of global cotton production
23%
22%
Calculated using the estimated 2020Calculated using the finalised 2019-20 21 season harvest data (figures likely to season harvest data change)
2020 Year in Review
16
Mainstreaming Women’s Empowerment and Gender Equality Across BCI
Gender inequality remains a pressing challenge in the cotton sector as in many other sectors. While women contribute significantly to cotton production around the world — often taking on essential and demanding roles like sowing, weeding, fertiliser application and picking — they are held back by many forms of discrimination and underrepresentation in decisionmaking. BCI’s 2019-21 Gender Strategy outlines the importance of creating a transformed cotton industry where all participants have equal opportunities to thrive, regardless of their gender identity. In line with this strategy, we conducted several initiatives in 2020 to improve gender equality and women’s empowerment in cotton production and to address the specific needs and challenges of women taking part in our programmes.
Measuring and piloting women’s empowerment projects Together with CARE International UK, we developed a women’s empowerment indicator for the Delta Framework [see page 19 for more information]. One of 15 indicators that make up the framework, the women’s empowerment indicator represents a step forward in terms of how BCI and other sustainability standards seek to measure real change for women on the ground. While quantifying women’s empowerment is not a simple task, this indicator moves away from a focus on measuring training outputs or simple participation metrics alone and instead aims to capture women’s active participation in three domains: leadership, decision-making and control of economic assets. The indicator was piloted in South Africa with our partner Cotton South Africa, who
conducted interviews with 84 smallholder farmers (35% women) and 12 large farmers (one of whom was a woman) as well as with their respective spouses. This pilot helped us confirm that the indicator is fitfor-purpose for smallholder contexts but needs to be adjusted for large farm contexts. Since the commercial farms are often not family-run, the gender dynamics are very different, and we will continue working with CARE to adapt the indicator in 2021. Introduced in 2019, BCI’s expanded Farmers+ definition enables us to be more intentional about targeting those we’re reaching through Better Cotton training, including women co-farmers, who equally share decision-making responsibilities. Partnering with IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative, Sattva and the Lupin Foundation, we launched a oneyear pilot project, funded by IDH and the Better Cotton GIF, to increase the inclusion of women cofarmers and engage male farmers to become allies for gender equality in India. The 2020 pilot was designed following work undertaken by IDH that began in 2018 to understand the business case for gender mainstreaming in cotton in Maharashtra. Through the pilot, 2,000 women co-farmers in Dhule, Maharashtra participated in a new holistic training programme, spanning topics from seasonal agronomic practices such as intercropping and integrated pest management through to financial literacy, negotiation skills and gaining access to government programmes. Eleven demonstration plots were also established to demonstrate innovative farming practices, and more than 2,200 male co-farmers received gender sensitisation training, recognising that achieving gender equality requires engagement from the entire cotton community. The pilot was successful
in increasing the skills and knowledge of women cofarmers as well as engaging male co-farmers on how and why gender dynamics and gender equality are relevant to them and their farms.
We remain committed to championing and supporting women and people of all gender identities on our journey to create an equitable cotton future.
Advancing gender equality within our organisation and the cotton community At an organisational level, we set up a BCI Gender Working Group in July 2020 made up of 11 staff members representing each department to create shared accountability for delivering our Gender Strategy. The group meets bimonthly to accelerate action and focus our efforts for greater impact. We also continued working with CARE International UK to deliver gender equality and diversity workshops to BCI staff. The workshops focus on different dimensions of gender and diversity to help further mainstream gender considerations across the BCI team and build a common language for how we understand and tackle inequality and injustice. At the community level, we continued to be active participants of the Women in Cotton Working Group, developed by the International Cotton Association (ICA). The group’s mission is to increase engagement and the impact of women within the industry by giving them a stronger voice, sharing and learning from each other’s experiences and helping networking amongst women in the global cotton community.
Looking ahead In 2021, the first phase of our Gender Strategy will come to a close. We are inspired to capture our learnings and develop new actions and commitments for our next phase, aligned with our 2030 Strategy.
Farm-worker Ruksana Bibi with her husband BCI Farmer Muhammad Azher Hussain Cheema in their cotton field. Punjab, Pakistan. Image: BCI/Khaula Jamil
BCI’s Gender Strategy outlines the importance of creating a transformed cotton industry where all participants have equal opportunity to thrive, regardless of their gender identity.
A Global Network | BCI’s Stakeholders 20
16
FIELD PROGRAMME
G
C
RT
E AT
NE
RS
ST R
219
I
AN
2,108 MEMBERSHIP
PR
12
1,821
BCI COUNCIL
STAFF LOCATED IN
Male Female
59%
OD
A
32
Associates Producer Organisations Civil Society Retailers and Brands Suppliers and Manufacturers
65
DI MPLEMENTI
NG
P
550
RS E U CE G R UNIT MANA
FIEL
LE AD FAR M
5,000 D FACILITATORS
) S P ROU G G RNIN
52,700 ERS (LEA
15 127 STAFF 41%
10,000
From humble beginnings, BCI has grown rapidly to become the world’s largest cotton sustainability programme, and we’re expanding our network and reach all the time. BCI’s global network now comprises of stakeholders from diverse cultures, countries and backgrounds, spanning the entire cotton supply chain – from cotton farmers and producer organisations through to retailers and brands, and civil society organisations. BCI’s core Secretariat staff work across 15 countries, working closely with the broader BCI community, which includes expert partners, donors and funders, thousands of field staff, members from more than 60 countries, and millions of cotton farmers and farming communities. We’re passionate about what we do and dedicated to achieving BCI’s mission: to make global cotton production better for the people who produce it, better for the environment it grows in and better for the sector’s future.
BCI works with a diverse network of partners around the world to implement the Better Cotton Standard System at field level.
COUNTRIES*
ORGANISATIONS ON THE BETTER COTTON PLATFORM
17
Cotton in Tajikistan. Image: BCI/Emma Upton
BCI FARMERS
2.4
MILLION
* Brazil, Burkina Faso, China, India, Kenya, Mali, Mozambique, Pakistan, Sweden, Switzerland, The Netherlands, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, Uzbekistan *All data accurate as of end 2020. - Figures for: Producer Unit Managers, Field Facilitators and Lead Farmers are estimates.
Stakeholder Insights
18
Bilal Israel Khan, BCI Farmer and Outgoing BCI Council Member Listening to all our stakeholders and forging collective solutions that respond to everyone’s needs sits at the heart of our work and is central to achieving our mission. Bilal Israel Khan has participated in BCI since its inception and been a longstanding member of the BCI Council, having served as a representative for 10 years until stepping down in 2021. He grows crops including cotton, sugarcane and mangoes on his ancestral farm in southern Punjab, Pakistan. Here, he shares his views on 21st century cotton farming from a farmer’s perspective.
How does BCI benefit farmers? BCI offers a compelling prospect to farmers. We all want to see improved productivity and lower input costs, and every responsible producer feels duty-bound to help protect the environment. Today, delivering Better Cotton is vital to meeting market demand, so retailers and brands can achieve their sustainable cotton sourcing goals and farmers can continue farming healthy cotton crops
in the future. No farmer can continue successful farming operations in the face of poor soil health or pesticide resistance, for example. That’s where BCI’s best practices and strategy of continuous improvement really create dividends, and I’ve been delighted to help more farmers discover the way forward. In this way, we can share the benefit of our knowledge with smaller, remote farms that wouldn’t normally have access to this kind of support.
Could you describe some of the highlights of your time as a BCI Council Member? Participating in the BCI Council has enabled me to bring BCI’s vision to life in the cotton field – to help bridge the gap between theory and reality on the ground. When I’ve taken the floor to describe an issue like pest pressure, you could have heard a pin drop. In addition to feeling genuinely heard and understood, I’ve made lifelong friendships and developed strong professional networks. This has both grown my technical knowledge and taught me a keen sense of humility. I have been in awe of members’ commitments, their
grasp of issues, their razor-sharp analysis, the sheer scale of their operations and, above all, their downto-earth approach.
What are the key challenges faced by cotton farmers in Pakistan? Cotton farming in Pakistan has been very tough these past decades, though we’re fortunate not to have seen the troubles experienced by farmers in neighbouring India amid the pandemic. We have seen a significant fall in production due to pesticide resistance – white fly and pink bollworm in particular are a real problem – extreme temperatures (particularly at night) and water scarcity. It’s vital that we renew our efforts to address these challenges, so the country’s cotton industry continues to support the lives of farmers and workers, including many women, their families and their communities.
How could BCI and other key stakeholders help to address these challenges? We urgently need research - into heat tolerant cotton varieties, into sustainable pest management
- with more emphasis on introducing pheromones or natural predators, for example. And we need to make these solutions as accessible as possible to the farmer, in order to accelerate uptake and adoption. This would help enable farmers to reduce their costs and move away from government subsidies for conventional chemicals. In every country where BCI operates, we need to continue focusing on farmers’ on-theground challenges, while lobbying for change at an international level. Measuring impact is also fundamental. I welcome BCI’s focus on understanding the real impacts of farmers’ improvements for people and the environment.
Do you feel hopeful for the future? The circumstances are challenging, but I remain hopeful. The proof of my optimism is that I am still planting significant quantities of cotton and continue to encourage more farmers to adopt sustainable practices.
Bilal Israel Khan (left) in an Australian cotton field on the farm of fellow Council member Simon Corish. This educational trip was sponsored by BCI and Cotton Australia.
According to Bilal, pictured are “some of the invaluable sustainable agricultural practices learned from BCI. Common plants found around the land are used for preparing bio-pesticides resulting not only in huge financial savings but also in fighting pest resistance problems and preserving friendly (predatory) insects.”
Image: Bilal Israel Khan
Image: Bilal Israel Khan
2020 Year in Review
Delta Project: Standardised Reporting for Sustainability Progress
Transforming agriculture and building resilience in supply chains is integral to ensuring the ongoing, sustainable supply of key commodities such as cotton and coffee. Through the Delta Project, we are supporting the creation of a shared approach to measuring and communicating sustainability progress – the Delta Framework. This is essential to promoting both a common understanding and uptake of responsible agricultural practices. Ultimately, it will strengthen the efforts of multiple sustainability initiatives, including BCI, to address the social and environmental challenges of agriculture, protect workers’ rights and improve farmers’ livelihoods. It will also enable clear, transparent reporting towards the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals. So how has BCI helped to lead the way in advancing the Delta Project’s objectives? We contributed to developing and refining the Framework’s 15 environmental, social and economic indicators, together with the tools and methodologies needed for data collection and analysis. We also led pilot testing of the indicators with farmers and local partners in South Africa and India.
DELTA PROJECT PARTNERS Better Cotton Initiative Global Coffee Platform (GCP) International Cotton Advisory Committee (ICAC) International Coffee Association (ICO) Funding: ISEAL Innovation Fund, supported by the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs
Other sustainable cotton standards are testing the indicators in India, and our Delta Project partner Global Coffee Platform (GCP) is conducting testing in Vietnam. The lessons we learn will help us to ensure the whole approach is fit for purpose. Ultimately, we want to be able to integrate these indicators into the overall way we monitor progress against our respective sustainability standards. In parallel, we have been working on digitisation guidance to complete the Delta Framework. This will help enable organisations interested in adopting the Framework to define the appropriate data monitoring and collection systems to track the 15 indicators. Beyond this, we are also exploring how the Delta Framework data can be used by multiple stakeholders, including farmers, the public sector, sourcing companies, brands and retailers etc. In particular, we are developing reporting tools allowing farmers to gain meaningful insights from their sustainability performance results to guide improvement efforts. Similarly, we are aiming to create guidance and tools to support countries and public sector entities in consolidating producers’ information to help report sustainability performance of individual commodities. Learn more about the Delta Project here.
A shared approach to measuring and communicating sustainability progress. BCI Farmer Tahirou Sangare stands in the cotton field. Kolondieba, Mali. Image: BCI/Seun Adatsi
19
Financials This summarised financial information is drawn from the full statutory financial statements for 2020. 2020 was a year of uncertainty with the Covid-19 pandemic arising unexpectedly. Concerned that the global lockdown would have severe implications for our income streams, we reduced our expenditure plans along with the BCI donation to the Better Cotton Growth and Innovation Fund, which is derived from Volume-Based Fees and used for fieldlevel activities and innovation. We were fortunate that by year end all the contingency planning had served its purpose and there was no adverse impact on the organisation’s financial stability. The continued growth of our membership as well as that of users of the Better Cotton Platform contributed to an increase in earned income. Further, despite the challenges experienced by many stakeholders due to the pandemic, the VolumeBased Fee result, paid by Retailer and Brand Members, surpassed expectations.
20 Expenditure
Income 1%
15% 10% 6%
2020
7%
45%
16% 9% 62%
5%
2019
1%
65%
16%
2020
35%
18%
2019
5% 38%
Field-Level Assurance Stewardship of the Better Cotton Standard System Driving Better Cotton Sourcing Governance, Admin, Fundraising and Communications
46%
Membership Fees and Better Cotton Platform Fees Volume-Based Fee (paid by BCI Retailer and Brand Members) Conferences and Workshops Grants
Expenditure
2020
2019
Field-Level
12,623
14,238
Assurance
1,483
1,209
Stewardship of the Better Cotton Standard System
1,140
1,111
Driving Better Cotton Sourcing
1,994
2,075
Governance, Admin, Fundraising and Communications
3,058
3,582
20,297
22,215
Income
2020
2019
Membership Fees and Better Cotton Platform Fees
9,690
7,276
8,180
9,646
138
263
3,626
3,751
21,496
20,935
Total
Volume-Based Fee (paid by BCI Retailer and Brand Members) Conferences and Workshops Grants Total
(in thousands of euros)
Please note that the summarised financial information above combines both income and expenditure for both BCI and the Better Cotton Growth and Innovation Fund (GIF). These figures are for illustrative purposes and are not a detailed representation of the full, consolidated financial activities of BCI and the Better Cotton GIF, which are two separate legal entities. Financial statements for BCI and the GIF are available by contacting membership@bettercotton.org. Image: Seun Adatsi
BCI Governance at a Glance The General Assembly, consisting of all BCI Members, is the ultimate authority of BCI and elects a Council to represent it. The Council is the organisation’s highest decision-making body, with a direct influence on making global cotton production more sustainable. Meet the Council
2020 Updates
Key Council Decisions 2020
Civil Society Solidaridad: Isabelle Roger - Secretary PAN UK: Keith Tyrell (elected in 2021) Vacant: co-optation of an additional member is in progress
In 2020, the Council election and cooptation process began as four seats came up for election, one in each of the following membership categories: Producer Organisations, Suppliers and Manufacturers, Retailers and Brands, and Civil Society.
The Council approved BCI’s 2030 strategic direction.
Producer Organisations Cotton Australia: Hamish McIntyre Supima: Marc Lewkowitz – Chair (reelected in 2021) Vacant: co-optation of an additional member is in progress Retailers and Brands Hennes & Mauritz: Harsha Vardhan Levi Strauss & Co: Jeffrey Hogue Adidas: Ebru Gencoglu (elected in 2021) Suppliers and Manufacturers Basil Commodities Pvt. Ltd: Pathik Patel Anandi: R S Baalagurunathan (elected in 2021) Louis Dreyfus Company: Pierre Chehab (nominated in 2021) Independent Members Joost Oorthuizen Amit Shah – Treasurer
The BCI General Assembly met virtually for the first time on 9 June 2020 following the cancellation of the scheduled in-person meeting due to global travel restrictions. The General Assembly subsequently postponed the Council elections by a period of six months due to Covid-19 disruption. New Council Members adidas (Ebru Gencoglu), Anandi (R S Baalagurunathan) and PAN UK (Keith Tyrell) were later elected to the Council in 2021. Supima (Marc Lewkowitz) was re-elected. In addition to the elected members, Louis Dreyfus Company (Pierre Chehab) was co-opted to the Council. The co-optation of an additional Civil Society and Producer Organisation member is ongoing. Find out more about the elections.
COMPOSITION OF THE BCI COUNCIL The BCI Council is composed of three representatives, each from the four voting member categories: Producer Organisations; Suppliers and Manufacturers; Civil Society; and Retailers and Brands.
Two of the three seats in each category are elected by the members, and one seat is co-opted by the sitting Council to balance representation and appropriate expertise to deliver the work of the Council.
Council members provided input to and confirmed decisions on several BCI workstreams, including the Task Force on Decent Work and Forced Labour, BCI programmes in existing and new countries, and communications guidelines for members, as recommended by the BCI management team. T he
Council decided to invest in BCI’s media response capacity, given the increased public visibility of the organisation as well as its growing membership.
A t
a field level, the Council took the decision not to extend the Monocrotophos (a highly hazardous pesticide) exception in India.
A s
prescribed by the statutes, the Council approved the financial statements and Annual Operating Plan report for 2019, and the Annual Operating Plan and Budget for BCI in 2020.
In 2021, the BCI Council will decide on the economic, social and environmental targets and milestones for the organisation in the upcoming decade. A cotton picker harvesting the field of BCI Farmer Brad Williams. Tennessee, USA Image: BCI/Demarcus Bowser
21
2020 Year in Review | 2030 Strategy Development
22
The Next Chapter of Our Sustainable Cotton Journey
When BCI launched just over a decade ago, we could hardly dare to dream that it would become the largest cotton sustainability programme in the world. Today, nearly a quarter of the world’s cotton is produced under the Better Cotton Standard. By participating in BCI training, nearly 4 million individuals (using the Farmers+ approach) have adopted more sustainable farming practices and 2.4 million farmers are licensed to grow Better Cotton. And many of the world’s leading apparel and textile brands support BCI as members and investors, directly advancing the transition to more sustainable cotton in 23 countries. Together with our partners, we have made significant progress these past years, but there is much more still to do. In this decade of change towards 2030, our work is even more vital. The global challenges of climate change, biodiversity loss, resource scarcity and social inequality are more pressing than ever. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic has heightened uncertainty and fragility in the global cotton supply chain, further reinforcing the need to build resilience and promote sustainable agriculture.
We remain determined to achieve our mission to transform the cotton sector deepening our impact on cotton farming and communities while catalysing systemic change.
Image: Israel Cotton Board
To address these challenges, strengthen the sector and contribute to fulfilling the UN’s 2030 Sustainable Development Goals, we have, with our stakeholders, developed an ambitious strategy towards 2030. Building on our existing work, we will renew our efforts to ensure our capacity building is accessible to farmers and centred on their needs. Collaboration will remain central to our work. Importantly, we will seek to create measurable positive impacts, as we strive to improve lives and livelihoods in cotton farming communities, alleviating rural poverty while protecting the environment and conserving nature.
How we developed the strategy in 2020
Next steps
Firstly, we conducted multiple workshops with more than 100 Implementing Partners, Retailers and Brand Members and field staff, and engaged with external experts and trusted partners (including ISEAL, IDH, WWF and Pesticide Action Network UK). Our Strategy Steering Group and Council provided support and feedback throughout, as we prepared an initial draft. Once approved, we launched the strategy to our own teams in early 2021, with a view to finalising targets and developing action plans in due course.
In 2021, we will review and finalise our provisional global targets and indicators for the next ten years. We will also work with our national teams, partners and farmers’ organisations and Producer Units to agree appropriate national or local indicators and milestones. Later in 2021, we will begin sharing the strategy with the wider world. Above all, we remain determined to achieve our mission to transform the cotton sector - deepening our impact on cotton farming and communities while catalysing systemic change. We hope you’ll join us in making this transformation a reality.
Outlook to 2021
23
Starting the Journey Towards Our 2030 Goals We begin our journey towards our 2030 goals with a new look and a renewed focus on collaboration and learning. Our new brand identity, designed to be compelling and relevant to our stakeholders as we move into our second decade, is set to launch with a new website in the coming months. Meanwhile, building on a virtual Implementing Partner Meeting in January 2021, we will host a Large Farm Symposium in August. This will enable BCI partners from around the world to share best practices, collaborate and develop their networks, ensuring that knowledge exchange remains at the heart of continuous improvement. Physical traceability is a growing area of interest for our Retailer and Brand Members, as they seek to demonstrate responsibility and compliance within their supply chains and build a deeper knowledge of social and environmental challenges at each stage. To deliver the level of insight required, we are looking beyond our mass balance chain of custody model to explore traceability options for Better Cotton. Recognising the scale of this challenge, we are taking a phased approach in 2021, engaging our stakeholders at every step of the way. Learn more here.
Farm worker Ruksana Kausar in her family’s cotton field. Punjab, Pakistan. Image: BCI/Khaula Jamil
Finally, to truly deliver our ambitions, we must create and measure meaningful impact. This is an explicit goal for the 2030 strategy and will be an increasing focus of our work, as we seek to amplify our reach and help improve lives and livelihoods in cotton farming communities. In particular, we will take a strategic approach to measuring and equipping farmers to act on their greenhouse gas emissions, including through our collaboration with Gold Standard.
To truly deliver our ambitions, we must create and measure meaningful impact.
2020 Donors and Partners
24
We would like to thank the following donors and partners who, by supporting BCI, are driving positive change in the cotton sector:
2020 Donors
Australia Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) Danish International Development Agency (DANIDA) Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) IDH, The Sustainable Trade Initiative ISEAL Alliance Innovations Fund Laudes Foundation
2020 Partners
Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs (BuZa)/ Netherlands Sustainable Economic Development Department (DDE) Swiss Agency for Development and Cooperation (SDC) Switzerland State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) United States Agency for International Development (USAID) Development Innovation Ventures (DIV)
Associação Brasileira dos Produtores de Algodão (ABRAPA)
Brazil
Govt. Agriculture Extension Department, Rahim Yar Khan
Pakistan
Sangtani Women Rural Development Organization
Pakistan
Aid by Trade Foundation (AbTF)
Africa (Various)
China
Sarob
Tajikistan
Ambuja Cement Foundation (ABF) India
Guoxin Rural Technical Service Association
China
Action for Food Production (AFPRO)
India
The Cotton Institute of Mozambique Mozambique (IAM)
Shandong Huitong Textile Co. Ltd. Spectrum International
India
Aga Khan Rural Support Programme-India (AKRSPI)
India
Indigo
United States
Solidaridad China
China
Turkey
Allenberg-ProCot
United States
Iyi Pamuk Uygulamaları Dernegi (IPUD)
Songzi Agriculture Technology Promotion Center
China
Association des Producteurs de Coton Africains (AProCA)
Mali
Israel Cotton Production & Marketing Board (ICB)
Israel
STAC INDIA
India
Arvind
India
Jess Smith & Sons
United States
StaplCotn
United States
Basil Commodities Pvt. Ltd
India
K.K. FIBRES (MP)
India
TianliAgri
Madagascar
Bharat Cotton
India
Lok Sanjh Foundation
Pakistan
Trident Ltd.
India
Binzhou Nongxi Cooperative
China
Louis Dreyfus Company Kazakhstan Kazakhstan
Udyansh Gramin Samaj Sewa Samiti (UGSSS MP)
India
CABI
Pakistan
Lupin Human Welfare And Research India Foundation
VARDHMAN
India
CANBEL Tarım Ürünleri Danısmanlık Turkey Egitim Pazarlama Sanayi Ticaret Ltd.
Mahima
India
Welspun Foundation for Health and India Knowledge (WFHK)
MYRADA Kaveri Pradeshika Samsthe (MYKAPS)
India
WWF
India
OLAM-IP
Mozambique
WWF-Pakistan
Pakistan
WWF-Turkey
Turkey
Changzhou Keteng Textile Co., Ltd
China
Compagnie Malienne pour le Développement du Textile (CMDT)
Mali
Coastal Salinity Prevention Cell
India
OLAM-IP
United States
Cotton Australia
Australia
PCCA
United States
Cotton Connect
India
Pratibha Syntex Ltd.
India
Cotton Connect
Pakistan
India
Cotton Connect China
China
Participatory Rural Development Initiatives Society (PRDIS)
Cotton SA
South Africa
Puneet Enterprises
India
Deshpande Foundation
India
Quarterway
United States
REEDS
Pakistan
SAN/JFS-IP
Mozambique
SANAM-IP
Mozambique
Development Support Centre (DSC) India ECOM
United States
FESAP-IP
Mozambique
Farm worker Djeneba Kone. Kolondieba, Mali. Image: BCI/Seun Adatsi
bettercotton.org @BCICotton better-cotton-initiative @bettercottonorg
Female farmers picking the cotton crop. Kolondieba, Mali. Image: BCI/Seun Adatsi.