In February 2013, Oxfam launched the Behind the Brands campaign to challenge the ‘Big 10’ food and beverage companies on their social and environmental policies and practices, and to amplify the voices of key stakeholders such as farmers, communities, consumers and investors calling on them to take action.
The companies - all members of AIM-PROGRESS - have made significant new commitments over the past three years to improve social and environmental standards in their vast supply chains, which is applauded by Oxfam. But they should now ensure that their suppliers actually change their practices in line with the commitments made. And to accelerate the transformation towards a more sustainable food system, the companies should go further and adopt new business models in their supply chains to ensure that more of the power and value reaches the famers and workers who produce their ingredients.
AIM-PROGRESS attended the official updated scorecard launchon 20 April in London. Most of the scorecard companies were present at the event and provided the following assessment of the scorecard:
Positive: Powerful initiative, useful and credible tool, framing key issues, challenging the industry, triggering conversation, highlighting opportunities for better supply chain collaboration and spurring healthy competition for a race to the top.
Critical: Oxfam should not ignore ongoing practical implementation projects in different geographies; just relying on publicly available global policies, commitments and KPIs is not sufficient and doesn’t always provide a true picture of a company’s engagement on the ground. Evaluation should not forget impact measurement.
Spurring a race to the top is fine but will smaller suppliers be able to keep up with brands’ ever more ambitious requirements? Are all the requirements actually appropriate for all types of suppliers in all geographies? Nevertheless, all companies confirmed their continued engagement with Oxfam in their efforts to improve their supply chain sustainability.
Challenges raised during the debate: Power dynamics along the supply chain, continued focus on driving down costs and price, hearing the voices of affected stakeholders, changing the business model – how?
AIM-PROGRESS was mentioned as a good example of collaboration during the panel debate.
