Many NGOs around the world are involved in efforts to fight the undesired effects of global trade and to stimulate more sustainable forms of it. Of special interest are the multi-stakeholder commodity initiatives which set the standards for what deserves a green and social label. The Roundtables, on palm oil, soy and biofuels form a relatively new and important example, applauded as well as heavily criticized.

In March 2008 Natureandpoverty.net organized a Roundtable on Roundtables with NGOs that are directly or indirectly involved in them, were we discussed progress and botllenecks in standard setting, participation, governance and implementation (see also Events)

In February 2009 we supported Oxfam Novib in a workshop called Value Up, in which many of their and several of IUCN NL and HIVOS partners participated. The results were presented to a wider public in co-operation with IDH, the Dutch Sustainable Trade Initiative. Here, NGO effectiveness and issues of governance were discussed for a much broader set of chains.

In this section you will find reports, related articles, organizational profiles and other documents connected to these events and relevant to the topic of multi stakeholder commodity initiatives.