Partner Organisations

Sustainable Food Lab (SFL)
The Sustainable Food Lab, a project of Ag Innovation Network, is a consortium of business, non-profit and public organizations working together to accelerate the shift toward sustainability. The Sustainable Food Lab facilitates the development of market-based solutions to the key issues – including climate, soil, poverty, and water – that are necessary for a healthy and sustainable food system to feed a growing world. The Sustainable Food Lab uses collaborative learning to incubate innovation at every stage along the supply chain from producing to distributing and selling food.  The Sustainable Food Lab is the coordinating partner of the New Business Model for Sustainable Trading Relationships Project.

Rainforest Alliance (RA)
Incorporated in 1987, the mission of the Rainforest Alliance is to conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods through transforming land use practices, business practices and consumer behavior.  Companies, cooperatives and landowners that participate in Rainforest Alliance programs meet rigorous standards that conserve biodiversity and ensure sustainable livelihoods.  RA develops best practices for sustainable land use and poverty alleviation through improving the competitiveness and market access of rural enterprises.  Rainforest Alliance is the grant manager of the new business models for sustainable trading relationships project and is leading the certified cocoa value chain pilot project in Ghana and the Cote d’Ivoire.

International Institute of Environment and Development (IIED)
IIED is an international policy research institute and non-governmental body working for more sustainable and equitable global development.  IIED works globally with partners across the developing world, in partnerships with many key development actors, from smallholder farmers and big city slum-dwellers to national governments and regional NGOs, global institutions, and businesses. This practice of working in partnership is what makes IIED fundamentally different from other research institutes.  IIED acts as a catalyst, broker, and facilitator to help vulnerable groups find their voice—and ensures that their interests are heard in decision-making.   For the New Business Models project, IIED is leading the research and framework development around new business models that link smallholders to formal markets as well as leading the smallholder flower pilot project in Kenya.

Catholic Relief Services (CRS)
Catholic Relief Services (CRS) was founded in 1943 by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops to assist the poor and disadvantaged overseas.  CRS’ mission statement calls the agency to alleviate human suffering, advance full human development, and foster charity and justice in the world.  While CRS seeks to capitalize on its strategic advantages as a faith based organization, all of its programs assist persons on the basis of need, regardless of creed, ethnicity or nationality. CRS is one of the world’s largest private voluntary organizations, supporting international relief and development work in 99 countries and territories around the world, with offices in 68 countries.  CRS collaborates with farmers through the use of participatory methods, building upon what they are already doing and developing sustainable agricultural strategies accordingly.  CRS and partner agency agronomists focus on entire farming systems, seeking diversity for stability of production and income, acknowledging that farming involves social and economic factors, as well as production and natural resource management.   For the New Business Models Project, CRS is leading the dried beans value chain pilot in Ethiopia.

International Center for Tropical Agriculture (CIAT)
CIAT is an international agricultural research center established in 1967 by the Rockefeller, Ford, and Kellogg Foundations during the “Green Revolution” to help address the problems of feeding the world’s poor and protecting the biological diversity of the world’s tropics.  CIAT is part of the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR), an informal network of countries, international and regional organizations, and private foundations that support what is now a worldwide network of 15 agricultural research centers.  In its work, CIAT collaborates with multiple stakeholders—from individual farmers to farmer organizations, indigenous people and grassroots organizations, national agricultural research and extensions systems, NGOs, universities in the South and North, development projects, and the private sector.  CIAT is leading on research into new business models in Latin America and is leading the Fine Flavor Cocoa Pilot Project in Ghana.

Counterpart International
Counterpart has been working in Africa since 1997 managing a wide range of programming. Counterpart has worked in Senegal, Mauritania, Sudan, Ghana, Burundi, Côte d'Ivoire, Zambia and Zimbabwe, and delivered more $10 million in humanitarian supplies to the continent.  Through its programs in Africa, Counterpart improves food security and livelihoods of small farmers by increasing their access to agricultural inputs, training, and markets; introduces community-based technologies to mitigate locust outbreaks that can destroy crops; increases school enrollment and attendance through school feeding programs; supports orphans and other vulnerable people living with HIV/AIDS; advances sound nutrition, health, and sanitation behaviors; treats parasitic infections and micronutrient deficiencies; and delivers humanitarian assistance to victims of natural and man-made conflicts. Counterpart International is supporting the fine flavor pilot of the new business model project.