EMERGING SMALL HOLDER BLACK PRODUCER SUPPORT AND DEVELOPMENT PROGRAMME
t and Development programme was developed to provide direct capacity and support to develop emerging, small holder, black producers in ethical trading.
The Emerging Small Holder Black Producer Support and Development programme was developed to provide direct capacity and support to develop emerging, small holder, black producers in ethical trading. The purpose of the programme is to explore and provide appropriate & effective support and capacity to emerging, small holder, black producers through ethical accreditation, participation & consultation, leadership training, facilitating access to funding mechanisms, coaching & mentoring towards producer sustainability.
The WIETA social compliance baseline assessment (Phase 1) was undertaken during 1 October 2019 – 31 October 2019 and 1 November 2019 – 9 December 2019 to participating farms. These included Seven Sisters, Bukhosit Trading, Carlsheim, Mhudi, Ikamva, Ebenhaeser farms (CPA), Johan Cloete Trust, and Abraham Hahn Trust. In this report we also included black producer farms that have been independently audited and accredited by WIETA such as: JJ Love Trust (Ebenhaeser), Niklaas Le Roux Trust (Ebenhaeser), Vredendal Kleinboere Vereniging and Paardenkloof Farm (Botriver).
The assessments with the farms included a number of strategic exercises:
- Individual and structured interviews with the farm owners using a structured questionnaire that explored: Ethical compliance support & capacity building; management of ethical risks; funding; ethical leadership development; communication and healthy relationships; coaching and mentoring and a social needs assessment.
- A structured focused group exercise was also conducted using the balanced scorecard methodology. This exercise involved all the managers or trustees of the farm and was an in-depth 2 and a half hour discussion about the internal operations of the farm, business inputs, impact & results, external partnerships, ethical compliance and the business challenges as well as topics such as farm & water management, poverty alleviation and food security, revenue management, involvement of women and youth and the sustainability of the farm. The farm was also scored and rated by the participants against each element of the scorecard.
- The third part of the assessment included a pre-audit of the farm. This involved a site inspection and review of workplace policies, management systems, occupational health and safety systems, risk identification and emergency procedures as well as inspecting chemical storage & handling facilities and interviews with workers on the farms.
- All the farms were invited to complete a self assessment questionnaire. This form was completed by most farms and was an important element in the overall baseline assessment.
