Make good work in the palm oil industry transparent

“Too often we see that women still have to bring their children to the palm oil plantations because their production targets are impossible to reach,” says Anneke Westerlaken during a round table discussion with Minister Kaag and her Indonesian colleague, Minister Siregar. The discussion, organised by IDH, is about the palm oil industry in Indonesia and the challenges and innovative solutions for creating sustainability in the sector.

“Financial institutions play an important role in this process of creating sustainability in the sector, which is why in our new project, we are working with financial institutions to improve labour rights and circumstances,” says CNV Internationaal President Westerlaken.

“This project aims to make collective agreements more transparent and establish a database which records the rights and circumstances of workers in the palm oil sector.” Minister Kaag asserts that ambition and cooperation among various parties is needed if we want to see innovation and real change.

The new project in Jakarta, initiated by CNV Internationaal, started this week . FNV, local partners and stakeholders like partner union KSBSI, representatives from Japbusi (a network of unions, employers, and the ILO), the Round Table for Sustainable Palm Oil (RSPO), and international palm oil corporation, Wilmar, were all present.

CNV Internationaal will carry out the project together with Mondiaal FNV, Rabobank, and the Netherlands Bankers Association. The parties will benefit by gaining insight regarding which palm oil plantations have established collective labour agreements with their workers.