Palma Futuro

From 2019 to 2024, Palma Futuro aimed to build up robust social performance systems that improve conditions for workers at every level of the palm oil supply chain in Colombia and Ecuador—from industrial processing plants, to large-scale plantations, to thousands of smallholder farms—and disseminate best practices to other palm oil-producing countries.

Why Palm Oil?

Palm oil is the world’s most popular vegetable oil and can be found in up to half of all consumer goods and commercial food products. Palm oil production impacts millions of farmers, workers, and communities across the globe.

Rapid growth in the palm oil industry has created economic opportunity, but increases the risk for rights violations like forced labor, child labor, and poor working conditions.

Workers in the global palm oil industry face challenges like a lack of formalized contracts and social benefits, unfair wages, and unethical recruitment. Many are not aware of their rights, do not have access to grievance procedures, or are too intimidated to use them.

Program Goals

Improve social compliance systems at every level of the supply chain

Palma Futuro provided technical guidance to participating palm oil companies in Colombia and Ecuador to assist them in developing robust social compliance systems. The program helped the companies assess their risk of child labor, forced labor, and unacceptable working conditions and develop robust standards, monitoring procedures, and enforcement mechanisms.

Strengthen regulatory and civil society oversight

Beyond the private-sector palm oil industry actors, Palma Futuro also trained government inspectors on auditing skills and labor standards and worked with local civil society organizations to establish and operate confidential grievance mechanisms.

Share lessons and best practices

Best practices and lessons learned from Palma Futuro were shared with the larger South American and global palm oil industries. This is an exciting opportunity to raise expectations for social performance across an important global industry, and improve conditions for workers around the world.

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Palma Futuro Resources

Palma Futuro compiled lessons learned and good practices into a handbook and three toolkits, available in English and Spanish, to support widespread labor performance improvement and strengthen Social Compliance Systems in the Latin American palm oil industry.

Program News

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Program Partners

Funding is provided by the United States Department of Labor under cooperative agreement number IL-32820-18-75-K. 100 percent of the total costs of the project is financed with federal funds, for a total of 7.360.289 US dollars. This material does not necessarily reflect the views or policies of the United States Department of Labor, nor does mention of trade names, commercial products, or organizations imply endorsement by the United States Government.

Palma Futuro Press Kit

Find the Palma Futuro Press Kit and learn more about the program here.

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