Environment and Labor Excellence for CAFTA-DR

Photo by: SOLIDARITY CENTER/Ricardo Rojas

Past Program

This was a limited program which is now complete.

Building Capacity to Implement Labor and Environmental Standards in CAFTA-DR Region

Goal: The USAID ELE Program worked to build ethical market access for producers, through labor and environmental standards compliance.

Countries: Costa Rica, Dominican Republic

Program Duration: 2009-2011

Summary

The USAID Environmental and Labor Excellence for CAFTA-DR Program (USAID Program ELE) worked to build producers’ capacity for sustainable compliance with labor and environmental standards through incentive structures, social management systems, and social dialogue. The program worked to strengthen institutions, improve the social and environmental performance of companies, and foster alliances to improve labor and environmental standards.

The Program partners worked to integrate incentive structures for labor rights performance into the buyer-producer relationships, to improve compliance capacities at the producer level, and to sustain continual improvement through social dialogue on labor rights.

Participating companies—including Walmart Central America and Dole Standard Fruit Company S.A.—received training and technical assistance, including assessments of labor conditions, training for workers and manager and improvement plans. SAI’s Social Fingerprint® program enabled participating companies to measure and improve their performance against international labor standards and focus training on priority themes, including workplace communications and the implementation of management systems for continuous improvement.

Key Impacts

20 producer companies initiated management systems for continual improvement of labor conditions
8 agricultural companies participated in multi-stakeholder dialogue
MoU Agreement between SAI and Rainforest Alliance for labor and environmental sustainability