In this issue...

There's news on the launch of the first global indicators, a review of the member's meeting in Rotterdam and an update on the progress of the collaboration with Dairy Asia. Plus much more...

The first two indicators for public reporting of the dairy industry’s progress under its 11 sustainability criteria have been launched: Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Animal Care.

Each implementing member of the Framework (with projects under the said criteria) will incorporate these indicators alongside their own local measures and will be required to include these results as part of their annual reporting procedure to the DSF.

The DSF has committed to launching up to a further five indicators in 2017; Soil, Soil Nutrients, Biodiversity, Water and Working Conditions and is calling on members to support the process with examples of indicators and metrics already in use that could be considered as potential indicators globally. Please contact Philippa Stagg with suggested applications.

A new study released by the Food & Agribusiness Research and Advisory arm of Rabobank has reviewed the dairy sector’s approach (based on the DSF 11 sustainability criteria and database) by mapping the DSF criteria across the UN sustainability goals, and highlighting synergies and potential opportunities for further development.

The report says that as the dairy value chain is extremely diverse, it has the opportunity to support sustainable dairy production by implementing various sustainability programmes and projects in an effort to continuously improve in areas of identified weakness.

The activities under the DSF criteria are both complex and innovative as they are aimed to solve social, economic and environmental challenges identified at a local level of the dairy value chain.

The study clearly demonstrates the opportunity for the dairy sector to support the delivery of the SDGs and importantly demonstrate through the DSF the contribution it is making.

The DSF held its first members meeting in Rotterdam in October as many of them gathered in The Netherlands for the IDF World Dairy Summit.

30 representatives from member organizations were given an overview of the recent Post Implementation Review and discussed the importance of local multi-stakeholder management groups, continuous improvement monitoring and reporting and indicators development.

Outcomes from the meeting included the request for regular webinars on critical sustainability issues and the opportunity to share challenges and solutions among the membership.

A webinar committee of members has been established and they will agree the topics for the webinars that will take place at least quarterly.  This Committee will be ‘meeting’ in December to plan the first couple of webinars.

The members of the Committee are:

• Sinead Treanor - Carbery
• Shaughan Morgan – Dairy Connect
• Carolyn Mortland - Fonterra
• Jaap Petraeus – FrieslandCampina

We will keep you posted once the first dates and topics have been established.

Following the recent Post Implementation Review of the DSF and additional stakeholder feedback, the Governors held a two-day strategy workshop to ensure the DSF is continuously improving and delivering on what internal and external stakeholders are seeking.

Dates in December are currently being circulated for webinars to share with the membership the outcomes of the Strategy workshop, in particular how the Framework plans to address the points identified through the Post Implementation Review.

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) and the International Dairy Federation (IDF) signed the Dairy Declaration of Rotterdam on 19th October during the IDF World Dairy Summit.

The declaration aims to reiterate the integrated approach that the dairy sector takes to promote the sustainability of dairy systems, taking into consideration social, economic, health and environmental dimensions.

In October 2016, the DSF signed an agreement with Dairy Asia to collaborate more closely to the mutual benefit of both.

Part of the agreement is to establish and support the development and implementation of joint initiatives which enable the members of Dairy Asia to implement sustainability programs at a faster rate, and share the outcomes of their experiences with others in the region.

A planning meeting was held with representatives of the FAO (who currently provide the secretariat) recently to develop a two-year roadmap of activities.  Regional pilots and support mechanisms are the key focus of the next two years although several other related activities are also under consideration to maximise the value of the agreement.

This program will be shared with the members of Dairy Asia for consideration prior to implementation in the first quarter of 2017.

Using a multi-stakeholder, inclusive approach, CFS develops and endorses policy recommendations and guidance on a wide range of food security and nutrition topics. These are developed starting from scientific and evidence-based reports produced by the High Level Panel of Experts on Food Security and Nutrition (HLPE) and/or through work supported technically by The Food and Agricultural Organization (FAO), The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), World Food Programme (WFP) and representatives of the CFS Advisory Group.

The DSF was represented by DSF Chairman, Donald Moore, at a side event of the October Plenary Session of the CFS in Rome, demonstrating the importance of the evidence being built by the DSF.

The event, Achieving the Sustainable Development goals – the role of the dairy sector – was organised by the Global Dairy Platform, International Dairy Federation and International Livestock Research Institute. It showcased concrete examples of projects in the dairy sector that have addressed multiple challenges through social, organizational and technological innovations at the nexus between the SDGs, climate change and ICN2 objectives.

The triple challenge of sustainably increasing agricultural production while making it more resilient to the impacts of climate change and reducing emissions from agriculture was an important theme at COP 22, and reflected in several events and new initiatives.

Read the blog "Improving Food Systems’ Resilience while Mitigating Climate Change" from the SDG Hub here.

Improved ruminant genetics increase animals’ resilience to climate-related stresses, increases reproductive performance, and – in some countries – could achieve emission reductions of 11-26% per unit of product, according to a new practice brief written by scientists from the Global Research Alliance’s Livestock Research Group and the CCAFS low emissions agriculture flagship.

This brief is part of the CSA practice brief series of the Global Alliance for Climate Smart Agriculture (GACSA) Knowledge Action Group.