Take coordinated, targeted action to close the living income gap, by identifying priority regions and determining a smart-mix of interventions to improve income drivers.
What does it mean?
Implementing solutions focuses on taking coordinated, targeted action to close the living income gap. This involves identifying priority geographies, commodities, or household segments, and determining a feasible “smart mix” of interventions to improve key income drivers such as productivity, pricing, cost efficiency, and income diversification, as closing the gap typically requires multiple interventions across drivers. Scenario modelling can be used to test assumptions and estimate how different strategies contribute to narrowing the gap before scaling action.
Strategies that can improve income drivers go far beyond addressing changes in the farm system and household behaviour, ranging from service delivery for production and processing to brand and consumer engagement and strengthening the enabling environment. These can be grouped into six, key strategic areas (see below) addressed through multi-stakeholder interventions, each contributing to improvements in one or more income drivers or the conditions that enable them.
Partnerships are central to the living income roadmap. Collaborating with multiple partners is essential, particularly where significant gaps require systemic, multi-stakeholder action. This includes engaging supply chain partners, service providers, buyers of other products, governments, civil society, research institutions, and financial institutions, while ensuring alignment with local and national government priorities and programmes. Clear roles and responsibilities should be defined, and actions tailored to different farmer segments, for example improving efficiency for higher-performing farms, supporting diversification for mid-level households, or strengthening resilience for more vulnerable groups.
Once partnerships are established, organisations should develop targets and action plans to close living income gaps across household segments, balancing immediate actions with longer-term efforts. Progress should be monitored to track income improvements, refine strategies, and support credible reporting and storytelling on sustainability outcomes.
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This isn’t something we can do alone if we want to drive it throughout our supply chain. We absolutely need more companies to join us. If we want to make real progress, we need to bring others on board, including the governments.
Matteo Squire– Unilever
Tools & Resources
Tool
IDH procurement library
Guidance and tools to embed sustainability in procurement, covering value, first steps, and integrating it into sourcing strategies.
