Executive Summary

The Vulnerable Supply Chain Facility (VSCF) was a rapid response to the COVID-19 pandemic, delivered by the Business Partnerships for Global Goals (BP4GG) programme, funded by the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO). Garments and agriculture are two supply chains which were hardest hit and involve large numbers of vulnerable workers including women. The VSCF delivered 8 projects in 7 countries across Africa and Asia to support the workers in these supply chains recover from and remain resilient to the economic and social impacts of COVID-19.

Despite the unprecedented context in which the programme was delivered, which not only included the risk of the pandemic but also political risks like the military coup in Myanmar, the VSCF achieved remarkable results and impact for vulnerable workers in need. Some key highlights include:

• Shortlisting, co-creating, contracting and kicking off 8 partnership projects in only 10 weeks. • Successful delivery of 8 partnership projects involving 20 international and UK retail brands, 5 not-for profit lead partners, and 296 suppliers in 7 countries across Africa and Asia. • Delivery of health, social and economic initiatives that reached 1.4 million people, and substantially exceeded all logframe targets. • Leveraging match funding from private sector partners that exceeded FCDO contributions. • Reaching those most in need – 63% of those reached live on less than $5.50 dollars per day and 13% lives under $1.9 a day. • Contributing to 8 out of 17 Global Goals including No Poverty, Zero Hunger,

Good Health and Wellbeing, Gender Equality, Decent Work and Economic

Growth, Reduced Inequalities, Climate Action and Partnerships for the Goals. • Catalysing innovation and facilitating systemic change demonstrated through change in practices, policies and behaviour. • Listening, learning and communicating through 35 knowledge products reaching over 178,000 audiences and still counting, using the social media effectively and organising 20 learning events across projects and at the programme level involving over 1,600 participants. Partners organised 32 learning events and published 24 knowledge products for wider dissemination of lessons.

• Arco • Awaj Foundation • CARE International • Co-op • Coventry University • Dimensions • Ethical Trading Initiative • Fairtrade Africa • Fairtrade Foundation • Flamingo Horticulture • Flower Hub • Flower Watch • FNET • Girl Determined • GoodWeave International • Impactt • IPL • Marks & Spencer • MM Flowers • Mondelez International • Minor Weir and Willis • Monsoon Accessorize • Morrisons • New Look • Partner Africa • Practical Solutions

International • Primark • Proctor & Gamble • Sainsbury’s • Tesco • Union Roasted • VF Corporation • Waitrose • Women Win • Women Working Worldwide • Xpol

Drawing on interviews with VSCF partners and the FCDO team, as well as a review of documentation, this case study examines how the management of the VSCF contributed to the achievement of these results. It identifies five areas of activity that respondents identified as having enabled accelerated delivery and the quality as well as scale of results. These are:

• Strategic design: Co-creation process between the Facility Manager and FCDO to establish the Facility, and then between the Facility Manager, FCDO and selected partners to develop informed and high-quality

Partnership Project Plans. • Flexible and adaptive management: Responsiveness to rapidly changing delivery conditions in the context of coherent and agreed governance structures roles and responsibilities, and clarity on expectations. • Proactive risk management: Identifying risks before these become problems through a robust process including contextual analysis and building scenarios for managing risks effectively. • Monitoring and evaluation for results and impact: Ensuring agreement on monitoring requirements for partners was impact and results focussed from the start and helped to build partner capacities, where needed, while focusing on beneficiary voices. • Learning and communication with purpose: Capturing programme evidence and communicating lessons learned for sustainability.

Lessons learned from the VSCF contribute further evidence about good practice models that can be replicated in future programmes. It also provides insights into the potential of cross-sector collaboration for systemic change, through sector-wide facilities.