A Decade of Impact in Peru and Indonesia by SECO and the Green Commodities Programme

“We didn’t just implement a project; we nurtured trust, strengthened bonds, and inspired genuine commitment among our stakeholders”

August 28, 2025

Two women smile amongst lush green foliage and cocoa plants in a vibrant forest setting. — UNDP Peru

How can we measure the impact of 10 years of work on sustainable commodities? While we have often documented the ‘why’ and the ‘how’ of our multi-stakeholder processes for transformation of commodity sectors and production landscapes, we have not delivered decisive information on the larger impact we have contributed to. Outlining progress in the Green Commodities Programme in Peru and Indonesia over the last decade to the Swiss State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO)’s Senior Management in Bern, Switzerland, we developed a new framework for capturing GCP impact, focusing on three pillars: Policy Alignment, Participatory Governance, and Unlocking Finance, and then scrutinized what had changed or happened in those areas in Indonesia and Peru. The results are stunning, even if we acknowledge that we played a part in a larger whole systems change.

UNDP’s partners and counterparts agree. Julia Majail, Director of Sabah State Jurisdictional Approach for Sustainable Palm Oil (JASPO) Secretariat in Malaysia said:

“What SECO GCP III brought to JASPO goes beyond tools or technical support—it gave us Effective Collaborative Action, a human-centred approach that became the heart of our journey. Through this, we didn’t just implement a project; we nurtured trust, strengthened bonds, and inspired genuine commitment among our stakeholders. Today, our progress is not just measurable in milestones, but in the pride, ownership, and belief shown by those we work with. That is the legacy of true collaboration.”

Dida Gardera, Minister's Expert Staff for Connectivity and Service Development (vice-minister rank), Coordinating Ministry for Economic Affairs in Indonesia commented:

“I would like to extend our deepest appreciation to UNDP and SECO for the unwavering commitment and strategic support in promoting sustainable palm oil development in Indonesia. The GCP platform offers not only technical and institutional support, but also a space for continuous dialogue and shared accountability among stakeholders.”

A person wearing a red hat and gloves tends to lush green ferns in a dense forest.

Two women wearing conical hats work in a lush, green palm plantation.

Looking at the three pillars in detail, on Policy Alignment we were able to show how Indonesia has acknowledged deforestation from palm oil, and incorporated conservation measures for high-conservation value forests in palm oil concessions. In Peru, the coffee national action plan was followed by an overhaul of the legal framework for the country’s coffee sector, improving support to farmers and improving the situation for farm workers, as well as improving farmers’ access to international markets. On Participatory Governance we showed how the private sector participated in shaping national policy frameworks and how governance systems—particularly in Indonesia—were strengthened with improved coordination between ministries and between national and subnational governments. On Unlocking Finance, we documented how donor contributions to GCP have helped shift private sector investment patterns and in both Indonesia and Peru unlocked significant public investment for commodity sustainability through funds and programmes, amounting to at least 2 Bn USD in recent years.

The three pillars are represented graphically here:

Strategic Framework for Change

For each pillar the national-level outcomes are defined with landscape-level outcomes running in parallel. Effective multi-stakeholder collaborative action is at the heart of the strategy, backed up by UNDP’s global-level strategic support delivering thought leadership, policy advisory services and strategic partnerships.

More success will build on these foundations, says Pujuh Kurniawan, Head of Sustainability at Wilmar Group:

“The momentum is growing as more actors including local governments begin to engage and support the initiative. Once local leaders are informed and engaged, they tend to offer their support, leveraging their regional autonomy to drive sustainable palm oil practices forward.”