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Independent monitoring by local people

Independent monitoring by local people

Kumacaya

A lack of mutual understanding and trust too often defines the relationship between civil society and private companies. Indeed, civil society organisations (CSO) struggle to find concrete action resulting from their reporting on environmental and social impacts observed on the ground. Seeing the powerful potential for change, Earthworm Foundation created a mechanism that helps to bridge this trust gap: Kumacaya.

Kumacaya has been designed to harness the skills and experiences of local people, to help assess how company commitments are being delivered on the ground. The reasoning behind this thought process stems from the simple fact that civil society groups already exist across all places touched by company supply chains and they understand local contexts better than outsiders. Part of our efforts towards increasing civil society’s potential to positively impact supply chains is to establish and promote constructive dialogue with the private sector. Going forward, Kumacaya envisions supply chains where private and civil society organisations work together more closely and take action together in a proactive way.

See Kumacaya's Lessons from two years of bridging civil society and businesses.

Facts

Three countries of development: Indonesia, Malaysia and Liberia
14 investors (private sector and donors)
More than $100,000 redistributed to civil society actors on the ground

Our work

By supporting local civil society 'eyes on the ground', we enable constructive dialogue between the private sector and civil society organisations. We aim to increase civil society's potential to positively impact supply chains, while helping businesses proactively meet their commitments.

Kumacaya is an innovative mechanism that delivers truly independent monitoring and verification by local people. The process aggregates private sector investments that are then targeted at specific locations and topics, such as workers’ welfare. The funds are made available to qualifying local organisations that are already embedded in these communities.

Rules and procedures have been established within Kumacaya to govern the handling of funds, to ensure investor and civil society anonymity, and to enable successful and independent monitoring where needed. These ingredients are essential to bridging the trust gap and to deliver knowledge with the power for change.

Find out about our projects open for funding at Kumacaya.org

News & Stories

Oct 8, 2021

Earthworm joins organisations supporting sustainable palm oil instead of a boycott

Oct 14, 2020

Bridging the trust gap between companies and communities in Liberia

Sep 2, 2020

Working with civil society to monitor deforestation and its affect on orang asli in Malaysia