Since 2015, IDH has been working in Brazil on an innovative approach to promoting long-term sustainable land use. We connect rural producers, companies, governments, local communities, financiers and investors to establish collective governance models. These alliances create an environment for positive and reliable dialogue, aiming to solve complex issues through a common approach: economic and social development coupled with protection of forests. As a result, agricultural products are produced sustainably, small producers and local communities are included in socio-productive chains, and natural resources are conserved and protected.
Within the cotton sector in Brazil, IDH has been implementing the Raízes da Caatinga programme across Brazil’s semi-arid region, focusing on agroecological cotton as one of several regenerative and market-oriented value chains, alongside honey, fruits and other family farming systems. This work has strengthened producer organisations, expanded technical assistance through producer service hubs, and facilitated access to credit and public policies. Building on these learnings, IDH sees an opportunity to impact the cotton sector at a larger scale, while also connecting with the previous experience working with soft commodities in Mato Grosso and Maranhão.
These opportunities have led IDH to explore a dedicated regenerative agriculture programme for large scale cotton, which lays out the market architecture needed to improvements in regenerative performance into credible, measurable and commercially relevant value for producers, brands and other market actors. Building on this vision, IDH is working with the ABR Institute/ABRAPA and Better Cotton to structure a programme that can accelerate the transition towards regenerative cotton production in Brazil. A key foundation for this programme is the development of a practical and credible framework for defining, measuring and communicating regenerative performance, reflecting the realities of Brazilian large-scale cotton production while remaining aligned with relevant international standards and market expectations.
Building on this partnership, IDH, ABR Institute/ABRAPA and BCI are seeking a partner to support the initial phase of this new initiative, which consists of gathering the elements needed to build market pull and commercial incentives for regenerative cotton, while also laying the groundwork to accelerate regenerative cotton production in Brazil.
IDH and its partners are looking for a consultant or organisation to develop practical framework for assessing regenerative performance in Brazilian cotton production, defining the practices, indicators and measurement approaches needed to enable consistent monitoring and credible communication of progress, grounded in the context of large-scale production in Brazil and aligned with relevant global standards.
The proposal must be submitted to Aline Silva at silva@idhtrade.org before 08 October 2026 at 17:00 CET.
Find all details about this ToR by clicking here.
