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 mapping of the physical certified cotton chain — including its traceability, segregation costs and brand commitments and targets, both in the domestic and international markets.
IDH and its partners are looking for a consultant or organisation to map the physical traceability and segregation costs of Brazilian certified cotton — both in the international market, through Better Cotton Initiative (BCI), and in the domestic market, through SouABR — as well as the commitments and targets set by brands regarding regenerative cotton, so as to inform the design of a commercial mechanism that incentivises and scales regenerative cotton production in Brazil.
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.
