News

As we wrap up 2024, the entire Proyecto Sustentar team extends our gratitude and appreciation for your continued support and partnership to strengthen labor compliance and competitiveness of Mexico’s tomato and chile pepper sectors. As the third year of Sustentar’s implementation, 2024 brought significant growth in the project and we are eager to build upon…

Continue Reading 2024 End of Year Review

Agroproductos Zubia is a medium-scale farm in Chihuahua, with plans to plant around 80 hectares of chile pepper this year. When Sustentar first began working with Zubia, their management told our team that they had been trying to figure out how to provide educational services to the children of their agricultural workers.   For the past…

Continue Reading Private Sector Spotlight: Agroproductos Zubia (Rancho La Cañada) 

This year, the Sustentar project has developed a series of training modules as part of its mission to strengthen knowledge and application of labor rights established in the Treaty between Mexico, the United States, and Canada (USMCA). The trainings have a special focus on Chapter 23 of the USMCA, which addresses fundamental labor rights and…

Continue Reading USMCA Workshops

We are delighted to announce the official establishment and signing of the constitutive act for the Community Circles in La Coyotera, López, and Las Aves, Baja California. These newly formed circles will convene biweekly to implement initiatives aimed at preventing child and forced labor while advocating for the labor rights of farm workers. By fostering…

Continue Reading COMMUNITY CIRCLES IN BAJA CALIFORNIA 

On August 2, 2024, our colleague Yolanda Brenes Hernández presented the conference entitled “Best Practices in Social Compliance Systems at the International Level” at the Expo Agro Chihuahua, organized by the State Agricultural Council of Chihuahua (CEACH). The conference was attended by approximately thirty people, including entrepreneurs from the agro-industrial sector, representatives of local and…

Continue Reading Sustentar presents at Expo Agro 2024

The Sustentar team will attend the Expoagro event in Chihuahua on August 2, 2024.  Yolanda Brenes Hernandez, Senior Manager of Latin America Programs at SAI, will be speaking about international best practices for Social Compliance Systems. See flyer for details. Sustentar will also have a stand at the expo – come by for more information and…

Continue Reading Join us at the Expoagro in Chihuahua

As part of the project’s community engagement efforts, the Sustentar team visited the community of Guachochi, Chihuahua in January. The team met with members and leaders of the indigenous Raramuri community, public officials, and the municipality president. Participants discussed issues such as child labor, working conditions, and labor recruitment of migrant agricultural workers in the…

Continue Reading Community Engagement and Ethical Recruitment in Chihuahua

During a visit in February, the Sustentar team met with several organizations in Baja California and Baja California Sur, including the Agricultural Council of Baja California, the Autonomous University of Baja California Sur, agro-export companies, and civil society organizations. The meetings included a presentation of the project’s mission to improve labor practices in the region…

Continue Reading Visit to Baja California & Baja California Sur Partners

Cover photo: Technical assistance meeting with Engineer Meza (center), an agricultural producer in the central-southern region of the state of Chihuahua, to support formation of a Social Performance Team. “I have been a chile pepper grower for over 10 years. I began in this field as a consultant for food safety processes in various crops…

Continue Reading Testimonial: Sustentar is addressing challenges in a new way

Cover photo: Training on USMCA in the Municipality of Camargo, Chihuahua, Mexico, for a chile producer, in collaboration with their team, including operational and field personnel. As we wrap up 2023, the Proyecto Sustentar team extends our gratitude and appreciation for your continued support and partnership to strengthen labor compliance and competitiveness of Mexico’s tomato…

Continue Reading 2023 End of Year Review

Proyecto Sustentar conducted workshops in La Paz, Ciudad Constitución, and Vizcaíno, Baja California Sur in November 2023. The three workshops included initial training on key topics to strengthen the tomato industry, such as food safety and good labor practices, including ethical recruitment, and presented Sustentar’s goals and objectives. Attendees included management representatives from twelve tomato…

Continue Reading Notes from the Field: November Workshops in Baja California Sur

Following Sustentar’s pilot project in Chihuahua (read about the pilot in our previous newsletter), our team is partnering with companies to provide one-on-one technical guidance on strengthening social compliance and building capacity throughout the supply chain. We are currently working with six chile growers in the regions of Casas Grandes, Camargo, Delicias, and Meoqui. Together,…

Continue Reading Notes from the Field: New partnerships with chile growers initiated in Chihuahua

Proyecto Sustentar and AHIFORES held a forum called “Strengthening the competitiveness of the tomato sector in Mexico” on October 10 and 11, 2023 in Ensenada, Baja California. As a space for open dialogue between tomato sector stakeholders at the employer level (e.g., directors, managers, and coordinators of social responsibility), the event fostered collaboration within the…

Continue Reading Proyecto Sustentar and AHIFORES hold forum on strengthening the competitiveness of the tomato sector in Mexico 

Where: Hotel Coral and Marina, Ensenada, Baja California When: October 10th, 9:00 – 16:30 (Ensenada Local Time) October 11th, 9:00 – 12:30 (Ensenada Local Time) Who: Directors, managers and social responsibility coordinators in tomato packing, marketing and producing companies in BC and BCS. Aim: Generate a space for dialogue with tomato producers in BC and…

Continue Reading Free Event: Strengthening the competitiveness of the tomato sector in Mexico

On May 16-19, 2023, Proyecto Sustentar held workshops for chile growers, collectors and   producers, civil society, and government officials in areas of Chihuahua state. Proyecto Sustentar is a project led by Social Accountability International that seeks to strengthen social compliance and improve working conditions in the chile and tomato industries in Mexico. The project will…

Continue Reading Proyecto Sustentar workshops for chile-producing industry and communities in Chihuahua

In April 2022, SAI began Proyecto Sustentar, a USDOL-funded project that will engage with workers, producers, public sector, and civil society to improve social compliance systems and labor rights—specifically related to child labor, forced labor, and unacceptable conditions of work—in agricultural supply chains in Mexico. Labor Risks and Reforms in Mexican Agriculture Reports from 2019 estimated that 3.1 million…

Continue Reading Proyecto Sustentar Aims to Advance Working Conditions in Mexican Tomato and Chile Sectors