IFC, the division of the World Bank that lends to the private sector, will partner with food company McCormick and Citi, to provide suppliers of McCormick's herbs and spices with financial incentives linked to improvements in measures of social and environmental sustainability.

Under the initiative, which has started with suppliers in Indonesia and Vietnam, and will soon be launched in other countries, suppliers can qualify for discounted rates on short-term working capital financing when they meet sustainability standards accepted by McCormick.

Those standards include performance on labour conditions, health and safety practices, crop management, environmental impact, farmer resilience, and women's empowerment. The higher the supplier's performance level in meeting these standards, the more they save.

The financial partnership includes an advisory component in Vietnam, where IFC is helping McCormick build a more sustainable, traceable, certified and quality-compliant pepper supply chain through capacity development and the empowerment of women farmers, aimed at helping to achieve environmental and social improvements for pepper suppliers and producers.

"Through our partnership with IFC and Citi, we're enabling our suppliers to sustainably source our herbs and spices more easily and, in turn, are working towards our own goals at the same time," says Michael Okoroafor, vice-president for global sustainability and packaging innovation at McCormick. "Through our purpose-led performance approach, we're going beyond the industry standard to ensure that we're improving farmer resilience, elevating women's empowerment, and mandating ethical behaviour at every level of our supply chain."

This partnership between McCormick and IFC leverages Citi's global supplier finance platform. The platform is made available to McCormick's suppliers with environmental, social and governance credentials so they may benefit from liquidity at preferential rates based on their sustainability performance.