Collective action and the governance of multistakeholder initiatives: a case study of Bonsucro

Sustainability is an interesting case of a ‘wicked problem’ that requires multiple stakeholder engagement to be managed. Multistakeholder initiatives (MSIs) have emerged as an alternative governance mechanism to address this problem. This paper addresses the issue of overcoming collective action hurdles and governance design in MSIs. We focus our analysis on Bonsucro, an MSI that recently developed a standard and certification scheme for sustainable sugarcane products. We describe the internal organization and governance of Bonsucro and the process it followed to develop and implement the scheme. We then apply collective action and governance theories to analyze Bonsucro’s case and make observations as to how MSIs and alternative governance structures might be organized to address sustainability in global agrifood chains.