Voluntary social and environmental standards have been included in the range of technologies identified as the ‘new instruments of public action’. They often bring a range of stakeholders together in activities that span from supply chain logistics through Corporate Social Responsibility programmes to public-private partnerships for sustainable development. This paper utilizes examples from the tea industry in Tanzania to characterize the pragmatic nature of public action that also emerges from engagement with these standards networks. This study explores three core engagements: 1) use of the Fairtrade funds to fulfill community obligations; 2) participation in value chain actors’ bids for external technical assistance; and 3) participation in donor-funded projects unrelated to standards schemes, yet enable compliance with certification requirements. The analysis reveals that the nature of these programmes is a combination of historically entrenched systems and neoliberal approaches to development where both the public and private sectors are acting pragmatically.