By Maria Tereza Batista

On the occasion of the International Women’s Day, the WFTO is celebrating women’s rights and promoting gender equality at workplaces. Gender equality is a high topic on the political agenda of the EU and important steps to end discrimination against women have been taken in the last 25 years. However, women are still subjected to unequal treatment, having to overcome barriers to gender equality in almost every aspect of their lives. In the workplace, the lack of access to leadership positions, occupational gender segregation and unequal payment are still one of the main constraints experienced by women around the world.

The economic empowerment of women is commonly understood as an important factor to economic growth and a prerequisite for the achievement of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s). An increase in female labour force participation, results in a faster economic development as reported by the Unwomen. In the primary sector, women represent almost half of the labour force but own less than 20% of the land. They are also deprived from control of resources used for agriculture, such as seeds, water, technology, innovation and financial services, which makes them severely disadvantaged with regards to their input.

In Europe, in spite of the increase in the participation of women in the labor market, they are still underpaid in comparison to men. The gender pay gap varies greatly among EU-members but a women’s hourly gross income is on average 16.3% below than men’s[M1] . Furthermore, more than 25 per cent of women in the EU report that care and other family and personal responsibilities, versus only three per cent of men. Therefore, women continue to earn lower salaries and pensions, be underrepresented in decision-making roles and they are the ones who perform the majority of unpaid household work.

The Fair trade movement seeks to end injustices by empowering communities and creating tools for women to regain their financial independence and control over their lives. The WFTO-Europe is committed to fight against gender inequalities at the workplace as it fully acknowledges the potential of women and their need for economic empowerment. Firms in Europe, in every sector, can contribute to a more equitable society by promoting policies and ensuring that workers are paid in due proportion, as well as their producers in the South.

Achieving gender equality requires a gender-based approach in designing public policies and a long-term commitment of companies in addressing the issue at workplaces must be integrated alongside with Fair Trade practices that provide capacity building opportunities for women, in the North and the South.

Dear all,

As you may know, here at WFTO-Europe we have organised a Fair Trade Comics Contest to raise awareness about Fair Trade Principles using a popular mean in Belgium: comics. Unfortunately, the turnout was quite low, so we have decided not to hold an exhibition of the comics.

We would also like to thank all participants for taking the time to take part in this contest: you did a great job!

Today we share with you the winning comic chosen by the jury, alongside the other comics that we have received.

The jury was formed by 5 people:

– Sophie Tack, WFTO-Europe Board member and Directrice Partenariat Campagne for Oxfam Magasins du Monde;

– Gabriella D’Amico, WFTO-Europe Board member and representing Asso Botteche del Mondo;

– Sergi Corbalan, Executive Director of the Fair Trade Advocacy Office;

– Linda Torfs, founder of Mekanik Strip;

– Yacine Canamas, an independent Comics Artist.

But let’s get back to our comics contest:the winner is Jean Bourguignon with his comic “Ethique et tac“:

Now the other comics!

Comic no. 1 “Jacob, l’héro” by Hugo Deflandre:

Comic no. 2 “La vie d’un héros” by Marina Sheinova:

Comic no. 3 “Invisible Hand” by Naomi Leboy:

Thank you again to everyone for participating and should we decide to organise a new comics contest next year, we truly hope to hear from you again!

The WFTO-Team

Abstract: On 15 -16 of June, WFTO-Europe had the pleasure to attend the ‪European Development Days (EDD16), where several key policy-makers (for example the Ban Ki-moon, Secretary-General of the United Nations and Federica Mogherini,  High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and Vice-President of the European Commission) debated on how to eradicate poverty and make the world a more inclusive as well as peaceful place through the 17 Sustainable Development Goals (‪SDGs).

This special 10-year anniversary edition was focused, indeed, on the ‘2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development’ and was organised around ‘5Ps’: People, Planet, Prosperity, Peace and Partnership.

On this occasion, WFTO-Europe and WFTO in partnership with Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) and Fairtrade International led a workshop on the revision of the EU Aid for Trade Strategy which is expected at the end of 2016. In particular, experts but also civil society representatives had the opportunity to discuss how the Aid for Trade strategy can contribute to implement the Sustainable Development Goals and what investments are needed to make supply chains more ‪sustainable.

The main points that emerged from the debate are:

• Aid to developing countries should first include capacity-building ;
• Corruption is still a major issue to be tackled and there is a need of more accountability in corporations;
• Reduce intermediaries to become more competitive;
• More and better collaboration between the private and public sectors could solve the problem of corruption and intermediaries;
• Improvement of infrastructure (roads, communications, transport);
• Promote trade at the local-regional level;
• Need of Aid to prepare the framework: transform the activities into efficient business models thanks to financial help;
• More action and commitment from European Institutions ;
• Make Fair Trade model the standard, not the exception ;
• More coordination between small producers within organisations.

For more info check also the Internal Bulletin #67 of June of FTAO (login required).

On the 7th of June,  with an overwhelming majority of 600 Members in favor, the European Parliament accepted the Edward Czesak MEP’s report that calls for EU action on Unfair Trading Practices (UTPs) in food supply chains, to ensure fair earnings for farmers and a wider choice for consumers in supermarkets and hypermarkets. This represents a great achievement for the Fair Trade movement as Make Fruit Fair, the SUPPLY CHA!NGE project  the Fair Trade Advocacy Office (FTAO) and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB),  supporters of this initiative, stated.

Read their reactions and see also the press release from the European Parliament on unfair trading practices!

For the second year,  the Staff of WFTO-Europe fully promoted the Fashion Revolution Movement through social media.

Yesterday, the 24^th of April, was indeed the third anniversary of the biggest garment-factory disaster in history, and at this day we commemorated the lives of all those who died in the Rana Plaza complex collapsed in Dhaka, Bangladesh, in April 2013.

This tragic event remember us that there is a need for greater transparency and accountability throughout the fashion supply chain not only in this country but all over the world.

To show our support, we joined the Fashion Revolution Day’s campaign, inviting people to post a picture of their label and ask brands ‪‎”who made my clothes? “

 Find here more information about the Fashion Revolution movement.

Ecopolis is the annual meeting for those who are interested in a sustainable future and host different writers, thinkers and other mayor figures from everywhere, to discuss about solutions for a possible social-ecological society.

This year, the event took place on 17^th of April in Kaaitheater in Brussels. It was focused on “chocolate”, one of the most requested and desired commodities worldwide, that in reality hides the weakness of its producers in global economic relations. Guests of the debate were Mamadou Bamba, director of “Ecookim” which is a union of eight cocoa cooperatives in Ivory Coast that work to improve the farming activities and living conditions of more than 2800 farmers,Isabelle Quirynen, who ran her own chocolate company, “Bitterzoet”,’ committed to Fair Trade principles and Olivier De Schutter, legal scholar specializing in economic and social rights and former UN Special Rapporteur on the right to food from 2008 to 2014.

Cooperatives of small-scale producers were first controlled by governments and only from the eighties they started to be led by common people that through this tool gained voice in the international political field.

One of the central problems that the experts brought to light is the need for more attention to the necessities of producers rather than to the one of consumers. Indeed, the international market is right now mainly focused on the desires of the latter, which means lower price for their products, instead of fairer conditions for those who harvest the commodity. This attitude leads only to a vicious circle where low prices generate low salaries and overproduction while the latter creates again low prices. Another important issue is that producer countries import their finished products like chocolate from Northern countries, losing in this way their opportunity to play a key role in the international trade.

The challenge that cooperatives have to face are still several and changes in the system are necessary. During the debate, possible solutions to improve their conditions were presented. Among them, the idea to concentrate the all process within the product value chain in the producer country and to develop the local demand so that farmers would be less dependent from the global North. Second, because the business is dominated by few buyers there is a need to diversify these economies so that producers can develop alternatives and gain more access in the international market. Finally, in order to give added value to these products, there is a need for more investments in every single phase of the activities involved in its creation.

For further information about the challenges that the world’s food systems need to face, read the final report of Olivier De Schutter to the Human Rights Council.