In this Issue:

• 2015 World Fair Trade Week
• Women and Fair Trade : International Women´s Day
• WFT Day 2015 : Nominate Your agent For Change
• PRICE Project : New App to Promote Your Organization
• Training on the Guarantee System
• Vote4FairTrade
• Member of the month

And More…!

Agenda

-15 March : World Consumer Rights Day

-09-12 April: 2015 Fair Handeln Fair, Germany

-19 April: 2015 Bio Ost Fair in Berlin

-09 May: World Fair Trade Day

-10 May: Bio West Fair, Dusseldorf, Germany

-09-24 May : Fair Trade Fortnight 2015, France

-16 May  : Fairpride Festival, France (organized by our member Artisans du Monde)

-23-31 May: 2015 World Fair Trade Week

Let us know about your events!

Main Articles

WFT Week : Draft programme for Biennial WFTO Conference

Dear members,

Once again, let us draw your attention to the most important event of the year: the World Fair Trade Week. This is an extraordinary opportunity for you to take actively part in strategic and global discussions on Fair Trade and to promote your organisation! So please book it in your agenda and be aware that you have time until the end of April to register!

As you can see in the draft programme of the WFTO Biennial Conference (23rd – 28th of May), this will be a huge opportunity for our European network to have a further discussion on most of the topics already raised up during our last Biennial Conference in Elspeet and to get rid of some of your remaining questions on the new Guarantee system.

Advocacy, gender, “Fair price and Fair wage”, Domestic Fair Trade, and FTT campaign are only some of the workshops already scheduled in the Conference. We, as a European network, have a lot to say on all of these topics and we count on your active participation to trigger the debates.

Early registration fees are now closed, but you can still register with a late fee registration until the end of April 2015. For WFTO members, the fee is €1025. To register click here.

Please, do not forget that also the WFTO-Europe AGM takes place during the WFTO Biennial Conference: 26^th of May, from 2.30 to 6 pm.  This is a crucial moment for our network to approve some legal documents but especially to meet each other and take important decisions on the way ahead of the organization and the Global network. ​

For those of you interested in the Fair Trade Fair (28th to 31st of May), please bear in mind that the registration will close on the 30th of March. You can then click here to register for a stand and here if you are only looking for an accommodation. We are looking forward to meeting you all in Milan!

Fair Trade and Women : International Women’s Day 

The 8^th of March 2015 was celebrated as International Women’s Day. Fair Trade helps improve the lives of women globally by promoting sustainable livelihoods, development opportunities, and by ensuring those who do the work reap the reward of their efforts. Inspiring change in women’s lives is a driving force in WFTO work.

In order to celebrate this day, WFTO-Europe worked on a three different levels, sharing stories from successful women from some of our European members, participating in a twitter event on the 6^th of March and attending an event focused on the promotion of women’s leadership.

Women for change

To illustrate how fair trade helps empower women around the world, WFTO collected several successful stories from the different Regions. We, as a European organization, would like to particularly share with you the point of view of a Fair Trader :

Sophie Tack from Oxfam-Magasins du Monde (Belgium): 

15 years ago, Sophie started working in Fair Trade. She is currently the director of the Partners-Campaign department of Oxfam-Magasins du monde, a Belgian organization and part of the Oxfam family. “I believe that trade can be a tool for development. But it has to be fair. Fair Trade empowers people.” Sharing a connection with women producers in the southern hemisphere, she said that everyone can be an agent for change. “I work for Oxfam because I believe that change can happen if a global movement is behind it. Overcoming poverty requires active citizenship. “We need to be more outspoken, be a clearer advocate for change. We need to increase our impact and strengthen our ability to influence.” For more stories on how Fair Trade helps women, click here.

Twitter #FairForWomen event

In connection to the International Women’s Day, WFTO-Europe participated on Friday the 6th of March 2015 in #FairForWomen Twitter chat organized by the Scottish Fair Trade Forum and the Young Women´s Movement (YWCA),  in partnership with Oxfam Scotland and the Fairtrade Foundation.

WFTO-Europe contributed to raise awareness to the issue of how Fair Trade helps women and explained why women are critical to sustainable development and much more. We answered to the following questions: How does Fair Trade empower women worldwide? Why are women critical to sustainable development? How can we make our shopping baskets #FairForWomen? What is your favourite story about women and Fair Trade? What #FairForWomen action will you take in 2015?

Promoting Women’s Leadership Project

Photo: CEC European Managers

It is common knowledge that women are still under-represented in senior and top managerial positions, but what is the actual state of play in Europe and what has been the speed of change over the last decade? To find some answers to these questions, WFTO-Europe participated in a Launch reception on European Project Report ´Promoting Women´s Leadership´, which took place on the 24th of February 2015.

By combining economic data analysis with a legal, comparative analysis, the project aimed to find actions to increase proportions of women in managerial positions as a means to face challenges of demographic change in the future. The project focused mainly on Germany, France, Italy, Poland, Sweden, the UK and Norway, non-EU member. MEP Anna Hedth as well as Commissioner Sigried Caspar attended the event. Both of them expressed their support to the project and stressed how important the question of gender equality is for Europe´s future.

You can read the report of the project here or visit the project´s website to learn more.

WFT Day 2015: Nominate Your Agent for Change! 

The World Fair Trade Day (9 May 2015) is getting closer and we would like to encourage you to share with us your plans for this very special day.

As you know this year’s theme is “Be an Agent for Change.” The rationale is to encourage everyone to take action and be an agent for change. Most of you have already planned some specific campaigns for this day, but we would highly encourage you to merge this theme with your main messages. WFTO-Europe is working hard to use this theme as a tool to raise awareness on imbalances of power along the supply chain, unfair trading practices and bad consumption habits that penalise small producers .

In practice, what we ask you to do, is to:

1.ADOPT your core message connected to the WFT Day, for instance on the practices of business and consumer engagement:

Business for Change

Consumers for Change

Fair Trade products for Change

The power of many working together is better, that is why we would like to encourage all of you to link this theme with your own actions.  A shared theme will create a stronger and louder common voice! For more details head here.

2.NOMINATE Nominate your own Agent for change using the guidelines.  It can be a person, a product, a project, or even your own organisation.

3.DESCRIBE Tell us why did you choose them? What makes them special to our mission to change the world into a fairer place for everyone?

4.EXPOSE Expose your agents on your website, social media …

Share your nomination with us! Fill in the form and send it to WFTO (info@wfto.com) putting us in the copy (communication@wfto-europe.org ) so we can promote your Agent all around the world. If you are organising events or considering that option, do check our suggested events for WFTDay celebration on 9 May 2015 here.

PRICE Project : New App to Promote Your Organization 

As you might know, WFTO together with some European members (Copade, Agices, Polish Fair Trade Association) and other partners are working hard on the implementation of a European project called PRICE – Promoting Responsible Investment and Commerce in Europe (find out more about the project here).

The aim of the PRICE Project is to raise public awareness and promote education to mobilise greater financial support for actions against poverty and for fairer relations between developed and developing countries in the field of responsible investments for fair and sustainable trading activities.

To achieve this, the project’s partners recently came with an App for mobile devices and computers, which will allow the public to search for Fair Trade ‘places’: that might be your headquarters and offices, but also all the shops that are receiving the Retailer Logo.  If you would like your organization to be in the list of the Fair Trade places, you only need to fill in a short form, providing your details. To receive this form, please do contact WFTO at communications@wfto.com .

As part of the project, on the 26th February, PRICE partners, together with FEBEA (Fédération Européenne des banques Ethiques et Alternatives) and FTAO (Fair Trade Advocacy Office), also attended a meeting on Social and Solidarity economy (SSE) at the European Parliament. This was a great opportunity to address to the European Union institutions some recommendations  about how Fair Trade and Ethical Finance can be integrated in the European legislation.  For any further information about the event, please click here.

Lesson #4: Self-Assessment Report (SAR) 

The purpose of the SAR is to verify our members’ compliance against the Fair Trade Standard, which comprises a set of criteria that must be respected. All types of organisations are required to submit their SAR in order to become guaranteed members. Fair Trade Organisations (FTO) have to continue implementing this process and they need to submit their SAR every 2 years and undergo monitoring visits, even after they have been approved as guaranteed members. Fair Trade Networks (FTN) and Fair Trade Supporting Organisations (FTSO) have to submit a SAR and undergo a Monitoring Audit only in the first cycle.

Once full members, they need to submit an updated Profile Form every 2 years, unless they wish to use the WFTO Product Label, in which case they need to follow the same monitoring schedule as FTOs. Risk categories: Trading WFTO members are divided into 3 risk categories: LOW, MEDIUM and HIGH, based on the complexity, scale and control of their operation and whether they use the WFTO Product Label on their products or not.

 

SAR is divided into the four following sections:

Section 1: Supplier monitoring form

• Information about your suppliers/producers
• Self-Assessment of your Internal Monitoring System (IMS)

Section 2: Compliance assessment form

You will be asked to give a rating about your compliance with each of the criteria set out in the Standard.  Many of these criteria are mandatory requirements. Some of them must be met right from the beginning, while others are to be reached over a set period of time. There are also some requirements where a WFTO member must show continuous improvement over time.

Source of Information section

All mentioned documents have to be annotated in the Source of Information section. Please do not attach any other documents unless asked for them, but list all the relevant documents under Sources of information at the end, for peers and auditors to check.

Section 3: Improvement plan form

Please note that each compliance criteria rated as IMP or NC needs to be addressed in your improvement plan (page 37).

Section 4: Peer proposal form

You need to nominate between 2 to 4 peers (individuals) who would be able to come to your organisation to carry out your Peer visit. They can be from other FTOs (local or from country / regional networks) or could be a trading partner who could incorporate it with a normal visit. They could also be from a local NGO. You should choose someone who understands Fair Trade and would be able to write a short report at the end of the visit in English or Spanish.

News from the Office

WFTO– Europe is  looking forward to the WFT Week, and especially to meeting you all at the AGM and discussing strategic directions of WFTO-Europe! Don´t forget to register for the event!

News from the Board

The minutes of the last Board meeting that took place on the 28th and 29th of January 2015 in Paris, are now available on the  website. Login here in order to Access the Board minutes. The next meeting will be held on the 17th of March 2015, via Skype.

Vote4FairTrade: Testimonials

VOTE4FT entered its final year in 2015 and WFTO-Europe will try to maximize its efforts in order to contribute to the Project and make sure Fair Trade voice is heard. To keep alive MEPs committment to the project, we invite you to watch the following video  with MEP Bernd Lange.