WFTO-E at home
Public procurement as new market opportunities: Workshop and upcoming toolkit
Co-created Circular Economy toolkit
Europe in a nutshell
Belgian Fair Trade Week
Fair and Ethical City Trade Award 2020
Collaborations and Advocacy
Our members
Member of the month
Membership update
WFTO-Europe’s Fair Train
WFTO around the world
Fair Trade Charter – Building Back Fairer
#StayHomeLiveFair campaign
University of Antwerpen and FTAO project
News from the Regions
WFTO-Asia Fair Trade Summit
Fair Trade Towns – FT Lebanon initiative
News from the Board
News
WFTO-E at home
Public procurement as new market opportunities: Workshop and upcoming toolkit
Over the summer, we commissioned independent consultant Alice Sinigaglia to collect recommendations for members on how to access public procurement as new market opportunities. This is an area we know many of you have been looking at but often found was too inaccessible or required enormous resources and capacity. The idea is therefore to identify and share recommendations for overcoming these obstacles.
To make sure the recommendations consider the experiences members have already had, so that they are as useful as possible, we organised a co-creation workshop on 10th September building on the good experience with the workshop on circular economy practices back in June. During the workshop, Alice Sinigaglia shared her initial findings and listened to feedback and experiences from members. Many interesting viewpoints came to light, and we were happy to hear about the experiences of members Altromercato and Coordinadora Estatal de Comercio Justo with delivering to schools and cafés under public procurement.
The comments and feedback shared during the workshop has been taken on board and the toolkit will be published in the coming weeks. It will be publically available here. We truly hope this will help catalyse your work on public procurement, and the space on our website with the toolkit will be continuously updated with experiences and practices from members as they take on this challenge. This way we can help and assist each other in accessing these markets. One key comment was that country-specific recommendations would be necessary as rules for public procurement can differ from country to country, even within the EU where a few directives give some common rules. This space will serve that purpose, so please do help us and other members by sharing your experience and best practices with public procurement in your country!
Please send anything (and everything!) you wish to share to: projects@wfto-europe.org.
Co-created Circular Economy toolkit
Co-created with our members and Pierre Echard, we are glad to announce that we have finally launched our Circular Economy toolkit! It contains recommendations, examples of best practices, and references to more information and details for Fair Trade enterprises and social businesses to start their journey towards a circular economy. Increasingly at the forefront of the policy agenda, the local and regional authorities worldwide are actively creating enabling environments to foster a circular economy, and we follow up strategically with these measures, also covering EU initiatives.
Although a complex process, this toolkit succeeds in its objective of showing relatively simple steps to get this transition started (or moving further into it), including useful resources, templates, exercises, and tools. For example, the Cyrculitics, developed by Ellen MacArthur Foundation to measure an enterprise’s circularity, among many others.
The benefits of transitioning from a linear to a circular economy are becoming increasingly clear if we look at them from a systemic and long-term perspective. We hereby offer a collection of different tools compiled in one document to support you in implementing a circular business model. Coming soon also in French and Spanish.
Europe in a nutshell
Belgian Fair Trade Week
In keeping with tradition, the Belgian Fair Trade Week was held from 7th to 17th October this year. Though the Covid-19 pandemic proved a major obstacle, of course, events and activities went on with as much dedication and energy for change as ever. Focusing on Fair Trade and its important role in sustainable production and consumption patterns, the Belgian Fair Trade Week is mainly hosted and supported by the Belgian government, through the Trade for Development Centre, Enabel, and is a part of national efforts to become a Fair Trade Country in the image of the Fair Trade Nations, Wales and Scotland.
This year, North-North Fair Trade and Northern Producers received attention, along with the traditional topics on Fair Trade focusing on the poor and marginalised in the Global South. More and more Belgians believe that Fair Trade and its principles should also extend to marginalised people in the Global North and to farmers unable to make a living due to downwards pressure on prices from big retailers and supermarkets across the EU. During the week, the Belgian Minister for Development Cooperation, Meryame Kitir, also firmly expressed her support for Fair Trade in her work on behalf of the Belgian government.
During the Week, our member Belgian Fair Trade Federation held a webinar presenting and examining 9 different Fair Trade labels. Along with the more commonly known ones, also specifically Belgian labels were examined, and in particular labels linked with Northern Producers were also covered and discussed during the event. You can find info from the webinar here, where a publication by BFTF on the different Fair Trade labels, including those on Northern Producers and the specifically Belgian ones, is also available (in French).
Fair and Ethical City Trade Award 2020
The EU Cities for Fair and Ethical Trade Award celebrates EU cities who champion more sustainable trade, consumption and production, thus creating opportunities for producers elsewhere. The Belgian city of Ghent was awarded the winning title in 2018 and Malmö, Sweden, was appointed the winning city in 2021, between the five shortlisted candidates: Bremen, Neumarkt and Stuttgart in Germany; and Gothenburg and Malmö in Sweden. Congratulations to the 2021 Sustainable Trade champion! Watch the ceremony here.
We consider this Award as an important mechanism for pushing cities and EU consumers to more sustainable consumption and production patterns, as it creates a unique platform for cities to learn, share and scale-up their sustainability initiatives while contributing to Sustainable Development Goals, especially SDG12.
Collaborations and Advocacy
In July, WFTO-Europe participated with the FTAO, CONCORD Europe, and Cooperatives Europe in the publication of a working paper on the vital importance of Sustainable and Inclusive Business Models for Rebuilding Better after the current Covid-19 crisis. Many of the examples in the working paper were members of the WFTO, like gebana and Manos del Uruguay, and the paper is meant to inspire EU policy-makers to support such mission-led businesses contributing to fairness and sustainability through their core business practices, instead of ad-hoc CSR approaches.
In extension of this collaboration, a research has been commissioned on what the EU is already doing to support such business models, how this can be better utilised, and what they EU must do to further support them. This is in particular because we, and the parties behind the working paper and the research, see such business models as the most feasible way to build the new economy that we need once the Covid-19 pandemic abates – an economy that is good for people and planet.
The research is currently being finalised and is due to be launched on December 1st 14:00-16:00 CET in a joint, online event with CONCORD Europe, International Cooperatives Association (ICA), the FTAO and WFTO-Europe. We are inviting senior officials from the European Commission and are hoping for the participation of a senior representative of the government of Ecuador to join us in discussing how Sustainable and Inclusive Business Models across the world can contribute to sustainable development and what the EU should do to support them as the backbone of the new economy.
We will keep you posted on this event and hope you will mark it in your calendar so you can join us on the day!
Meanwhile, Oxfam Germany and the European Environmental Bureau (EEB) are organising a roundtable on the same topic (though without the report) on 17th November 10:00-12:30 CET in connection with Germany currently holding the Presidency of the Council of the European Union. Again, senior EU and German government officials have been invited and Leida Rijnhout, who used to be our Coordinator ad-interim back in winter and spring, will moderate.
Our members
Member of the month
This month we are putting Molly from Secret Projects in the spotlights!
Secret Projects is a passionate and driven story to empower women in India through the making and selling of clothing and homeware, so they can support themselves, their families and make a valuable contribution to their communities.
Molly (third from right) has a diploma in fashion design, is a qualified and highly experienced seamstress and is passionate about making products that will generate a life changing income for marginalised young women. We are proud to have Molly working with us. Located in a town two hours southeast of Kolkata, close to the Bangladesh border, the main income generating opportunities in the area for both women and men are in farming and agriculture or as brick makers or daily labourers – all very low paid and physically demanding.
Despite the current pandemic situation, Molly has used her time during lockdown to work closely with Secret Projects on the design of some wonderful new products, including the Secret Kantha Blanket – made using Kantha, an ancient form of hand embroidery that has flourished in India for centuries. The blankets are currently taking pride of place on their on-line retail stores and are selling quickly.
Read more about Molly’s Sewing Unit and an interview with her here. Behind Secret Projects there lies a passionate and driven story to empower women in India through training and the making and selling of clothing and homeware.
Membership update
We are proud to introduce our new provisional members! FairMoms supplies handmade and fair trade products for babies to the French & the European market. They support women globally by promoting sustainable livelihoods, development opportunities, and by ensuring those who do the work secure the reward of their efforts. Alice cooperativa is a Milan non-profit social cooperative that is going back to their Italian roots, moving away from complete industrialization to become financially and environmentally sustainable. They demonstrate how their social investment can restore dignity to people while also being profitable.
Congratulations to the new guaranteed members! Esperanza Café – French artisan coffee roaster of organic specialty coffees, directly sourced from the producers and roasted with love; and Seepje – based in Netherlands, producing laundry detergents and cleaning products based on natural ingredients fairly sourced from Nepal. Check their social media and support their work.
WFTO-Europe’s Fair Train
Want to get to know our Finnish members? Take a ride on the Fair Train and discover our amazing members!
WFTO around the world
Fair Trade Charter – Building Back Fairer
To celebrate the second anniversary of the International Fair Trade Charter and fifth anniversary of the SDGs, a coalition of international civil society organisations have published a statement calling for just and sustainable Covid-19 recovery policies. Returning to “business as usual” means reinforcing inequality and unsustainable patterns. The current pandemic has shown us the fragility of our economic system that has left devastating human rights impacts, increased poverty and hunger, and greater risks of forced labour and environmental damages.
The Build Back Fairer Statement, released on 25th September, states key messages with the needed transformations in the current system and recommendations to governments to build resilient supply chains. Protect, Restart, Redesign, Resource. Read more here about our four steps recommendations to build back a fairer economy.
#StayHomeLiveFair campaign
The WFTO launched the #StayHomeLiveFair campaign in March 2020 to support the Fair Trade movement and its workers, farmers, artisans, and communities during the pandemic. The campaign supported nearly 1m livelihoods across 76 countries, and now more than 100 Fair Trade Enterprises are listed on wfto.com/webshops.
Dr. Bronner’s, a WFTO member, has then awarded a $5,000 grant to WFTO to continue its efforts in promoting Fair Trade members across the world. Dr. Bronner’s philosophy: “We are All-One or None!” strengthens and unifies our movement, which puts people and the planet first.
Our members are businesses that move away from conventional strategies, integrating into their mission a collaborative and resilient approach. These are the enterprises of the new economy. Fair Trade enterprises have shown their sustainability and resilience through the pandemic, benefiting their workers, farmers, and artisans while being commercially viable.
University of Antwerpen and FTAO project
We have recently received confirmation of a project we have applied for together with the FTAO and Professor Tomaso Ferrando from the Law Faculty at University of Antwerp. The project is funded by University of Antwerp and will do some initial analysis into innovative ways of linking producers and consumers/buyers (restaurants, caterers, retailers, etc.) in more direct ways. The key lies in transparency of prices to producers and production methods as means to assure that the produce is sustainable and that prices are fair for producers. The project will research cases with members as well as non-members in Italy, Greece and Belgium, for collecting best practices and identifying ways to scale-up and, later on, how it can be replicated to create fair and sustainable food systems in other EU countries, too.
The project will start in January (2021) and last two years. We will, among other things, draft a toolkit with recommendations and best practices to share the project results with you as well as more widely outside our network as well. Most importantly, we believe this could help us explore the topic of Northern Producers more deeply, and especially help us identify what type of producers in Europe could benefit from the WFTO Guarantee System and Principles of Fair Trade, and how they can be complementary to our Movement’s original beneficiaries, the poor and marginalised producers in the Global South. We strongly believe the universalisation of Fair Trade will be one of the pillars in the new economy, where businesses are mission-led to be socially responsible and environmentally sustainable. Northern Producers have a place alongside Southern Producers, and crucially we expect they will help ‘bring Fair Trade home’ to consumers, supporters and policy-makers in Europe: Showing them how Fair Trade is beneficial to all that engages in it – producers, consumers, workers, and citizens alike.
News from the Regions
Asian Summit
On 25th and 26th November, our friends and colleagues at WFTO-Asia will host the 2020 Asia Fair Trade Summit: ‘Developing Strategies for Fair Trade Enterprises to Survive & Thrive’. It will take place virtually from 15:00-18:45 (25th) and 15:00-18:30 (26th) local time in Thailand (where the WFTO-Asia secretariat finds its home in Chiang Mai) – this means 09:00-12:45 CET / 09:00-12:30 CET, a comfortable time for potential participants in Europe.
We highly encourage you to please register here, where you can also find more information and the full programme available soon. Who would be better placed to speak meaningfully and inspiringly about how Fair Trade Enterprises can not just survive, but thrive, in these difficult times, than the team that harnessed the dedication, will-power and innovative spirit of its members to create the People’s Mask – an initiative that has both helped people across Asia (and recently in Europe, too!) better protect each other from Covid-19 and Asian Fair Trade Enterprises save their business and shield their workers and producers from the sudden drop in demand of other products.
Thus the topic is timely and gives an equally timely opportunity for WFTO members and allies outside the network to support each other, share ways to stand together to survive and help like-minded businesses find the key to thrive in spite of the current crisis – for the good of the many, many people whose livelihoods depend on those businesses.
The WFTO-Europe team is eagerly looking forward to joining, so hoping to see you there – virtually, of course.
Fair Trade Towns – FT Lebanon initiative
Following the catastrophic explosion at the port of Beirut on August 4th 2020, we could see several solidarity chains through the city. A great example is the Fair Citizen Initiative, supported by Fair Trade Lebanon, the FIG Tree, and Baskinta Baytouna Organization (BBO) that besides providing accommodation, basic needs kits, and local collaboration with workers, is also sub-granting financial support to existing and new social entrepreneurial small businesses. You can also support them by raising funds for this appeal. Lebanon is a part of the Fair Trade Towns International Family, and we all stand together to help put Beirut and Lebanon back on its feet. For donations and further information, please their dedicated webpage.
News from the Board
Our beloved Francesca Giubilo has finished her last days in the office as WFTO Europe Regional Coordinator and Mikkel Kofod Nørgård has taken over since October 12th. We give Mikkel a warm welcome in his new position!
We are really proud to have had Francesca representing our network over the past 7 years with such determination and passion. Thank you Francesca for all your support over these years and good luck on your new adventure!
“I know I have been privileged to work with such a great network of sincere, warm and determined people, which despite the little size of my office, have never let me feel alone! I have learned a lot from a professional and personal point of view from each of you, the Fair Trade family will always be in my heart. I am convinced you are leading the way for a new revolution in business and I will keep following and supporting your fight!” Francesca Giubilo, October 2020
News
How philippine social enterprises battered by the lockdown are staying afloat https://www.eco-business.com/news/how-philippine-social-enterprises-battered-by-the-lockdown-are-staying-afloat/?sw-signup=true
Top tips for more sustainable online shopping https://realsustainability.org/top-tips-for-more-sustainable-online-shopping/
How Covid-19 affects garment workers in supply chains https://cleanclothes.org/news/2020/live-blog-on-how-the-coronavirus-influences-workers-in-supply-chains
Fashion Revolution and their Fashion Transparency Index https://t.co/fle2NpT8Di?amp=1