The latest World Economic Forum (WEF) annual global risks survey finds that the greatest threat to economic growth this year is climate change. Of course, it’s not just an economic problem, climate change also contributes to political instability, water crises and food shortages.
Farmers in developing countries, like the farmers Fairtrade works with, are disproportionately affected by climate change. When extreme weather causes crops to fail, producers’ debts can spiral, trapping them into an ongoing cycle of poverty. The prospects for escaping the cycle are further damaged by the widening gap between rich and poor. A new report from Oxfam released to coincide with the WEF reveals shocking and worsening inequality, with the 62 richest billionaires owning as much as the poorest half of the world’s population.
World leaders recently made promises to address these issues of climate change, inequality, and other pressing sustainable development concerns at two key summits; December’s climate change talks in Paris and the UN Sustainable Development Summit in New York last September, but now we need to move from warm words to action. So what do we expect discussions at the WEF to deliver? The WEF, of course, is not an official intergovernmental meeting, but with 40 heads of government due to attend, alongside 2500 business leaders, it is a highly influential forum.
The official focus at Davos is the “fourth industrial revolution”; read: replacing people with robots. But, given the instability of global markets and the systemic risks highlighted by the WEF’s own report, other matters are likely to be high on the agenda. At the Fairtrade Foundation, we hope that those attending will focus their thoughts on the world’s poor, those affected by climate change, poverty and inequality. And, with the ink not yet dry on the new Global Goals for Sustainable Development which come into effect this month, there is a particular need for business leaders to get behind the sustainable development vision that the goals set out.
At Fairtrade, we are determined to play our part, supporting farmers and workers in reaching the goals. Indeed, our standards and programmes already seek to address many of the challenges set out by the goals. With Fairtrade being owned by the farmers we work with, the Global Goals’ ambition to “end poverty in all its forms” is at the very heart of Fairtrade’s mission.
As we put our new year’s resolutions in place for the year ahead, we have been mapping where our work is most aligned to the Global Goals (pdf). Here are some of the key areas for Fairtrade:
Goal 2
Goal 2, zero hunger, is the focus of Fairtrade Fortnight, our two week campaign in the UK, to highlight the severe lack of food security for smallholder farmers, who make up half of the world’s hungry people, nearly 400 million.
Goal 5
As women workers on farms can comprise 70% of the workforce in poorer countries, at Fairtrade we are committed to Goal 5, gender equality, and supporting women to participate more equally in farmer and worker organisations. Empowering women, from the ground up, could reduce hunger and poverty as well as boosting the economy (and, with women making up less than 20% of delegates at Davos last year, WEF delegates perhaps have particular reason to think hard here).
Goal 8
Goal 8 recognises the rights of all people to decent work. This is hugely important for the many agricultural workers supported by Fairtrade, and the hundreds of millions of agricultural workers worldwide. Agriculture is crucial to the global economy, employing one in three of all workers worldwide. Ensuring that human rights and fair wages are achieved for these workers is a particular challenge for businesses sourcing agricultural products from global markets. Fairtrade can address this by improving working conditions.
Goals 13 and 15
And on Goals 13 and 15, covering climate change and the environment, Fairtrade requires a reduction in energy use, promotes soil and water quality management and offers training to adapt to climate change. In 2015, we introduced a new Fairtrade Climate Standard which will help enable rural communities to access the carbon market and use it for well-targeted development and environmental activities.
There has been a lot of interest amongst Fairtrade farmer and worker organisations themselves in taking up the Global Goals agenda. Next month, at our annual African Fairtrade convention in Nairobi, farmer and worker representatives will be thinking further about the role they want to play in delivering the goals. If farmers are ready to do their part, it should be a spur to business and governments to get behind them.
At the launch of the Global Goals 17 flags were raised all over the world to mark each of the targets. There was a real sense of the global community coming together. It was inspiring. But to end poverty – and, for that matter, strengthen our global economy – we must now go beyond promises, symbols and photo opportunities. Businesses and governments need to listen to farmers in developing countries, and put their needs first.
So, as government and business leaders gather in Switzerland to discuss robots and stock markets, we call on them to remember their commitments to the Global Goals; to set out concrete plans to make their supply chains deliver real prosperity for farmers and workers, not just shareholders.
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