Today 14 million people in southern Africa are facing hunger. One in three children in tea growing regions are malnourished and at risk of stunted growth. As we approach the third anniversary of Rana Plaza, there are still millions of poor people toiling for a meagre living in dangerous conditions. How can we live in a world of such scandalous injustice?
Global trade should offer a solution but instead, millions of people who produce commodities and crops are actually the most vulnerable to poverty, price volatility and the devastating effects of climate change. Around the world, small farmers who produce our food cannot afford to feed themselves or their own children for months at a time; 12m hectares of productive land are lost to climate change every year and the farmers we work with, who own 50% of the Fairtrade system tell us they are terrified about this; the El Nino weather system has caused catastrophic flood and drought. This International Women’s Day highlighted that whilst women make up nearly half the agricultural workforce, the number living below the poverty line has doubled since the 1970s. It is not acceptable and it’s time this changed.
Today, as we launch the Fairtrade Foundation’s new five year strategy - Changing Trade, Changing Lives, Fairtrade Can, I Can - our message to businesses, the public and the government alike is that by working together, we can change the most serious threats facing world trade and agriculture today. At Fairtrade we have a strong record in improving the livelihoods of farmers and workers, but we are always challenging ourselves and that’s where this strategy, Changing Trade, Changing Lives comes in. By showing the public and businesses that we can all use our power as individuals to make a difference, our strategy puts the ‘I’ in Fairtrade. Despite price deflation and pressures in the UK retail sector consumers have remained committed to Fairtrade and as such, we saw increased sales volumes of our key commodities in 2015.
That’s why we’ll focus on these commodities of cocoa, coffee, tea, bananas and flowers, because by doing so we can deliver more on the ground for our producers.
And the UN’s new Global Goals should provide all of us with the impetus to redouble our efforts toward a fairer and more sustainable world. Agreed by business and political leaders across the world, the goals provide a golden opportunity for companies and NGOs to innovate together towards a shared vision. That’s why at Fairtrade, over the next five years we are focused on achieving ever-greater impact and finding new, better and innovative ways of achieving sustainable business solutions.
Fairtrade Sourcing Programs (FSP) for cocoa, cotton and sugar are an example of how we are innovating beyond the original product certification to provide businesses with more choice and ways of sourcing on Fairtrade terms. The launch of Fairtrade’s climate standard, a new gender strategy, and programmes establishing living wage benchmarks and engaging industry-wide collaboration towards them, are others. These include our new “deepening impact” programmes, in which we are working with companies, partners and producers on innovations in their supply chains.
We’ve already begun projects with Percol and Waitrose to support coffee farmers to become less vulnerable and more resistant to climate change and plant diseases. We are also pushing for living wages with Fairtrade banana producers and improving workers’ rights for tea growers in India. In west Africa, a unique new programme with Divine Chocolate is supporting cocoa farmers to improve the productivity of crops. We are helping farmers in many areas to diversify, grow new crops, become entrepreneurs and explore local markets. By helping to sow the seeds of change in the short term, we are also protecting livelihoods in the long term.
The need for independent third party verification has never been stronger, and consumer insight shows 83% who have seen the FAIRTRADE Mark trust it. They know that by supporting Fairtrade, producers are getting a fair price and a better deal. But we can and should go further. By 2020 we will have evolved from a single approach of certifying products to a portfolio of services, enabling companies to contribute to sustainable development in ways that really matter to farmers. With the public and shareholders alike demanding transparent and fair supply chains, it is in companies’ interests to work in partnership with us and deliver social development initiatives that contribute to the change we are all seeking.
So, as we launch our 2016-20 strategy today and as we approach the end of Fairtrade Fortnight, we want to inspire you, as readers, as individuals, no matter what your role is, to work with us to make the next five years our most impactful to date. By 2020 we want to see a world where farmers and workers have a greater share of the value from products they produce, where equality is embedded in the way businesses operate. That’s what this strategy offers, a vision of a future that is achievable if every one of us, every shopper, CEO and politician, takes a stand against trade injustice and recognises the role we all have in achieving change.
Content on this page is paid for and provided by Fairtrade Foundation, sponsor of the spotlight on commodities series
