Meeting the International Development Committee
Safia and Monju at the House of Commons
Those of you who look at my blog from time to time may have got a sense of how broad our work is. This week I received a marvellous chance to have a public whinge about how hard it can be, and to ask the British government to support the work of pioneering Fair Trade companies like People Tree.
Not only has People Tree helped groups in the developing world produce beautiful clothes and handicrafts, but it is also unique in developing the Fair Trade Fashion supply chain from the field through all stages of manufacture, and has been key in building the market for Fair Trade fashion. All of this at the same time as campaigning for Fair Trade. No wonder I can never find time for a holiday!
The International Development Committee invited Monjurul (Monju) Haque from Artisan Hut, (a key partner of People Tree’s from Bangladesh that make stunning handwoven clothing using organic cotton) and me, to give witness to the social impact that Fair Trade has made for 250 weavers and artisans in rural areas. Other Fair Trade pioneer companies including Divine, Traidcraft and Cafédirect, also gave submissions as well as some of the big PLCs - Tesco, Nestle and Sainsbury.
The parliamentary select committee exists in order to direct the work of the Department of International Development (DFID), and this was a great opportunity for the Fair Trade company pioneers to explain what Fair Trade can achieve at a grassroots level and to discuss the value and efficiencies gained of scaling up these activities. The government needs to invest in models that already have a proven track record and experience of working with marginalised communities to promote livelihoods, and to further develop the Fair Trade supply chain and market access.
Without strong foundations and leadership from the Fair Trade movement – the proportion of Fair Trade products stocked by high street retailers will not grow and we could see a down grading of standards as large companies look for a quick PR fix rather than long term development, poverty alleviation and changing the economic structure that keeps people poor. It was after all the Fair Trade pioneer companies that wrote the standards, developed the Fairtrade mark and promoted trade justice issues to win the support of the public issue. Fair Trade should not be blurred into an ‘ethical’ standard that rewards companies for meeting minimum standards; it should set standards for development through trade.
Blurring the issue matters!
The speaker for Tesco blithely claimed that not only is the cotton in their new T-shirts Fairtrade, but that the manufacturing of the T-shirts was Fair Trade too. This is completely untrue. How are consumers to navigate through this misinformation? Is blurring the issues intentional? Thankfully the IDC committee are incredibly well informed - they picked up on this immediately and had come to the meeting incredibly well researched.
Monju and I left the Houses of Parliament excited at a process of democracy that, with vision, could enable the Fair Trade movement to scale-up, having a huge impact on millions of peoples’ lives and the strength to push barriers to go beyond meeting the minimum of good practise. Acknowledgement and support of Fair Trade pioneers is needed to continue developing the ‘gold standard’ for Fair Trade – and keep a healthy debate about how trade can be used to positively impact people in the most marginalised communities of the developing world. The debate has to go beyond humane conditions in factories alone.
You can read our submissions to the committee:
-What Monju shared about Fair Trade impact
-What Safia shared about the need to support the Fair Trade pioneers
-People Tree and other companies’ submissions to the IDC
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