EQUITABLE

NETWORKS OF EQUITABLE TRADE
The networks of the equitable trade are formal or abstract spaces which meet a need for dialogue between the actors, that it is at the local level, national or international.

Among the actors of equitable trade (EC), one distinguishes from the organizations of producers, the organizations of support in the South, the importers, the retailers, the organizations of certification and the organizations of promotion.
Joined together within networks, formalized or not, of various dimensions, these actors work with the mutualisation of their knowledge and their means to improve their practices or to acquire a more important weight at the time of actions of communication or plea. The networks of equitable trade are articulated mainly around the 4 following sets of themes:
_ Coordination and exchanges: they are relays of information, places of exchanges of ideas and practices and points of coordination of the activities of the actors of the EC. The various networks allow the creation of frameworks of collaboration between organizations of the equitable trade.
_ Promotion and sensitizing: they coordinate promotion and public awareness campaigns of the equitable trade at the local, national and international level. The existence of networks facilitates the communication (between organizations and near the public), the promotion of the equitable trade and reinforces the impact of the actions undertaken collectively.
_ Plea and lobbying: they ensure the recognition of the actors of the EC near the public authorities and are force of proposal for the evolution of the rules of the international business. The federation of the actors makes it possible to weigh with more large scales during the negotiations near the public authorities and at the time of international meetings (OMC, UNCTAD, Social forums, etc);
_ Installation of guarantee schemes: they study the criteria of the EC and work with the improvement of the control systems and guarantee for a better recognition by the consumers.

_ The Platform for the Equitable trade gathers 39 organizations of equitable trade in France and works mainly on 4 axes: the promotion of the EC, the support with the installation of guarantee schemes, research/council and the support for the development of its members. www.ccfd.asso.fr

For several years have constituted themselves in France of the local collectives around an area or a city gathering of the organizations of EC, members of the domestic networks or independent, but also of the organizations of international solidarity and the sector of the Social economy and Solidaire. Among which:
_ Alsace: Colecosol - www.picri-commerce-equitable.fr

Several French actors of the EC take part in the 4 principal global area networks of the movement joined together within the abstract forum FINE: FLO, IFAT, NEWS, EFTA. These networks allow the exchange of information and the defense of joint positions to consolidate the movement of the EC and to support its expansion.

Click here for a complete chart of the networks.

_ FLO - Fair Trade Labelling Organization: it gathers 22 national initiatives of certification of which Max Havelaar France gathered to harmonize and develop their standards of production. The producers labellized by FLO meet in continental networks such as for example the CLAC for the producers of America Latine.www.fairtrade.net
_ IFAT - International Fair Trade Association: this network joins together more than 600 organizations specialized in EC, of North like South, of which ten in France, which acts in concert to lead actions of plea to the international level. IFAT also works with the installation of a label of structures of equitable trade: Fair Trade Organization (FTO). This network has a variation in each continent: AFTF - IFAT Asia, COFTA - IFAT Africa, IFAT Latin America and IFAT Europe. www.european-fair-tradeassociation.org

To enter the networks of equitable trade, there exist various criteria for the producers, as the distributors:

• Producers:
  • Are small producers underprivileged or pertaining to a minority (ethnic for example).
  • Must organize in a democratic way to make the weight vis-a-vis the large companies.
  • Must be “transparent” by respecting the democracy, the human rights and of the child, the equality man/woman, the social rights of each employee (for SME) and the environment (recycling).

• Distributors:
  • Must pay the producers with the order or the purchase with a price higher than world rates (at the beginning 5 times more than world rate).
  • Must bring an technical assistance and accountant to the producers.
  • Engage in the long run with contracts of 3,5 or 10 years. They should not put the producers in competition, those playing, through the sale of their production, their survival.