It pops up many thoughts in my head related to my work as a volunteer/trainee for IM-SOIR with focus on fair trade. I have thought allot of how to assess and how to judge whether an organization is working satisfactory with the ten principles of fair trade. There is a lot of things to keep track of, and although some of the organizations/groups have a close connection and a work allot with some of the principles, they have their weaknesses in others, and as everyone knows: your strength is defined by your weakest link. It can be difficult to know what to priority in the work, and also to have knowledge of how conditions have to be to be seen as "fair".
Youdon now works primarily with a design project, fair wages and planning a workshop about fair trade for the producer groups artisans. Design is very important, no trade can exist without a market for the products, no matter how well the organization perform in other areas. Regarding fair wages is also difficult to know what is a "fair" wage. It should be a wage that is enough to support themselves and their children. Many organizations have low wages, but most also have benefits such as free housing, water, electricity, get their childrens education paid, etc. That means that the wages can be low, but it can still be sufficient to support themselves. I discussed with Wangchuk Gyalpo (regional director for SOIR-IM Asia) yesterday about wages and he mentioned that the wages should be at least two dollars per day, ie exceed one of the common used definitions of poverty. Youdon and I will attend to a workshop organized by Fair Trade Forum-India (FTF-I) on fair wages next week. I'm no expert on wages and economy and to complicate it further, I am relatively new in India with a foreign currency. I see it as an interesting challenge and experience to take part of how the discussions goes, and also try to find out how other organizations involved with fair trade works with wages.
Today I read through "SFTMS Baseline Assessment Manual" (SFTS = Sustainable Fair Trade Management System) which is a new (2009) international standard published by WFTO for certification of organizations working with and towards the Fair Trade principles. The manuals main objective is to assess compliance with fair trade principles and continually identify areas for improvement. In India, FTF-I selected ten organizations to a pilot project to see how the manual works in practice. A meeting was planned to evaluate how the work with the manual has been going in the organizations in late July but may have been slightly postponed according to Youdon. I do not know about other countries and organizations done something similar with this material, anyone else that know something about that?
The manual is careful to emphasize that the attitude towards organizations should be friendly, straightforward and transparent and that there are no right or wrong and that the manual should used as a basis for evaluation and improvements for organizations. They also provide suggestions on possible methods:
* Pre-screening of the organization and its work with fair trade principles.
* Organization Chart which describes the hierarchy of the organization and how many employees there is in the organization and on which positions.
* Employees and producer feedback. Input from employees must be collected which can be done through interviews, forms and questionnaires that can be anonymous if the employed wish that.
* Production Flow Chart to view the production process from raw material to finished product.
* An environmental survey in which environmental and health risks are identified. Areas as water consumption, waste water disposal, storage of chemicals, energy consumption, waste management, pollution risks and accidents is seen as essential to document.
* A comprehensive assessment have to be done. It can be done by a scoring point system how well the organization is working in various areas. Also plans and program for continuous improvement, time-frame for action, and to clearly define who is responsible for the implementation of the improvements is a vital part of the work.
The methods is quite similar to an environmental management system and how a systematic work to reduce risk for health and environment can proceed in Sweden, which I am more familiar with after my degree in environment and health. As long as the method is used carefully and the organizations take it seriously and do the job that is needed I think it can be a powerful tool to assess how organizations work. It is an important step for the fair trade principle that concerns accountability, transparency and promote fair trade. Is the material presented in public, it can provide a closer relationship and a security to consumers that the products originated from a place that is actively engaged in fair trade and to improve themselves!
Youdon and I discussed to make a brief version of assessment on Dharamsala Paper Factory in August according to some of the methods suggested in the manual, we will see how that goes!
Lilian Sahlin, volunteer/trainee for IM-SOIR
