Goal 1: Building benefits for smallholders and workers
We know that impact on small-scale farmers and workers is stronger when the proportion of production sold as Fairtrade reaches a “critical mass” of 30-50 percent. New business models will help producers and businesses create greater value through committed long-term relationships that enable the right kinds of investment. To do this we will focus our efforts on our three largest commodities – coffee, cocoa and bananas – to create benchmarks for excellence that can extend to other products.
Goal 2: Deepening impact through services and programmes
Farmers and workers need support beyond market access. Over the next five years, Fairtrade will improve our work to help producers achieve measurable social, economic and environmental impact. Fairtrade producer networks will focus on key areas by working with global advisors, and international and local partners, including national Fairtrade organizations, companies, government extension services, NGOs, trade unions, and financial service providers.
The key areas of focus include:
- Organizational and Business Strengthening
- Workers’ Rights
- Gender Equality
- Children and Young People
- Climate Resilience
Goal 3: Building Fairtrade markets
The Fairtrade Mark, the most widely recognized and trusted ethical label globally, remains the most visible sign of our work. But Fairtrade has always meant much more than a label. We will complement the mark with ways of working that range from product labelling to enabling business engagement in programmes, always centred on the Fairtrade principles of empowerment, capacity, transparency and fair pricing that are the prerequisites of sustainable development.
We will work with businesses to enable learning and adaptive strategies based on impact data to improve the lives of farmers and workers. We will build a truly global support base for Fairtrade, putting products on ever more shelves across the world. We will prioritize growth in Brazil and India. And finally, we will leverage the unique strength in our grassroots consumer support to drive change, not only building Fairtrade markets, but pushing for a more sustainable lifestyle overall.
Goal 4: Influencing government policies
The global development agenda is shifting from a focus on poverty in developing countries to tackling global inequality and promoting sustainability in every country. This represents a powerful opportunity to improve the lives of the 1.3 billion small-scale farmers and agricultural workers who play a vital role in producing our food and stewarding our planet.
We will work to amplify the voices of farmers and workers in key policy debates, supporting them to confront policies at the national, regional and global level that impede fair trade and sustainable business. Together with producers we will advocate for government policies that create an enabling environment for fairer trade – from their own procurement policies, to their position on trade negotiations and business regulation, to making sustainable pricing a ‘must-have’ ingredient for living incomes and wages.
Goal 5: Building a strong global system
Our previous strategy focused on ‘unlocking the power of the many’, driving collaboration and a spirit of oneness; our new strategy will help us complete our transformation into a truly united, global change maker. We will maximize our impact by working together as one system, finding the optimal global-local balance to create a whole that far outweighs the sum of its parts.
Our new strategy will accelerate investment in the producer networks to strengthen governance, transparency, and accountability to their members, as well as building operational and external capacity. We will incorporate learning tools and impact data into all planning and decision-making processes.
We will provide open access to impact information, most importantly to producers, but also to business partners. We will implement a Value for Money approach, assessing our interventions against a clear cost-benefit framework.