Whats Fair in AntiPoverty Week

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• Whats Fair in Anti-Poverty Week
• The Whats Fair Morning Tea
• Monday 15th October
• Kilbride Centre
• Kristen Hobby

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Whats Fair in Anti Poverty Week

• Kristen Hobby NCCA Representative for Fair
  Trade and the Churches of Christ Social Justice
  Network (Vic/Tas)
• Antony McMullen Social Justice Officer, Justice
  and International Mission Unit, Synod of Victoria
  and Tasmania for the Uniting Church of Australia
• Liz Thompson - FairWear Victoria Campaign
  Co-ordinator

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• It is not a question of whether there is enough
  food, water and resources for the worlds
  population the issue is the distribution of
  those resources.

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Make Poverty History

• MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
• 1. Eradicate extreme poverty and hunger
• 2. Achieve universal primary education
• 3. Promote gender equality and empower women
• 4. Reduce child mortality
• 5. Improve maternal health
• 6. Combat HIV/AIDS, malaria and other diseases
• 7. Ensure environmental sustainability

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Make Poverty History

• MILLENNIUM DEVELOPMENT GOALS
• 8. Develop a global partnership for development
  Develop further an open trading and financial
  system that is rule-based, predictable and
  non-discriminatoryAddress the least developed
  countries' special needs.
• (The 2005 G8 summit 40 billion debt cancellation
  program which was agreed to by rich-nation
  finance ministers has, for instance, enabled
  Zambia to hire 7,000 new teachers and send all
  school aged children to school.)

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We as consumers

• What do you look for when you buy products at
  the supermarket?
• Price
• Brand preference
• packaging
• Nutritional content
• salt/fat/sugar
• Country of origin

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Another consideration

• What we havent been good at is the social and
  justice implications of the products we buy.
• Think about the t-shirt you are wearing.
• Maybe the cotton is grown and spun into yarn in
  Pakistan
• Then sent to Haiti to be knit, cut and sewn
• Sent to England to be printing, packaging and
  shipped to Australia and other parts of the world

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Who is involved?

• Who is involved at each stage?
• Are they fairly paid?
• Do they have enough food and medicine?
• Do they work in safe environments?
• Do they have a voice in how their time and labour
  is used?
• Everything we consume tells a story

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Quote
"Before you've finished your breakfast this
morning, you'll have relied on half the world"
Martin Luther King

• An interesting thought. And a depressing one,
  when you realise that those people you've relied
  on for your coffee and muesli are almost
  certainly being exploited and oppressed by the
  unfair power balance in world trade.

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What is Fair and free trade?

• Free trade is trade within and between countries
  that is free from government intervention no
  incentives for producers and no limits on trade.
  
• Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on
  dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks
  greater equity in international trade.

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Why Fair Trade?

• For decades, rich countries and institutions have
  pushed poor countries to open their markets,
  privatize essential services, and divert
  development efforts away from local producers.
• The profits of large corporations, supermarkets,
  transport companies and advertisers have
  increased and the power to control trade has been
  increasingly concentrated in the hands of a few.
• At the same time, millions of  people from
  small farmers to individual consumers, have
  become increasingly disempowered and
  impoverished.

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Why Fair Trade?

• Trade justice is about recognizing the right
  that farmers have to feed their families and send
  their children to school. It is about allowing
  domestic industries to develop it is about
  access to essential services like water and
  healthcare, and it is about the right to fair
  wages and dignified work.
• Trade justice is about people and their basic
  human rights.

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Why Fair Trade?

• Fair Trade means
• Dignity of every human being
• Reducing poverty (particularly extreme poverty)
• A just distribution of wealth
• Healing communities
• Improving sustainability
• Participation in decision making

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We can do something?

• You can buy Fair Trade products. And you can add
  your voice.
• Fair Trade is a growing, international movement
  which ensures that producers in poor countries
  get a fair deal. This means a fair price for
  their goods (one that covers the cost of
  production and guarantees a living income),
  long-term contracts which provide real security
  and for many, support to gain the knowledge and
  skills that they need to develop their businesses
  and increase sales.

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Story 1

• Issahden Muhammed Alhassan, a rice farmer in the
  Northern village of Dalun, Ghana

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Africa

• In 1980 Africa had 6 share of world trade. By
  2002 this had dropped to just 2 despite the fact
  that Africa has 12 of the worlds population.
• If Africa could regain just an additional 1
  share of global trade, it would earn 70 billion
  more each year, several times more than what the
  region currently receives in effective
  international assistance.

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Africa

• Right now, trade rules are so skewed that cows in
  Europe receive more a day in subsidies than half
  the population of Africa.
• Millions of people are stuck in the trade trap.
• No matter how hard they work, they earn less
  every year.

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Africa What we need to do

• Increased access to fair trade will allow poor
  countries to build their economies
• We must open up developed country agricultural
  markets and eliminate subsidies.
• All nations should also have a seat at the table
  in any trade negotiations, ensuring a transparent
  and democratic process.
• We must also work to prevent any possible
  unintended negative consequences of trade
  liberalization for poor and vulnerable people.

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The issues

• As the world gets richer, so should the poor. But
  they arent!
• As borders have opened up, prices paid to small
  producers have fallen and real incomes declined
• With big corporations in control, small farmers
  are unable to obtain fair and stable prices for
  their produce.
• Many are no longer able to feed their families,
  much less produce extra food for sale.
• The current global market works only for a few

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Our Neighbourhood

• Despite welcome commitments to increase aid,
  Australia can and should do more. In 2000,
  Australia ranked 13 out of 22 rich countries for
  the amount of aid given as a proportion of
  national income. Currently we are ranked 19th out
  of 22 countries. We also have the issue of
  transparency.
• Some 621 million people in Asia and the Pacific,
  or 19.3 of developing Asia's population, lived
  on less than 1 a day in 2003.

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The First Stage of Trade

• The first focus is on raw materials and
  resources, such as oil, grain, minerals, land and
  even labour viewed as a commodity resource.
• Coffee
• Stage 1, the growing of coffee beans this
  involves appropriate price for the coffee grower.

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Second Stage of Trade

• The second is the process stage in which value is
  added to raw materials by developing, shaping, or
  refining the basic resource into saleable
  commodities. Sometimes the word industry is given
  to this second stage.
• Stage 2, the grinding and packaging of the coffee
  beans

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Third Stage of Trade

• The third is distribution and sale of
  manufactured goods to consumers who pay for the
  goods sold.
• Stage 3, the sale of coffee to consumers

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Biblical Reflections

• The global campaign Trade for people not
  people for Trade puts human beings in the centre
  of the concern How can trade serve children,
  women and men and not the opposite that people
  are forced to serve anonymous market rules and
  regulations? The respect of human-rights in all
  trade activities is the core message of the
  campaign. This vision is rooted in Christian
  convictions and ethical values.

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Biblical Reflections

• The Gospel leads Christians to a commitment to a
  just and equitable society in which every human
  being has God given significance and dignity. No
  one should be oppressed or marginalized. Each
  should be embraced as a member of the same family.

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Biblical Reflections

• The biblical standards for economic activity,
  including the trade of goods and services, is
  justice and taking the side of the poor fair
  payment, transparent relationship, no
  exploitation, and respect for life, ensuring the
  care of all.
• Transparency in Australias aid budget. Does it
  include the cost of the AWB inquiry or the debt
  relief to Iraq as a result of the inquiry? Does
  it include the cost of the Pacific Solution? Does
  it include the cost of sending troops to Iraq and
  Afghanistan?

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Biblical Reflections

• Trade, therefore, must be an instrument of
  sustainable, participatory and just community and
  communion. Justice is inseparable from love and
  agape (which means creative sympathy for the
  suffering and the oppressed) -- siding with the
  poor and furthering the interest of others.

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Biblical Reflections

• The biblical texts show clear criteria for
  justice in trade. Trade is fair if
• It is not abused for purposes of power politics
  (Ezek. 28.,6),
• It does not oppress and exploit anyone, women,
  children or men (Ezek. 28.16),
• It deals in goods, but not in people, i.e. slaves
  (Joel 3.6 Amos 1.9),
• Grants producers a fair wage (Isaiah 23.3),
• Admits of redistribution, and of fair and
  widespread profit participation (Isaiah 23.18).

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The issues

• Dumping
• Power concentrated in very few hands
• Loss of livelihoods
• Rising hunger
• Environmental destruction

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Story 2

• In the early 1990s, the Honduran government
  decided to import cheap rice from the US.

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Myths

• Economic growth automatically means growth for
  all the benefits trickle down to the poor.
• Developing countries need access to Northern
  markets to sell food
• Trade liberalization is the path to development.
• If everybody liberalizes and plays by the WTO
  rules, then producers in rich and poor countries
  will be on a level playing field.
• Lower food prices are good for everyone

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What international trade means for farmers

• Most of the farmers in the world dont produce
  crops for export - 90 of agricultural produce is
  actually sold on local and domestic markets. Yet
  all farmers are being forced to live according to
  rules that are designed to help the 10 of
  agricultural produce that is traded
  internationally.

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What international trade means for farmers

• The international market for agricultural
  products is dominated by a few enormous
  transnational corporations (TNCs) who wield
  massive power and control over market prices.

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What currently makes trade unfair?

• Currently, the rules of the global economy are
  written by institutions such as the World Trade
  Organization, the World Bank, and the
  International Monetary Fund. These institutions
  have written global policy with input mainly from
  multinational corporations and very little input
  from citizens.

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Story 3

• Leissa Carey was 14, the youngest of 12 children
  growing up outside Kingston, Jamaica, when her
  mother lost her job as a sugar cane cutter.

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Chocolate

• We eat an estimated sixty billion dollars worth
  of chocolate every year, but thanks to a
  long-term decline in world prices, millions of
  families whose livelihoods depend on cocoa
  production are facing extreme poverty.

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Chocolate

• But it doesn't have to be that way. The Kuapa
  Kokoo cooperative, in the Ashanti region at the
  heart of Ghana's cocoa-belt, is working with Fair
  Trade organisations to challenge the system. It
  is helping its 35,000 members to get their fair
  share of the profits generated by cocoa.

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Chocolate

• When Kuapa sells to its Fair Trade partners in
  Europe, it receives a guaranteed minimum price,
  as well as a 'social premium' which is invested
  in community projects such as building wells and
  schools. And when the price in cocoa drops - as
  it has been generally doing for the past 20
  years - Kuapa's farmers still have a secure
  income.

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What needs to change?

• To the IMF, WTO, World Bank and rich country
  governments
• STOP mandatory trade liberalization through any
  international institution
• STOP conditionality (i.e. attaching free trade
  conditions to aid, loans and debt relief )
• ALLOW poor countries to determine their own
  economic and development policies

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What needs to change?

• ENSURE that independent human rights assessments,
  including their impact on the right to food, are
  made prior to trade negotiations
• IMPLEMENT workable common international
  regulation to end dumping
• ESTABLISH international commodity agreements that
  set base stable prices for products
• REGULATE transnational corporations (TNCs),
  especially agribusiness, on a common
  international basis

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What needs to change?

• SUBSIDIZE the costs of agricultural inputs and
  technical advice for small producers
• MANAGE prices for food staples to ensure
  stability for producers and consumers
• SUPPORT distribution of agricultural inputs and
  collection of agricultural produce where markets
  dont exist or dont operate properly
• PROVIDE preferential credit to small producers

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What needs to change?

• To national governments
• DETERMINE trade policy, including export
  strategies, within a coherent development policy
• PROTECT sustainable local production that is
  complemented, not replaced, by exports
• GIVE women equitable access to productive
  resources, including land and credit
• PROTECT poor and vulnerable farmers from cheap
  imports that destroy their livelihoods

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The Good news

• Australia's Fairtrade growth the fastest in the
  world
• Australia's growth in Fairtrade products such as
  coffee is ranked the fastest in the world with
  sales up at least 50 per cent on last year to 8
  million, according to Oxfam Australia
• Growing demand from consumers who wish to shop
  ethically has fuelled massive market growth in
  Fairtrade products in Australia. According to
  Oxfam, in 2003 the total value of Australia's
  Fairtrade retail sales was a paltry 146,000. But
  today, just three years later, the market has
  grown enormously and is worth at least 8
  million.

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The Good news

• The rate of Fairtrade product growth has rocketed
  partly as a result of Australian shopping giant
  Coles as well as Australian-owned coffee chain
  Hudson who stock Fairtrade products. In addition
  Origin Energy, Orica and Lonely Planet make
  Fairtrade coffee and tea available in their
  offices Australia-wide.

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The Good News

• Oxfam celebrates win-win outcome for Ethiopian
  coffee farmers and Starbucks
• Oxfam welcomes an agreement signed between coffee
  giant Starbucks and the government of Ethiopia
  that has the potential to guarantee its coffee
  farmers a fairer share of the profits for their
  world-renowned brands, Sidamo, Harar and
  Yirgacheffe. This will help lift Ethiopian coffee
  farmers out of poverty.

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How do I know its Fairtrade?
Most Fair Trade products bear a Fairtrade Mark on
the packaging.  In different countries look out
for the different names,  Transfair , Max
Havelaar or FairTrade Foundation . You can find
out which is applicable in your country on the
Fair Trade Labelling Organisation (FLO) website
www.fairtrade.net
If a product is making a Fair Trade claim but it
doesn't carry a Fairtrade Mark you can be sure
their claim is genuine if they belong to the
International Federation of Alternative Trade
(IFAT), whose members have a mission to tackling
poverty through trade.  You can check members of
IFAT on their website www.ifat.org
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What we can do?

• There are a variety of ways for everyone to get
  involved
• Look for fair trade tea, coffee, chocolate
  other products in your local supermarket
• Encourage your family, church, school, work place
  and other groups to use fair trade tea and
  coffee.
• Organise a worship service, resources available
  on www.tradeweek.org
• Get involved in the Whats Fair in Anti Poverty
  Week 14-12 Oct 07
• Sell fair trade products in your business
• Volunteer with Fair Trade Association of
  Australia and New Zealand
• Donate money
• Pray for trade justice in the world

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Resources

• Oxfam
• Fair Trade Association
• People for Fair Trade
• World Evangelical Alliance
• Christian World Service

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Whats fair in Anti Poverty Week14th to 21st
October 2007

• Monday 15th - The Whats Fair morning tea A
  Christian Perspective (1000-1200am)
• Wednesday 17th - an ecumenical worship service at
  Melbourne University (115-145pm)
• Wed 17th - Whats fair in education?
  accessibility and equity at RMIT (430-630pm)
• Thurs 18th - Whats fair in the ragtrade? with a
  showing of China Blue (630-830pm).

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Reflection questions

• What can individuals do?
• What can families do?
• What can churches do?