National Campaigner Committee
30 April 2014
Summary bullets
1. Fairtrade Fortnight 2014.Stick with Foncho was a good campaign with a great message of trade justice and levels of engagement were higher than predicted overall. The petition will be presented to the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills near World Fair Trade Day and there are just a few more days to sign. So far there are in excess of 63,000 signatures on- and offline – a significant and credible number. The next stage of the Make Bananas Fair campaign will take place in the autumn.
Postscript: Over 70,000 people signed the petition which was handed in on the 13 May – our 30 campaigners in banana suits got a lot of attention!
2. Role and effectiveness of NCC.There was a robust discussion with the Campaigns Team about progress to date and the way forward.NCC work has helped to re-shape the schools programme, shift the focus of the Foundation’s fundraising activities, encourage the Foundation to support campaign activities for Fairtrade gold, promote involvement of the members organisations (e.g. Oxfam, Traidcraft, Christian Aid, etc.) during Fairtrade Fortnight, and led to a sharper focus on trade justice inthe FairtradeFortnight campaign this year.There is still plenty of room for improvement for regional representatives to act as effective conduits for information between the Foundation and the grassroots.
3. Plans for Fairtrade Fortnight 2015.Initial thoughts are tohighlight the impact and core values of Fairtrade evidenced by the collective action evidenced by stakeholders rather than specific campaign or commodity focus. The theme will be announced in the autumn and materials will be available.
4. Communications about new Fairtrade model.The Fairtrade Foundation were encouraged to start communicating more proactively with campaigners about the new Fairtrade Sourcing Programs (FSP) that have been launched by Fairtrade International and which will be introduced in the UK by the end of 2014. Meanwhile this briefing about FSP is available on the Foundation’s website and there is more information on the Fairtrade International website.
5. Priorities for Campaigns team.Overall strategic priorities include:maximising campaigner/supporter engagement during Fairtrade Fortnight to achieve campaign objectives; improving the Foundation’s internal systemsfor managing communications (including a major upgrade of their campaignerdatabase); and improvements to the Fairtrade Schools programme to encourage schools taking their first steps on Fairtrade while still providing a framework to reward the more active schools. This represents a shift from certification to rewarding positive steps, and similar revisions may be proposed for Fairtrade Towns and the other certification schemes.
6. ‘Ambassadors’ scheme.The scheme isto be launched by the end of 2014 and will offer supporting materials to individuals who wish toact as speakers on Fairtrade, go into schools and be informed helpers at events organised by campaigners. We hope that active campaigners will be interested in taking on this role,which will be complementary with other speaker schemes such as Traidcraft’s.
7. 20th anniversary FAIRTRADE Mark – conference.A celebration of the 20th anniversary of the FAIRTRADE Markwill be held in London in October,bringing together representatives of the UK Fairtrademovement including campaigners, NGOs, and businesses. This will take the place of the National Supporter Conference and the Commercial Conference. In their place there will be regional supporter events across the UK in the autumn. Look out for details of these which will be available on the website in coming weeks. (South West - September 13, London - September 18, Northwest - September, Northern Ireland - early-mid October, North West – early-mid October, East of England – early to mid October).
8. 20th anniversary celebration events.The Foundation will be developing a pack with suggestions for how local Fairtrade Town groups can also celebrate 20 years of the Fairtrade Mark.
9. The International Fair Trade Towns conference will be held in Bristolon the 4 and 5 July 2015 with the theme ‘Fairtrade and Sustainability’.Aims are to demonstrate these links and give delegates a flavour of Bristol’s unique character with fringe events such as a celebration of Bristol as European Green Capital 2015 on Friday 3 July and the ‘Keep Sunday Special’festival. The organising committee are open to suggestions of involvement from other regions in the conference itself or even add-on visits to other regions for small groups of delegates. For more information please contact Jenny Foster at .
10. Fairtrade Foundation Website - good news! The Foundation is working on a new website which will be available laterin 2014.
11. New developments in Fairtrade Gold.A new Fairtrade gold website has been launched and in September 2014 there will be a specific campaign about Fairtrade gold wedding rings. For more information go to or see Greg Valerio’s (Fairtrade International gold coordinator) blog at blog.gregvalerio.com.