Cooperatives & Fair Trade: a joint contribution to EU’s strategy on the role of the private sector in development

Cooperatives Europe and Fair Trade Advocacy Office released a joint contribution to the future EU strategy on “Strengthening the Role of the Private Sector in Achieving Inclusive and Sustainable Development”. This topic is a key issue within the implementation of the EU development policy ‘Agenda for Change’ and the discussions on the future global sustainable development framework once the United Nations Millennium Development Goals come to an end.

The joint paper highlights which opportunities the EU could gain from supporting and partnering with Fair Trade actors and Cooperative enterprises to empower small producers in supply chains in order to achieve the EU poverty reduction and sustainable supply chains to satisfy also the EU market demand.

The document gives some suggestions on how EU policies can make supply chains work for small producers. These suggestions are: empowering small producers in the value chain, creating an enabling environment, adapting Trade and trade-related policies and driving consumption through demand.

The cooperative and Fair Trade business models are market-based and put people at the very core of their businesses. Both apply a people-centred business model where profit is simply a means to serve people, not an end in itself.

Read the whole joint paper below.