As fair trade practitioners, the quality of our partnerships is symbolic of the credibility of our fair trade practice. Indeed, the most widely promoted and accepted definition of fair trade states that it is “a trading partnership that is based on dialogue, transparency and respect…”
There is also little doubt that it is the partnerships with our producers/suppliers that remain the gold standard of fair trade kudos and credibility. It is thereby reasonable to conclude that the quality of our fair trade producer partnerships could be measured by the degree to which they exhibit the attributes of dialogue, transparency and respect.
These are grand claims. Their presence speaks to the very legitimacy of fairer trading practice. They warrant closer examination.
In terms of OUR producer partnerships…
What do they actually mean?
What would they look like in a partnership?
What threatens their existence and development?
Why are they important to the future of fair trade?
‘Dialogue’ in a Producer Partnership
What does it actually mean
- a shared inquiry, a way of thinking and reflecting together – not something you do to but something that you do with another – a living experience of inquiry within and between people – a conversation between equals, with a centre, not sides – a way of taking the energy of our differences and channelling it towards something that has never been created before – a means of accessing the intelligence and coordinated power of groups of people.
What would it look like in a partnership?
- regular, multi-modal, in-depth robust communication around all partnership elements, lots of shared understanding and shared agreement, communication and review initiated by both parties, partners seeking to understand the perspective of the other and then alternating their intended actions based on those new understandings
What threatens its existence and development?
- Paternalism, unaddressed and under accommodated power imbalances, the privileging of particular voices based on unqualified notions of commercial superiority
Why is it important to the future of fair trade?
- When practiced with care and cultural sensitivity, dialogue offers a unique interface between traditional modes of discourse and the innovative potential of collective wisdom
- Dialogue is the communicative antithesis of the adversarial, self-promotional, power-based negotiation of unsustainable, unbalanced and unfair trade practices
‘Transparency’ in a Producer Partnership
What does it actually mean?
- facilitating free and easy public access to all information – it embodies openness, explicit communication, and accountability – it is a metaphorical extension of the definition of a “transparent” object as one that can be seen through
What would it look like in a partnership?
- Having nothing hidden, open to view by all, open meetings, full disclosure and freedom of access to all information
What threatens its existence and development?
- The unchallenged application of ill-informed and competitive notions of ‘commercial in confidence’
Why is it important to the future of fair trade?
- Transparency is a crucial component of fair trade credibility as it demonstrates to observers, supporters and practitioners alike that the reality of fair trade producer partnerships matches the rhetoric and marketing hype.
- Transparency offers ‘real’ partnership practices (ones that work and don’t work) as examples of what to do and what to avoid for those who seek to enhance their own fair trade partnership capacity.
- Once again, transparency is a key distinguishing feature that separates fair trade partnerships from the secrecy, deception, partial truths and misinformation of unfair trade partnerships.
‘Respect’ in a Producer Partnership
What does it actually mean?
- a feeling or attitude of admiration and deference toward somebody – consideration or thoughtfulness – to pay due attention to and refrain from violating someone – esteem for, or a sense of the worth or excellence of a person
What would it look like in a partnership?
- Behaviours that encourage all to see how their own unique perspective can make a value contribution to the collective wisdom of the group
- The celebrating of difference in perspectives rather than the promotion of ‘one best’ point of view
- A focus by all parties on creating, developing and maintaining shared-understanding and shared agreements
What threatens its existence and development?
- Cultural ignorance, privileged voices, paternalism, colonialism, the unchallengeable imposition of culturally specific processes, standards and principles of governance/management, and finally, conditional support or participation for one partner based on their compliance to the perspectives of the other
Why is it important for the future of fair trade?
- Respect remains the only compelling reason why producers (or anyone else for that matter) would seek to engage in ‘fairer trading’ partnerships of the future.
What about YOUR producer partnerships?
Do your partnership behaviours encourage dialogue, enable transparency and epitomize respect?
