At the ICA General Assembly in November 2024, the International Cooperative Alliance and Fairtrade International signed a Joint Partnership Declaration to advance Sustainable Development and cooperative empowerment. International Fair Trade Day was celebrated on 10 May, and we spoke with Kelly Hawrylyshyn, Head of International Partnerships and Programmes Implementation, Fairtrade International, to hear how Fairtrade is accelerating decent work.
Tell us about your role at Fairtrade International?
I lead the International Partnership and Programmes Implementation team, which complements Fairtrade’s core work of standards and certification. Through projects and partnerships, we support cooperatives and their members to tackle challenges and priorities and so comply with our sustainability standards. Within this, we work with 1,500 producer cooperatives looking to tackle climate change, improve productivity, address gender equality and youth inclusion in their membership and governance, or meet the growing regulatory requirements by markets (such as the EU Deforestation regulation or HREDD regulations).
Our team works on securing project funding and partnerships that support cooperatives and their members to acquire new knowledge, tools and resources to tackle their priorities. We work with over 20 institutional donors and a growing number of commercial partners on projects that can really impact cooperatives’ resilience. We are also supporting cooperatives through the work of the Fairtrade Producer Networks to access project funding directly.
Can you give a few examples?
Since 2015, we have implemented over 250 externally funded projects across the system and secured partnerships with external organisations, including the International Cooperative Alliance (ICA), to address producers' growing needs and complement our areas of expertise (such digitalisation, climate resilience, youth empowerment or in research evidence and advocacy work).
For example, to address the increasing EU market entry demands for producer cooperatives in the global south – including the requirements under the EUDR and CSDDD for cooperatives to present their geo-locations using satellite data – we have partnered with Satelligence, a satellite-powered geodata analytics operator. They are bringing much-needed digital expertise to complement our support services to our member producer cooperatives.
Joining forces with organisations that share our vision and add value to our work is key, in line with SDG17. Partnerships are key to Fairtrade’s mission is to connect producers with all stakeholders across the value chain, including the private sector, governments, CSOs and the end consumers.
We are very conscious that collaboration is needed now more than ever to build producers’ climate resilience, tackle human rights risks in their supply chains and invest in the next generation of farmers.
How does Fairtrade support SDG 8: Decent work and economic growth?
For almost 30 years now, Fairtrade has been driving change towards fairer and more inclusive economic growth through the Fairtrade Standards (covering Environmental, Social & Economic pillars of sustainability), the Fairtrade Minimum Price (which offers a safety-net for cooperatives facing market fluctuations affecting their crops) the Fairtrade Premium (enabling Fairtrade cooperatives to invest in their community’s development priorities, members' training & equipment) and our Programmes, Advocacy & Market Access work to build producers’ resilience and achieve systemic change.
The Fairtrade minimum price and the Fairtrade Premium are the key economic tools of Fairtrade certification that drive fairer distribution of value across value chains. With the minimum price safety net, producers are better able to navigate market fluctuations affecting their products and can plan and invest in their production cycles.
This is particularly important as we try to engage the next generation of farmers – the average age of smallholder farmers in Fairtrade cooperatives is 55. Without ensuring a fair return on investment of the hard work of agriculture, young people in rural areas are seeking other livelihood options in urban areas or overseas.
Above all Fairtrade promotes the concept of a living income – whereby producers can earn a fair price for their products – which can cover their costs of producing their products sustainably (i.e. not using Highly Hazardous Pesticides, GMOs or child or force labour, or gender based violence), while also being able to provide income to meet their households’ needs and unforeseen costs.
How do you see the cooperative movement supporting Fairtrade’s mission?
Now more than ever, we need to promote the cooperative values and principles of solidarity, transparent and inclusive decision making, and community impact, as these values are the cornerstone of the Fairtrade standards (as only registered cooperatives can be Fairtrade certified, not individual farmers)
Together with ICA, we are working through our EC Financial Framework Agreements to collaborate on strengthening cooperatives’ enabling environment through policy influencing at the EU level and in key target countries, especially those that are reviewing the legal frameworks of what constitutes a cooperative in their country. This is an area of work that we are looking forward to learning more about and working with ICA on.
Several cooperatives took part in the ICA’s Global Conference held in New Delhi last November, to gain greater expertise and good practices on youth engagement, gender inclusion, cooperative advocacy work.
Personally, I am looking forward to collaborating with the cooperative movement in two crucial areas – digitalisation/AI and driving consumer awareness:
On digitalistion: We need to work closely to ensure cooperatives can harness digitalisation and innovation while addressing their rights to data ownership. How can producer cooperatives best benefit from AI technology for planning their planting and harvest seasons, marketing their products and meeting HREDD regulations, adopting climate mitigation and adaptation solutions? How can digitalisation help improve their access to finance through fintechs? And how can Fairtrade cooperatives and their members benefit from cooperative enterprises engaged in healthcare and pension schemes? So a cross-fertilisation of cooperative sectors would be good! The Fairtrade Producer Networks in LAC, Africa & MENA and Asia Pacific are exploring with their ICA regional counterparts greater collaboration in these areas.
In terms of driving consumer awareness, consumer co-ops play a vital role in promoting Fairtrade products to their members and raising awareness about the importance of Fairtrade. We have very committed cooperative retailers in the UK, Switzerland and Italy, which actively campaign for Fairtrade and ethical sourcing, and invest in projects to strengthen the producer cooperatives they source from. With the cost of living and inflationary crisis affecting both producers and consumers, we need the support from the cooperative movement to promote the importance of sustainable consumption. This is key to counter the escalating trade wars and the race to the bottom of cheap purchasing ‘Black Friday’ deals. The Cooperative movement can support Fairtrade’s mission of securing market access by addressing the purchasing choices of the next generation of ethically conscious consumers. It would be great for us to join forces to target consumer cooperatives in other market economies, such as India, Brazil, South Africa, Indonesia and China.
Can you share some examples of how being certified Fairtrade has impacted cooperatives around the world?
Fairtrade-certified cooperatives are inspiring agents of change at the community level. Through their Fairtrade premium funds earned – which totals on average €200m annually (over €2bn over the last 10 years) – they are often providing crucial public services (such as health, education, social protection or local transportation) where these do not reach remote rural areas.
This really came to light during the COVID-19 crisis, where so many Fairtrade-certified cooperatives were acting as first responders. An example is APBOSMAM, a banana-producing cooperative located in the Valle del Chira in Peru that has 300 smallholder farmer members. Peru had the 7th-highest number of COVID-related deaths, stood as the 7th country in the world with the highest deaths from COVID. APBOSMAM members led an awareness-raising radio programme on COVID prevention measures and set up community-based health and safety initiatives such as disinfection facilities and the distribution of PPE.
Another example is ABOCFA in Ghana, a cocoa cooperative with 1,063 members, 27% of whom are women). The organisation is leading community action to tackle child labour through awareness raising on national legislations on child rights, supporting the construction of schools and provision of school bursaries to cover school uniforms, supplies and bicycles. They are also supporting women producers to set up Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs) where they generate funds to invest in alternative income-generating activities, to complement cocoa producers’ household income.
You mentioned the ICA conference in New Delhi; at that event the ICA and Fairtrade International announced a Joint Partnership Declaration. Why was such a declaration important?
Because joint working and partnerships are needed now more than ever, as market forces are gaining strength. Through the Joint Partnership Declaration, we have agreed on key priorities that both our networks can jointly push for systemic changes – for promoting inclusive and sustainable cooperatives and their communities through wealth creation and redistribution, democracy and empowerment.
Both our movements believe in the important role of cooperatives. We know that cooperatives serve as the best economic model as they have the values and commitment to achieve the sweet spot of being both profitable and socially and environmentally responsible. We have seen their success as agents of social change
While we have already been working closely with ICA, particularly through our Producer Networks in Africa and in Asia and the Pacific (who already had MOUs in place at regional level) and through the Fair Trade Advocacy Office on EU policy influencing, we felt it important to solidify our collaboration at global level through the Joint Partnership Declaration – particularly given the importance of the International Year of Cooperatives in 2025 declared by the UN.
There are also several important milestones in 2025 affecting cooperatives, which call for our joint action, such as the Financing for Development Summit end of June in Spain and COP30 in Brazil in November. And on top of all this, we are very conscious that there are now only 5 more harvests until the deadline for the SDG targets under Agenda 2030. And, as we all are aware, we are quite off target, and derailing even further with recent developments.
One thing to note: when Fairtrade International heard that Jeroen Douglas was appointed as the ICA’s new Director General we were super excited, as he is one of the founding members of Fairtrade International. He, together with another wise and humanist Dutchman, Frans von Hoff, set up our organisation back in 1997 to bring together different alternative trade organisations aiming to make fairer terms of trade viable for disadvantaged smallholder producers across the globe.
2025 is also the year of the second World Social Summit. What are your thoughts on and hopes for this event?
Given the current state of the world, there is a pressing urge to have more meaningful dialogue, and empathetic leadership. The years following the COVID pandemic have been characterised by increased disruptions to democratic values, backlash against gender equality and human rights, climate extremes and environmental degradation and outburst of wars, chaos, animosity, and political polarization. This is not the way to build a fairer future. Fairtrade stands for dialogue, for inclusion, for ‘leaving no one behind’. Our hopes are for a World Social Summit that can revive the core values of cooperative and Fairtrade movement: human solidarity and the ethos of social justice, and agree on practical actions for a constructive path towards a fairer future for all.
The #IYC2025 theme is ‘Cooperatives build a better world’. In your view, how are cooperatives working to build a better world in the area of decent work and economic growth?
Across the globe, we see examples of Fairtrade-certified cooperatives driving economic growth and greater opportunities to secure decent work in rural communities. In Colombia, for example, many banana and coffee cooperatives, are transitioning to agroecology and organic production, and are supporting their members to diversify their livelihoods. At the coffee co-op Red Ecolsierra, young people are driving the organisation’s EcoTourism diversification initiative, leading guided tours to the fields of coffee farmers in the Sierra Nevada de Santa Marta, showcasing coffee production under agroecology practices, as well as the gastronomic, natural and cultural attractions of the area – the highest coastal mountain in the world.
This is just one example of cooperative organisations committed to complying with the Fairtrade standards as a mechanism to improve their operations, governance and profitability. Co-ops drive good governance and inclusive decision-making, both in their organisation and at the community and national levels through their official representative structures. They are championing social cohesion, human solidarity and environmental guardianship – and showcasing that if granted fairer terms of trade, sustainable livelihoods are not just a vision, but a reality.
The many inspiring Fairtrade-certified cooperatives exemplify our belief that trade can - and must - be a force for good, and that strong partnerships are the foundation that nourishes a sustainable and prosperous future for all.
