To address this there are two sets of generic producer standards:
- Small farmers
- Workers on plantations and in factories
The first set applies to smallholders organised in co-operatives or other organisations with a democratic, participative structure. The second set applies to organised workers, whose employers pay decent wages, guarantee the right to join trade unions and provide good housing when relevant. On plantations and in factories, minimum health and safety as well as environmental standards must be complied with, and no child or forced labour can occur.
As Fairtrade is also about development, the generic standards distinguish between minimum requirements which producers must meet to be certified Fairtrade. Process requirements also encourage producer organisations to continuously improve working conditions and product quality, to increase their environmental stability of their activities and to invest in the development of their organisations and the welfare of their producers/workers.
Trading standards stipulate that traders must:
- Pay a price to producers that covers the costs of sustainable production and living;
- Pay a 'premium' that producers can invest in development;
- Make partial advance payments when requested by producers;
- Sign contracts that allow for long-term planning and sustainable production practices.
Some of the main fairtrade foods are:
The Breaking Jubilee Debt Campaign
The world’s most impoverished countries are in a debt crisis. Even though they have already repaid far more than they originally borrowed, poor countries are still forced to pay over £100 million EVERY DAY to the rich world in debt repayments, rather than spending the money on vital healthcare and education.
Debt burden
Total external debt of low-income countries -$523 billion
Total debt service being paid every day by low-income countries -$100 million
Africa’s total external debt -approx $300 billion
For every $1 received in grant aid, low income countries pay: -$2.30 in debt service
Many African countries spend more on debt than either health or education. (Eg Cameroon, Ethiopia, Gambia, Guinea, Madagascar, Malawi, Mauritania, Senegal, Uganda and Zambia all spent more on debt than health in 2002 (latest figures))
Funding dictators and runaway interest rates
Total loans made to oppressive regimes (low and middle-income countries) -$500 billion
Loans to South Africa’s apartheid regime (being repaid by current government) -$22 billion
Africa’s debt stock in 1970 -$11 billion
Africa’s debt stock in 2002 -$295 billion
Debt relief – too little, too slow, and with strings attached
The Heavily Indebted Poor Countries (HIPC) initiative is the current international debt relief scheme
Countries which have received debt cancellation through HIPC -18
Total debt cancellation through HIPC [between 1996 - 2005] -$30 billion
Debt cancellation granted in one day to Iraq by the ‘Paris Club’ -$31 billion (Nov. 04)
Number of qualified teachers which Zambia was unable to employ because of a public sector wage freeze imposed by the IMF in 2004 as a condition of receiving HIPC debt relief -9,000
Debt Hurts
In 2004, Zambia’s debt repayments to the IMF alone cost $25 million, more than the country’s education despite 40% of rural women being unable to read and write.
Sub-Saharan Africa receives $10 billion in aid every year – but has to pay back at least this amount in debt repayments.
Malawi spends more on servicing its debt than on health, despite nearly one in five Malawians being HIV positive.
Despite being the second country to be granted debt cancellation (after Uganda) Bolivia still spends more on debt servicing than on health, even though its infant mortality rate is 10 times that of the UK.
Debt Cancellation Works
In Benin, 54% of the money saved through debt relief has been spent on health, including on rural primary health care and HIV programmes.
In Tanzania, debt relief enabled the government to abolish primary school fees, leading to a 66% increase in attendance.
After Mozambique was granted debt relief, it was able to offer all children free immunisation.
In Uganda, debt relief led to 2.2 million people gaining access to water.
