African fair trade plan mooted

Organisations and individuals who work with and promote fair trade in Africa are set to meet in Bénin next month for a ground-breaking four-day Symposium which will analyse the impact of fair trade in Africa and draw a plan of action for its development.

The event, scheduled from the 6th to the 9th of April 2006 at the Marina Hotel in Cotonou, Bénin, allows some of the most important players in fair trade to share and analyse experiences of 30 years of fair trade in the continent. The Symposium plans a full agenda of talks, panel discussions and workshops, which will both examine past successes, and the potential of a greater role for African Fair trade at both regional and international levels in the future.

The main message of the Symposium is that African actors should build their own vision and practices of Fair Trade, says Pierre Johnson, member of the Fair Trade steering committee at the Workgroup on a Solidarity Socio-Economy, one of the initiating parties of the Symposium. Africa is a continent that has a great deal of potential in terms of trade. It is rich in natural resources and cultural values, such as family and community solidarity, which represent an untapped potential for a balanced and sustainable development. If those values could pass from community level to national and continental level, then Africa could invent its own type of economy, based on these values.

Fair trade began around 50 years ago, when small benevolent societies began purchasing goods directly from local producers and selling them, encouraging a fair price for goods and a more direct relationship between producers and consumers. Nowadays, fair trade is seen as an alternative to traditional profit-driven markets, as it reinforces the importance of promoting social and environmental sustainability, along with long-term relationships between producers, traders and consumers. Fair trade today can present a key to the development of regions within Africa, who are marginalized in the global trade environment.

The organisers welcome participants and observers to the event, whether businesses, government or interested individuals. The preliminary program can be viewed at the Symposium website: http://www.fairtrade-africa.org/
The Symposium is supported by groups as diverse as Cooperation of Fair Trade in Africa (COFTA), the Rural Foundation of West Africa (FRAO), the African Trade Network, Oxfam International, and financially by ICCO, the Charles Léopold Mayer Foundation for the Progress of Humankind and VECO Bénin. It is organised jointly by the Workgroup on Solidarity Socio-Economy (WSSE) of the Alliance for a Responsible, Plural and United World and the Research and Action Group for the Promotion of Agriculture and Development (GRAPAD).