Fairtrade meeting in Utrecht

Yesterday and today, FWF participated in the second multi-stakeholder forum of FLO, the Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International, in Utrecht. The goal of this meeting was to discuss FLO’s approach to textiles and more specifically how Fairtrade can contribute to improving labour conditions in the textile industry. Through a number of pilot projects, FLO will investigate different options with a range of partners. One of these explores the question of third party verification: to what extend does it lead to measurably improved labour conditions along textile supply chains?

At the forum, FWF director Erica van Doorn in cooperation with Max Havelaar Switzerland presented the work of FWF as a third party verification initiative. Central themes in the discussion were worker empowerment, mature industrial relations, transparency and accountability and the quality of buyer-supplier relationships.