PROSUSTAIN - Promoting Fair Trade and Sustainable Consumption in India (2010 - 2012) - www.fairtrade-prosustain.in Project Description The Pro-Sustain project, is a project supported by the European Commission and is led by Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries (HIVOS), jointly implemented by International Resources for Fairer Trade (IRFT), Fair Trade Forum India (FTF-I) and the associate partner Shop For Change Fair Trade , aims to contribute to building environmentally sustainable production and consumption practices that help reduce poverty amongst poor farmers and handicraft producers in India

Over the next thirty six months ( 2010 - 12 ) the Prosustain project will create a consumer market for Fair Trade products in India that measurably contributes to the improvement of rural livelihoods and provides farmers and artisans with the resources necessary to follow environmentally sustainable production practices. Final beneficiaries: Poor farming and handicrafts producing families across India (an estimated 900,000 people). Project Activities: • Awareness raising about fair trade and sustainable consumption behaviour of Indian SMEs/intermediaries,
• Network building with advertising agencies, consumer groups, distribution channels, government bodies, international organizations in standards development,
• Policy dialogue through advocacy and lobbying with government and local bodies,
• Active involvement of retailers ,corporate and consumer groups in stimulating market demand, and
• Information exchange and dissemination Target Audience: • Small and Micro Enterprises (SMEs) members of FTF-I, Shop for Change Fair Trade
• 10 major branded product manufacturers;
• 100 students at each of 75 colleges;
• 90 corporate offices with gift programmes;
• 350,000 Social Economic Class ‘A1’ (i.e., upper middle class) consumer households;
• Ministries of Commerce, Textiles, Agriculture, and other agencies. Your involvement in the Project: • To support small farmers and the producers by buying Fair Trade Products available in certain place to adopt SFC Fair Trade label to become socially responsible    Retailer
• To incorporate Fair Trade into your CSR activities and organisational/corporate procurement)
• To incorporate Fair Trade in your course curriculum
• To involve in awareness generation events and other activities
• To volunteer with us in creating grass-root demand for Fair Trade products. Partner Details Hivos: The Humanist Institute for Cooperation with Developing Countries was set up in 1968 by the Dutch Humanist League, the Vereeniging Weezenkas (United Orphans' Fund) and Humanities. It is a non-governmental organisation inspired by humanist values. To know more please visit  www.hivos.nl IRFT: (International Resources for Fairer Trade),established under the Bombay Public Trust Act in the year 1995,is dedicated to alleviation of poverty through trade, by empowering small farmers , artisans, and NGOs to develop business capacity and ensure sustainable livelihoods. To know more please visit  www.irft.org FTF- I: Fair Trade Forum India (FTF- I) is a national level networking organization of artisan and food producer groups, facilitating organizations, and individuals who comply with its fair trade standards. At present, more than 90,000 artisans and farmers are associated with FTF-I through its 70 member organizations. To know more please visit  www.fairtradeforum.org Associate Partner: SFC Shop for Change established as a consortium in 2006 with support from the European Union and recently registered as a section 25 not-for-profit company, SFC provides social and environmental certification and then markets its certification label to companies and consumers. SFC is supported by a multi-stakeholder group, which includes fair trade membership organisations, government representatives, private sector companies and a range of producer organisations. To know more please visit  www.shopforchange.in

The project has been part-funded by the Switch Asia Programme of the European Commission - Switch Asia Programme aims to promote Making trade work for the poor PROFIT (2006 -2010)   www.profit.org.in In the era of globalisation and open markets, small producers find it increasingly difficult to compete internationally; as a result producers are forced to cater to local markets which are overcrowded and exploitative. Fair trade has been the beacon of hope for marginalized producers, helping them develop skills, access markets, better price and sustainable livelihoods through the trading relationship. However Fair trade markets in the West are not growing in proportion to the requirements of poor producers and there is a need to expand markets. With its focus on fair wages, fair treatment, long-term relationships etc, Fair Trade has great potential to serve the Indian producers and market. With a population of over 1 billion, and a growing middle class, India offers a huge opportunity for change – a market waiting to be tapped. The fair trade movement has great potential to tap the domestic market which would benefit small producers and community businesses.

But there is no awareness of Fair Trade concept and benefits to the consumers in the country. Recognising this IRFT and Traidcraft joined hands to initiate a process of promoting domestic Fair Trade through a new project PROFIT (Promoting Fair Trade in India). The European Commission and Belgium Technical Cooperation (BTC) are supporting this project which would attempt to develop the Fair Trade market within India. It targets domestic Fair-Trade rather than focusing on export markets which are beyond the capacity of many fair trade micro and small enterprises (SMEs) and poor producers. The documentation needs, logistic requirements and planning processes are the major limiting factors for small primary producer groups thereby preventing them from tying up with Fair trade organisations in the western countries.

This project is the start of a long-term programme to develop fair trade markets in India and will increase the ability of pro- poor micro and small enterprises (SMEs) and their producers to benefit equitably from trade. Pro poor micro and small enterprises can play an important role in providing employment and income generating opportunities and reducing poverty. PROFIT will benefit some of the poorest communities in India. For these communities employment and income generating opportunities are limited and those that do exist are often seasonal, poorly paid and exploitative. The project will aspire to reduce poverty amongst thousands of poor and marginalised Indian producers especially in backward regions of the country by increasing their ability to benefit from trade.

The project also aims to promote the concept of 'Fair Trade' within India - raising awareness and understanding of fair trade amongst potential consumers (the Indian middle class), the media, key decision/policy makers, academics etc. It would attempt to develop appropriate fair trade standards for the Indian context - including monitoring and certification systems which would be in alignment with international standards. It would also work towards building capacity of pro-poor SMEs initially in two sectors so that they can benefit from this new market opportunities and to make sure that fair trade products are available to the consumers. And finally work with stakeholders to facilitate a distribution and retail network for the sale of the Fair Trade products.

Expected outputs: Increased understanding and awareness of fair trade and what this means in an Indian context and increased support for fair trade from key policy/decision makers in India. It would determine domestic Fair trade standards and systems for monitoring and certification that would result in increased quality of fair trade products and improved consumer confidence in fair trade. Ultimately the marginalised producers would benefit because of the increased demand for fair trade products (from consumers, buyers and retailers) in India. Finally, the project will demonstrate the potential of Fair Trade as a means of alleviating poverty and other developing countries can learn from the Indian experience. ‘Developing Effective Pro poor Business Counselling Services in India’ project SARTHEE Introduction

The Idea behind the Sarthee project was to replicate IRFT’s Model of CBS services to small producers, in a cost effective way, in areas where IRFT cannot reach.

The project was conceived in joint partnership between Traidcraft UK, IRFT India; and FAKT Germany and ran for 33 months starting February 2006 and ending November 2008.The project was part funded by European Commission.

The goal of the project was to enhance the technical and management capacity of the Business Development Service (BDS) Providers in handicraft sub sector to develop high quality business counselling service to help the Micro and Small Enterprises (MSEs) to develop good business skills in the handicraft sub sector, better management of resources; and reach out to markets for sustainable business. The key quantitative targets set forth were to work with10 BDS providers organisations, train 20 business counsellors through training programme, exposure visit, mentoring and a initiation of BDS Network.

It was envisaged that these 20 business counselors would in turn trickle down the skills within their own organisation and to their clients groups and through them will reach out to 100 MSEs and 2000 producers employees in support of the Indian handicraft industry. Results /Achievements SARTHEE project inputs to 10 BDS providers and through them to 6600 primarily women MSEs have been evident. In particular, a business approach, understanding and motivating MSEs, negotiating business deals, gaining access to export markets; and improvement in the internal systems are notable.

• All business counsellors trained in SARTHEE have engaged in formal and or on the job training of their peers within their organisations.
• 6,600 women and men have received at least one business inputs (through structured training in the class room and or on the job, counselling season, linkage etc.)   by business counsellors and their peers.
• Approximately 33,000 family members in 6,600 households are currently reached by the BDS providers; and an additional 200 business units and 1,200 family   members, who are not directly attached but have benefited through the support programs such as training, assistance in setting up independent business units,   linked with banks and other institutions offering government and non government schemes etc.
• 100% of the 6,600 women and men MSEs have experienced increase in their tangible assets such as property, jewellery, business equipment, TV, cows, tractor;   and cash assets in the form of group savings, savings with formal financial institutions such as banks, post offices, Life Insurance Company.
• Six BDS providers have progressed in developing networks both in domestic and foreign markets of which 60% have medium to long term job orders in European   and other markets.
• Most BDS Providers are expecting to double their revenue by 2011 with substantial increase in exports up to 30%.

Beyond Sarthee Actions needed for strengthening the role of BDS and Counselling services

• Integrate BDS and Counselling into the enterprise support work, right from the setting up of an enterprise
• Build an enabling environment for the Business Counsellors to function effectively by way of forming a common platform

Lessons Learned To measure the achievements and changes, there was a need to design a baseline that formed the basis for qualitative and quantitative evaluation. This would have strengthened the attribution to achievements and changes. BDS/MSEs still need a tool to help them track the changes and impact which will help them to become more efficient.