Our review has led us to place new emphasis on the following key aspects of our work:
a) Promoting human flourishing: Traidcraft has always sought to have a wider understanding of poverty than one that simply looks at material issues, and our vision statement has long reflected a desire to see “people and communities flourish”. During this next strategic period we will develop better systems for assessing how our interventions are truly contributing to improved well-being as well as increased incomes. Helping people to feel more confident and valued, and to have hope for the future, will be a growing emphasis in our work. We will particularly look to work in fields and sectors that can benefit women, recognising that women are generally disadvantaged, and often the most effective agents of positive development.
b) Positive environmental action: Assisting producers to adapt to climate change will be an increasing part of our work. This may mean reducing risk from weather patterns by diversifying crops; it may mean improved use of water harvesting and irrigation technology; it may involve promoting more productive agricultural practices that are more resilient to stress. The role of small-scale farmers in helping generate the food resources required by a growing world population should not be underestimated. At the same time we will promote responsible consumption patterns in the UK and will reduce the environmental footprint of our own products, supply chains and activities.
c) Innovation: This is the lifeblood of any organisation, but it is fundamental to Traidcraft given its pioneering role. We will increase our focus on innovation in fair trade – extending the range of sectors and markets covered by fair trade standards, bringing in new supply chains that will assist even more marginalised producers, and seeking to raise the bar in ethical and fair trading practices and move “beyond Fairtrade”.
d) Integration of our trading and development expertise: The time is right for Traidcraft to draw together its commercial and development expertise even more closely. We are revising our approach to supplier relationships so that we recognise more clearly the state of development of each of our partners, and we will focus our development efforts on those most in need. We will seek greater levels of external funding for investment in producer support activities, helping our trading suppliers to move beyond what is needed to trade with Traidcraft itself. We will also recognise more clearly that Traidcraft’s supporters often relate to several aspects of our work and we will maximise understanding of how people can support the whole of our mission.
PRINCIPAL TARGETS FOR 2011-14
In a rapidly changing world we cannot realistically set quantifiable long-term targets for our work. We will therefore set our targets on a rolling three year basis.
In the next three year period (2011-14) our key quantifiable goals will be as follows:
- To work with an average of at least 400,000 direct beneficiaries in each year (moving toward a target of 500,000 by 2014).
- To develop and implement systems that will enable us to monitor impact more effectively, both in terms of incomes and wider dimensions of human flourishing, and to demonstrate that at least 80% of those we work with report improvements in their income and well-being.
- To increase sales of Traidcraft products by 10% per annum on average, thereby increasing the value of our purchases from our fair trade suppliers.
- To increase unrestricted donations by at least 6% per annum on average and the overall scale of expenditure on our development work by 15% per annum.
- To grow the number of Traidcraft supporters by 10% each year, and see steady improvement in awareness of Traidcraft, especially in the Christian community.
In addition, we will monitor closely evidence of the impact of our innovation and influencing activity on the behaviour of companies and governments, and we will seek to demonstrate progress in integrating environmental goals and promotion of the interests of women beneficiaries into all our programmes and activities.
