What’s the problem?
Many companies recognise the responsibility that their purchasing power gives them, and have taken steps to stop exploitative practices in their supply chains.
However, the vast majority of companies continue to violate internationally agreed standards and make no attempt to monitor or measure their impact on the poor people they relate to through their purchasing practices.
As a result, international trade which should be benefiting poor people and communities continues to make them poorer.
What is Traidcraft doing?
Traidcraft is challenging the exploitation of the poor by the rich by promoting fair purchasing practices.
As the UK’s leading fair trade organisation, we have significant expertise in managing supply chains. We work with suppliers and support overseas projects, designed to help growers and producers who are involved in international supply chains. We therefore provide a model for successful ethical business as well as taking the message for our success into the mainstream business world.
Traidcraft is a founding member of the Responsible Purchasing Initiative, with the aim of researching and consulting on ways to improve the purchasing practices of UK companies. Through this project, we have developed guidelines for how companies can purchase more responsibly. You can find out more about these guidelines from our purchasing practices reports.
We have also developed The Buying Game where players can out themselves in the buyers' shoes and understand how decisions made in the UK can have an impact thousands of miles away.
As members of the Ethical Trading Initiative, we're working to improve conditions in the supply chains of major UK companies, so that they conform with the agreed international human rights standards set out in international conventions and incorporated into most countries' domestic legislation.
As the protection of basic human rights is not yet incorporated in the laws which govern how companies operate, we are also campaigning to change Company Law. We believe that we need basic regulation to ensure companies respect basic human rights in their supply chains overseas.
