Beyond Fair Trade

The View from Montevideo: Day Two

The sun is rising over Montevideo as I reflect on everything that has happened since the start of the Solidarity Economics workshop taking place here. I have been very impressed with the diversity of initiatives underway throughout the region, and the rich tradition on which these efforts draw. For Ademar Bertucci of Caritas Brasileira, the work currently being done in the area of Solidarity Economics is a continuation of the efforts of Catholic churches throughout the region to help poor people find economic alternatives to the mercantilist regimes in place during the Spanish colonial era. Closer to our own times, the Latin American Episcopal Council that convened this workshop is the same body of Catholic bishops who gathered in 1968 in Medellin, Colombia, to articulate in the “Medellin Documents“ a vision of the Church in Latin America that broke with centuries of tradition and issued a radical call for social and economic justice. In 1987, during a visit to Chile, Pope John Paul II addressed the UN’s Economic Commission on Latin America and the Caribbean and told them: “I believe that our best hopes for the region lie in solidarity economics.” Pretty inspiring stuff.

So what does Solidarity Economics look like now in Latin America? Of course, you already know that hundreds of groups of artisans and farmers are participating the Fair Trade economy because you are buying Fair Trade handcrafts, coffee and chocolate from our Fair Trade Program partners. But there is a dizzying array of initiatives beyond Fair Trade that are helping small-scale producers overcome the disadvantages they in local and national markets. In Brazil, where the local Church has been working for more than 20 years to promote its vision of Solidarity Economics and the federal government has created a Solidarity Economics Secretariat, the Brazilian Forum of Solidarity Economics, a sprawling civil society effort to bring together a vast array of stakeholders in the Brazilian economy to sponsor Solidarity Economics Fairs throughout the country to create new opportunities for farmers and artisans and other small-scale family enterprises. Following Brazil’s lead, the Caritas affiliates are promoting Solidarity Economics Fairs in other countries throughout South America, including Argentina, Bolivia and Uruguay.

In Peru, the local Caritas was involved in the creation of the National Fair Trade and Ethical Consumption Forum which supports the export of Peruvian Fair Trade products like coffee and crafts, but is primarily focused on building a domestic market for products that are fairly traded, organically farmed, locally grown, sweatshop free or otherwise ethical.

There are more microfinance projects in Latin America than you can count, but the discussion here revolved not just around making loans and collecting payments, but developing new products for savings, insurance and investment. More importantly, folks here are focused on cultivating a stronger sense of mission in their profitable enterprises — to embrace the “triple bottom line” of financial, social and environmental success, and to foster genuine human development through their activities.

Finally, one of the most pleasant surprises of the event so far was meeting Bettina from Boomerang Viajes in Argentina, which is a travel agency specializing in solidarity tourism. What does that mean? So far, it means creating travel experiences with the potential for real transformation. Boomerang asks the traveler, travel agency and people in the destination communities make commitments to one another to make the whole experience beneficial for everyone. In some cases, the destinations are typical. In some cases, Boomerang pushes people off the beaten path to see the realities that lie beyond the tourist sites, where poor people are doing extraordinary things to try to take greater control over their lives. In every case, the economic impact of the travel is minimized and the social impact maximized. I am looking forward to watching this one develop…Fair Trade tourism is next!

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 28th, 2007 and is filed under Fair Trade . You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.

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