Alliances
Trade Aid New Zealand
Trade Aid began 30 years ago as a couple’s vision to increase the trade of handcrafts and commodities between New Zealand and developing countries. At the heart of Trade Aid’s philosophy is the notion that income generation is an essential part of breaking the poverty cycle. The organization aims to build just and sustainable communities through fair trade. They engage in effective trading partnerships according to fair trade standards, choose trading partners who work with the most disadvantaged producers, and assist producers to move from poverty to self reliance. They also seek to make changes by increasing awareness of trading injustices and its impact on our trading partners, campaigning for change to unjust trading systems, and promoting fair trade as a positive alternative. Cooperative Coffees works together with Trade Aid in finding and developing these trading partnerships with coffee producers. For more info, visit
www.tradeaid.org.nz .
Root Capital
Root Capital (formerly EcoLogic Finance) is a nonprofit offering affordable financial services to community-based businesses operating in environmentally sensitive areas of Latin America and select countries of Africa and Asia. Targeting the rural credit market, Root Capital provides loan capital to support low-income communities whose business activities foster environmental conservation and grassroots economic development. Founded in late 1999, Root Capital manages a portfolio of $25,000 to $500,000 loans to small- and medium-sized enterprises that do not meet traditional requirements to access loans from local financial institutions. Target sectors include agroforestry (shade-grown and sustainable agriculture), wild-harvested products, certified wood, sustainable fisheries, and ecotourism. By doing so, Root Capital uses lending as a tool to harness the existing entrepreneurial energy in isolated rural communities, enabling conservation and encouraging socially responsible business practices. For more info, visit
http://www.rootcapital.org.
Affiliations
United Student for Fair Trade (USFT)
USFT is a collaboration of American and Canadian students advocating around Fair Trade products, policies, and principles. The core objective of USFT is to raise the awareness of and expand the demand for Fair Trade alternatives, both on campuses and in communities. They do so through three main functions: organizing with over 100 active student Fair Trade organizations in the U.S., leadership development and capacity building, and as a resource group for student-based affiliates. These student groups work with commodities and retail companies, NGOs and producers to inspire consumers to buy fair trade. Coop Coffees is working with USFT to develop further partnerships in the near future. For more info, visit
www.usft.net .
Canadian Student Fair Trade Network(CSFTN-RECCE)
CSFTN was formed in August 2004 when Ian Hussey and Jodie Creaser took the initiative to create a pan-Canadian umbrella-organization to facilitate communication and collaboration amongst Fair Traders across the country and beyond. Their mission is to facilitate the growth of local, regional, national and international Fair Trade education and advocacy initiatives through supporting collective communication and resource sharing. They do so by striving to shift the purchasing-decisions of individuals, organizations, businesses, and governments across Canada to choices that encompass a respect for human rights and dignity, and environmental sustainability as understood over decades by the Fair Trade movement. For more info, visit
www.csftn-recce.org.
Catholic Relief Services was founded in 1943 by the Catholic Bishops of the United States. Their mission is to assist the poor and disadvantaged, leveraging the teachings of the Gospel to alleviate human suffering, promote development of all people, and to foster charity and justice throughout the world. Working through local offices and an extensive network of partners, CRS operates on five continents and in 99 countries. CRS is also committed to educating the people of the United States to fulfill their moral responsibilities toward our global brothers and sisters by helping the poor, working to remove the causes of poverty, and promoting social justice. For more info, visit
www.crs.org .
Oxfam International launched a major Make Trade Fair campaign in the spring of 2001. The goals of this campaign are to expose and change the severe inequities that exist in the international trading system. Oxfam International and its 12 affiliates are calling on governments, institutions, and multinational companies to change the rules so that trade can become part of the solution to poverty, not part of the problem. Oxfam America, one of the affiliates, works with a broad range of groups—coffee farmers, US consumers, policy makers, retailers, and the coffee industry—to create sustainable solutions to poverty in coffee communities. One way they do is is by supporting cooperative marketing organizations that give small-scale farmers direct access to the market and the benefits of fair trade. For more info, visit
www.oxfamamerica.org .
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