Why using Sustainable Development Indicators?

One of the major markets for Fair Trade (FT) is located in Europe. To increases their market share, Fair Trade Organizations need to inform European consumers about their contribution and impact to the social, economic and environmental development of the production areas. These aspects also constitute the three fundamental pillars of Sustainable Development (SD).

Fair Trade and Sustainable Development have many common principles. One of the major challenges of the project is to measure Fair Trade involvement in Sustainable Development. By measuring sustainability of Fair Trade, the project will allow estimating the progress realized by Fair Trade to address policy actions for the improvement of local communities living conditions.

Sustainable Development covers many subjects that interacts one with another. These interactions make the direct estimation of Sustainable Development complex. Therefore, Indicators are use to measure the different components of Sustainable Development (SDI). They are defined as quantitative or qualitative parameters that provide an overall characterization of the state of a system. Sustainable Development Indicators are selected with the aim to provide information on the essence of sustainable development. They may refer to systematic characteristics such as carrying capacities of the environment, or they may refer to interrelations between economy, society and the environment.

Sustainable Development Indicators for Fair Trade

For the last two decades, many indicators related to Sustainable Development have been developed. Many of them have been set up to be used at national level. Fair Trade characteristics (size of the production areas, data availability, and diversity of products) do not allow using such indicators without adaptations. New indicators have therefore to be defined specifically for Fair Trade. To identify and validate these new indicators, six case studies have been selected around the world. These case studies represent the diversity of Fair Trade commodities related to their geographical origin. A participative approach is proposed to the different producer organisations involved in GeoFairTrade to select the most adapted Sustainable Development Indicator. They can describe their specific needs and propose dedicated indicators. The final Sustainable Development Indicators selection is expected to provide:

• Information for the producer related to the evolution in time of the Sustainable Development concerns;
• Greater transparency for Fair Trade by providing clear and objective information on the producer situation for European consumers;
• Objective information for the certification bodies.