This document summarizes a webinar on the role of collective enterprises for women producers to access fair trade markets. It finds that organizing collectively offers economic and social benefits, including increased income, bargaining power, and knowledge sharing. Through case studies, it identifies success factors like strong leadership, a shared vision, and commercial success through value-addition and quality control. Challenges include women's limited participation and a lack of government support. The webinar concludes there is a need for policies recognizing women informal workers and a rights-based approach to support their enterprises.

1. Webinars on
Women’s Collective Action (WCA) in
Agricultural Markets
Webinar 5: "Fair Trade for Women Producers: Role of
Collective Enterprises for Market Access"
April 12, 2012, 12:00-13:30 GMT
Facilitated by

2. Organizations Represented Today
CARE
WIEGO International
Coady
Oxfam International
GB Oxfam
America
Overseas
Oxfam
Development
Institute (ODI)
International
Sanayee Development Organization

3. Women Producers and the
Benefits of Collective Forms of
Enterprise
Elaine Jones, Sally Smith and
Carol Wills
WIEGO

4. Abstract
• For self-employed women producers in the global South,
organizing collectively and linking to Fair Trade markets
offers potential for significant economic and social benefits.
• Producer groups of women artisans and farmers able to
access markets on fair terms can gain valuable income.

5. The Project
• Global Trade Programme at WIEGO, in
partnership with Fair Trade organizations and
networks, supported local organizations of
women producers who undertook the project.
• Focus: documenting, analyzing and
disseminating key success factors for women in
Fair Trade collectives.
• Key finding: Participating in collectives and
linking to Fair Trade markets can foster
significant progress in meeting economic and
social goals.

6. Trading Our Way Up
• Provides summary of research
findings
• Highlights benefits of collective
enterprise
• Describes how obstacles and
challenges are addressed.
• Lessons from study have
practical and policy implications
for international development
programmes looking to support
creation of SMEs as one route
to women's economic
empowerment.

7. Women Informal Workers &Trade
• Complex factors of poverty, gender inequality and poor
implementation of legislation limit women’s ability to benefit
from trade.
• Women often occupy less profitable sectors of economy and
least profitable nodes of value chains, leading to minimal
economic return for their efforts (Carr and Chen 2001).

8. Alternatives:
Collective Enterprise & Fair Trade
• Working cooperatively to
produce and market goods
and to access inputs, credit,
services and information, offer
economies of scale,
knowledge sharing and
increased bargaining power.
Group membership also • Collectives have potential too to
confers social benefits for play political role in advocating
women. interests of members, especially
when linked together in networks
and alliances.
• The Fair Trade movement
facilitates positive employment
opportunities for working poor
women producers.

9. Quiz
• In which of the following ways does membership
in a collective benefit women informal producers?
b. By providing a venue in which to organize for social
change
c. By increasing women's bargaining power
d. By serving as a space for knowledge-sharing
e. By helping to increase access to greater credit
amounts
f. All of the above

10. …The answer is e.
• All of the above!
• When women informal producers organise
into collectives, the positive impact is
multidimensional.

11. Research Methods

12. Research Findings: Benefits

13. Success Factors Related to Group
Functioning and Dynamics
• Strong leadership key - but few women come forward. Some
organizations have the development of leadership potential as key
aim.
• Need for clear vision and mission incorporating social goals as
well as economic goals.
• For mixed groups a strong commitment to gender equality and
equity at both central and community level.

14. Success Factors
• Sense of ownership and
belonging seen to foster
higher standards,
resulting in improved
quality and economic
return.
• Commitment and regular
participation by all
member plus holding
regular meetings,
electing officers and
keeping records resulting
in improved production,
quality control and
market access.

15. Factors for Commercial Success
• For all collective enterprises, commercial
success is essential for the broader goals
to be achieved
• Market linkages – in this case Fair Trade
usually via FTO’s
• Value addition, product diversification and
quality control systems essential

16. Needs and Challenges
• Needs were identified at the individual level
such as financial security, social security
concerns, access to services such as finance
and health care
• Access to productive resources, public
services and infrastructure
• Balancing paid work with care for
dependants and other repro- ductive
responsibilities

17. Internal Challenges
• Management of groups
• Women’s participation in membership and
leadership
• Communication and transparency
• Regular orders
• Common understanding and interpretation
of market ideas

18. External Challenges
• Policy-makers fail to take
account of needs of
informal workers
• An absence of organized
and recognized interest
groups such as unions and
associations
• Dismantling of state support
for agricultural cooperatives
• A lack of government
support to the handicraft
sector

19. Policy Recommendations
• Recognition of women informal workers in
statistics/planning/programming/budgets
• Increased participation of women in
government and policy-making
• Support for women’s enterprises, (tax
breaks, public procurement, access to
markets,
• Credit and finance

20. Conclusion

21. Strengthening the Movement
• An informal economy
perspective on Fair Trade
producers
• The need for a paradigm
shift from a welfare approach
to a rights-based approach
• The need for a focus and
institutional policy on gender
equity for informal workers
for WFTO and Fair Trade
movement generally

22. Thank You
• For further information, access the
WIEGO publication.
• For a summary and slides of this webinar,
please visit: www.womenscollectiveaction.com