Category: Campaigning

Fairtrade Foundation’s CEO Michael Gidney reflects on a tough year and looks forward to a brighter 2021

Fairtrade’s Director of Public Engagement, Nilufar Verjee, discusses anti-racism and how Fairtrade intends to enact global systemic change.

In a year when the Black Lives Matter movement and issues of racial injustice have gathered widespread attention in Britain, the debate around diversity in the national curriculum has been firmly back on the agenda for the education sector.

As the new cocoa harvest season kicked off in Côte d’Ivoire earlier this month, it also marked the sad moment when KitKats are no longer Fairtrade, a few months after Nestlé announced that KitKats would no longer contain Fairtrade cocoa and sugar.

Fairtrade has always had justice at its heart. We fight the injustices of global trade, where the power balance is too often uneven, leaving many farmers and workers in poverty.

Fairtrade Foundation’s CEO Michael Gidney reflects on the links between slavery, racial injustice and the need for change in global trade

Since our statement about cocoa farmers’ concerns regarding KitKat moving away from Fairtrade, we have received many messages of support for farmers, as well as some questions. We have also seen questions on social media, so we would like to answer as many as we can.

Eileen was an expert in media and PR: never in the limelight and never needing or desiring to be. It may sound like a contradiction, but Eileen was self-effacing and modest while having complete confidence that her skillset would help propel the organisations she worked for into the spotlight and deliver their messages to an audience of millions.

Over the past few months, we have seen the power and importance of community across the world.

It is hard to believe it was just a month ago we launched Fairtrade Fortnight, our annual moment when this incredible Fairtrade movement comes together to share the stories of the farmers and workers behind many of our favourite products.