IDENTIFY LOCAL ISSUES
By Michelle Malunga
Revolution Zambia
Fashion
INTRODUCTION
This toolkit exists to empower Fashion Revolution’s local teams by providing them with structured resources and practical guidance to identify and address the most pressing issues related to the fashion industry in their communities. It recognizes that environmental degradation, social injustices, and the erosion of cultural heritage are not uniform across the globe; they manifest in unique and complex ways depending on regional contexts.
The vision of the toolkit is to enable grassroots activists and community leaders to take informed and effective action. By aligning local initiatives with global support and solidarity, the Fashion Revolution movement harnesses collective power to drive meaningful change worldwide.
We suggest you do this exercise between December 2024 and January 2025, so you can move onto the planning stage, use the Toolkit to Promote Collective Dialogue and Organising for this second stage of your Fashion Revolution Week journey!
INDUSTRYOVERVIEW
While the fashion industry operates on a global scale, its impact - and the solutions required - varies by region, community, and context.
Our intention is clear: to inspire bold, localised action by empowering teams to prioritise the issues that matter most in their regions. Hence the need for an action plan that assumes a local, regional lens, fits into local political structures, prioritises frontline workers and local ecosystems, and engages local policymakers and stakeholders.
Our intention with this overview is to get the local teams thinking about which topic will be their priority for Fashion Revolution Week 2025.
STARTREFLECTING
Observe, investigate, and inquire about what’s happening in your local fashion industry. Observe, investigate, and inquire about what’s happening in your local fashion industry. Review the Fashion Revolution Week Calendar which summarizes 6 key subjects of interest that span the social, cultural, and environmental impacts of the global fashion industry.
Hold a conversation with your local team members and reflect on some of these questions:
Prompts:
How does my region, state, country contribute to the global fashion system?
↳ what are my country’s major exports?
↳ what are the major local industries?
↳ what are the notable natural resources
↳ is my country a manufacturing hub? An agricultural hub? A major consumer country?
↳ at which stage of the supply chain is your country outstanding?
Which issues are most pressing in my workplace, community, region, state, province, country?
What are the consequences in terms of human rights, wellness, environment, economics, culture?
Here’s a tool from Open Supply Hub that maps suppliers around the world
↳ How are your local communities and workers impacted by global fashion trends?
↳ Are there any unique resources or skills that your country contributes to the global fashion industry?
↳ Are there any underrepresented voices in the industry? (for example artisans, small-scale producers, rural communities)
Continued:
What systems or legislation is currently in place to support and protect the people and planet from fashion’s excess?
↳ To transition to renewable energy?
↳ To manage textile waste locally?
↳ To eliminate persistent and problematic plastics including synthetic fibres in apparel?
↳ To ensure living wages?
↳ To guard against modern slavery?
↳ To facilitate conscious consumption and provide access to alternatives to buying new?
↳ To support innovations in business and support entr
↳ To allow students to learn about mending and upcyc
↳ To take sewing classes on garment creation and rep
How aware are consumers and industry stakeholders of the fashion industry’s impact?
What initiatives or organisations are already working toward positive change?
Where are the opportunities for collaboration with government, NGOs, or other sectors?
What specific steps can your team take to address these issues?
↳ Where are the opportunities to build better systems or solutions?
↳ What are the notable gaps, niches or needs to be filled?
RESEARCH
There are several types of research you could conduct in the process of identifying and prioritising which local issue you want to address during this Fashion Revolution Week. This step is not mandatory, but if you can’t identify what is happening in your local context, you might want to consider doing research, especially on local papers and reports.
Primary Research
This will require gathering new data directly from various stakeholders through one or more of these methods:
Survey and Questionnaires
This will be useful for quantitative data on stakeholder opinions and needs. Some platforms you could use are Google forms, Survey Monkey, and Typeform.
Interviews
One-on-one, in-depth insights
Secondary Research
Focus Groups
These are in the form of group discussions to generate diverse perspectives. You can rely on tools like Zoom, Google Meet, and Microsoft Teams to organise these sessions remotely.
Analyse the existing data, such as reports, articles, and case studies from sources like industry reports, academic journals, government publications, and others.
We have built a fact-checked library with reports and courses that may also be interesting for you.
Repo Libra
PRIORITISE
Deciding where to focus
The long list of topics can be overwhelming and daunting but remember: There is hope. We can turn anger, despair, and fear into hope through collective action and that is exactly our intention with this year’s Fashion Revolution Week. Now that you have identified the most critical issues in your community, you need to prioritise where to focus your efforts.
After having identified the top 3 to 5 local issues in the fashion industry affecting your community, evaluate their impact and the feasibility for you to contribute towards a positive change.
Prompts:
How many people or ecosystems are affected by this issue?
How bad are the consequences in these people’s lives or ecosystems due to this issue? Are the local policies in place to protect these people and ecosystems? Who are the main stakeholders involved or influencing this issue? What resources (time, budget, staff) would you need to drive change in each of them?
Impact vs Feasibility Map
SET OBJECTIVES AND GOALS
Having clear objectives for your campaign will increase your chances for success, as you monitor progress and gather stories that will enable you to engage future supporters, sponsors, funders, and volunteers. You can use our Theory of Change to guide you in defining your objectives and the metrics shared in the Get Involved Guide. Get Involved Guide Theory of Change
You can use the SMART framework to set your objectives:
S A M R T
Specific: clearly define what you want to achieve
Measurable: include quantifiable indicators of success
Achievable: ensure that goals are realistic given available resources
Relevant: align with stakeholder needs and campaign goals
Time-bound: set clear deadlines or timelines for completion
We have a series of global Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) to measure the success of our campaign, don’t forget to track them!
Awareness Engagement Impact
# Reach of social media campaign
# Downloads of content published in our website
# of engagements with social media content
# Media clippings and reach
# of Events held during the campaign
# Attendees to the events
# of new volunteers
# of partners and funds raised
# of community plans to engage governments
# of connections registered in a database
# of attempts to engage governments
# of Municipal, State, or Federal Governments engaged
Changes in policies
STAKEHOLDERMAPPING
TUnderstanding key stakeholders and the roles or influence they have in the local fashion ecosystem is crucial for aligning our efforts and collaborating more effectively. Include producers, artisans, brands or retailers, NGOs, advocates, artists, creatives, educators, influencers, garment workers and union groups, and policymakers.
Creating a visual map that highlights key relationships, gaps, and opportunities within the local fashion landscape can be a valuable tool in your efforts to engage policymakers as it effectively showcases both the existing support and the need for policies.
Prompts:
Make a list of potential stakeholders: community leaders, NGOs, small businesses, influencers, policymakers Who of these stakeholders could be an ally, an advocate, or even a detractor in your identified issue?
Here’s a tuto to guide y
ETHICAL CONSIDERATIONS
Having ethical considerations as you plan your Fashion Revolution Week activities is important to keep our actions within our ethical standards.
Respect and acknowledge cultural contributions
Be extremely sensitive to cultural knowledge in craftsmanship, recognise the ownership and origins of cultural heritage.
Diversity and inclusion
Bringing the voices of minorities and vulnerable populations to your conversations is crucial. It is for them that we work, to bring them social justice and bridge the gaps of inequalities.
Image consent
Before capturing and sharing information, images, voice recordings, or any personal information from stakeholders and attendees to your events, inform the purpose of your data collection, how, when, and where you will use it, and ask for written consent.
Help us keep our resources open source and free for all, so we can create a fashion industry that values people and planet over profit.
DONATE
If you found this resource useful, please consider making a small donation of £5/$5/€5 to help us change the system.