Fair Trade and Social Cooperative
LiberoMondo
LiberoMondo (Free World in Italian) was established in 1997 as a Fair Trade Organization. It is registered as “type Bʺ social cooperative1 and located in Bra (Cuneo province), North‐west Italy. It was started with the main aims to support marginalized producer groups of the South and to create, locally, job opportunities for disadvantaged people. Carrying on its activities, LiberoMondo tries to develop an innovative small enterprise and market model based on transparency, dialogue, inclusion, horizontality and marketing chain awareness.
1. Activities LiberoMondo operates in compliance with the Fair Trade Principle Chart of WFTO (World Fair Trade organization) and according to the following general guidelines: • direct purchases from producer groups and long‐term trade relationships • ‘fair’ price payments and pre‐harvest or pre‐production payments • rejection of monopolies both in import/export and sales activities • transparency and free circulation of information
The main activities of LiberoMondo are:
⇒ Importing LiberoMondo purchases handicraft, cosmetic and food products directly from more than 90 groups in over 30 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America, ensuring them fair wages, advanced payments and long‐term relationships. LiberoMondo ‘s partnerships around the world
This means that, as mentioned in its statute, LiberoMondo employs at least one third of its workers from
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disadvantaged categories.
⇒ Processing and manufacturing For the processing of fair trade products, LiberoMondo collaborates with several small enterprises in its geographic area, thus becoming a local source of development as well. LiberoMondo has also set up its own workshops, where some of the fair trade products are processed and manufactured. These are:
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the pastry and artisanal pasta workshops, which produce cookies and pasta using fair trade ingredient; the packing workshop where the processed goods are packed.
pastry production in LiberoMondo workshop
⇒ Distributing As a retailer and distributor, LiberoMondo offers a wide range of products (more than 8.500 handicraft products and 350 food items), including Fair Trade goods such as organic food items produced by selected Italian social cooperatives. LiberoMondo decided to distribute its products only in the dedicated circuit of Fair Trade shops, in order to support the development of alternative marketing areas.
⇒ Creating job opportunities Being a “type B” social cooperative, LiberoMondo employs 30% of its staff from disadvantaged sectors, collaborating with the public social services and providing work reintegration plans.
⇒ Networking LiberoMondo promotes networking among different Fair Trade actors particularly through the distribution of products directly imported by other Italian fair trade organizations.
⇒ Promoting Fair Trade LiberoMondo produces information material, dossiers and publications about the producers’ group and their contexts and advocates for the objectives and activities of Fair Trade. 2
2. LiberoMondo’s structure LiberoMondo’s organizational structure comprises a Members’ Assembly and a Board of Directors. There is also an advisory committee (the Board of Statutory Auditors), which advises the organization. The LiberoMondo’s executive structure is composed by its working committee. Members’ Assembly It’s composed by more than 150 individual members and 4 associations. All the LiberoMondo’s workers (at the moment 43 workers, among which 13 disadvantaged) are members of the Assembly. They meet twice a year to approve the balance sheet and to give programmatic guidelines to the Board of Directors. Board of Directors It is made up of 3 to 7 members elected every 3 years among the LiberoMondo members. At the moment its members are the Cooperative’s President, the Vice‐President and 4 advisors. The board meets once a month and deals with the general coordination, the human resources management and with the operative decision making. Working Committees There are 12 working committees, one for each operative sector, under the General Director and the Board. Each committee has a coordinator, who monitors and performs analyses of departmental activities. The workers of each committee meet once a month among themselves and with their coordinator.
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With its management system, LiberoMondo aims to be an experiment in building democracy from the bottom up, and sharing responsibility among all the members. The establishment of several sectors is one of the instruments to insure the broader participation. LiberoMondo believes that organic improvements follow from generating participation and from a broad‐base involvement. Thus, it promotes the participation of each member, to the cooperative’s life, growth and decision‐making. The horizontality in the relationships is also chocolate Easter eggs packaging reflected in the LiberoMondo remuneration system, according to which all the workers are getting the same monthly salary, independently from their tasks (managers or store men). The cooperative recognizes the same relevance in every different role and the same dignity in each activity, considering work as a tool through which everyone can express its own capabilities and skills towards a common objective.
3. Producers’ groups In 1997 LiberoMondo started importing handicraft produced by a few Latin America producer groups. Thanks to the increasing interest among the consumers in Europe, particularly between 2001 and 2005, and thanks to the rapid growth of LiberoMondo, the cooperative was able to significantly increase the number of southern partners which still include, at the moment, 90 organizations in over 30 countries in Asia, Africa and Latin America. LiberoMondo’s partners comprise a range of different o r g a n i z a t i o n c a t e g o r i e s i n v o l v e d i n l o c a l development processes: among them are Ngo’s, social movements, grassroots communities, self help groups, small & medium social‐oriented enterprises. Only about the 30% of the LiberoMondo’s producer partners are WFTO members. In fact, considering that becoming WFTO members requires efforts that only well structured organization can manage, fruit producers ‐ Togo LiberoMondo took the decision to collaborate with 4
smaller organizations as well, considered to be compliant with the Fair Trade standards. Besides its support to various and smaller o r g a n i z a t i o n s , a n o th e r f e a tu r e o f th e LiberoMondo’s partnership strategy is its focus on African producers, for which sometimes it’s difficult to start connections also with the Fair Trade market. Since 2005, the imports from African countries has constituted at least the 20% of the total imports. LiberoMondo continuously makes effort to increase and strengthen its relationships with African women at work ‐ Benin partners. Among the LiberoMondo producer groups there are also organizations which LiberoMondo is not directly related to: LiberoMondo is networking with several Italian organizations and Fair Trade actors, which are mainly fair trade shops or social cooperatives, Ngo’s and smaller importers which are implementing development projects in Southern countries. LiberoMondo supports these organizations, and their southern beneficiaries, through co‐imports and/or distribution of their products. In this way LiberoMondo also created an innovative networking system in the Fair trade context.
Following can be individuated as guidelines of the LiberoMondo’s relationship with all the producer partners:
Long term relationships This is one of the key principles of fair trade, so enunciated in the Fair Trade principles: “The organization maintains long term relationships based on solidarity, trust and mutual respect that contribute to the promotion and growth of Fair Trade”. Every year LiberoMondo publishes a list of the producer groups and import data, explaining possible changes compared to the previous year.
Fair prices & payments The Standard Four (Payment of a Fair Price) of the World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) says: “A fair price is one that has been mutually agreed by all through dialogue and participation, which provides fair pay to the producers and can also be sustained by the market […]”. 5
LiberoMondo generally accepts the price set up by the partner organizations and considered by producers themselves to be fair. LiberoMondo always tries to meet the producers’ needs and requests r egar di ng meth ods a nd to ols o f payment.
weavers ‐ Perù Pre‐harvest or pre‐production payments Another key principle for LiberoMondo is the advance payment: an interest free pre‐payment of at least 50% of the total amount of the order. Every year LiberoMondo publishes in its annual report the data of the pre‐payments and the balance payments relative to each producer group.
“Free” and no exclusive commercial relationships LiberoMondo does not require the exclusivity to their producers. This is made in order to permit the producer a plurality of commercial relationships and to guarantee them.
4. Membership LiberoMondo is member of: The World Fair Trade Organization (WFTO) is the global representative body of over 350 organisations committed to 100% Fair Trade. The WFTO is the authentic voice of Fair Trade and a guardian of Fair Trade values. The WFTO operates in 70 countries across 5 regions; Africa, Asia, Europe, Latin America, and North American and the Pacific Rim, with elected global and regional boards, to create market access through policy, advocacy, campaigning, marketing and monitoring. It is the only global network whose members represent the Fair Trade chain from production to sale.
WFTO Europe, formerly known as IFAT Europe (International Federation for Alternative Trade), is formed by 95 members, amongst them Fair Trade organizations, Fair Trade networks and support organizations. It represents the European chapter of the World Fair Trade Organization.
AGICES (Fair Trade Italian Assembly) is the network of the Italian Fair Trade Organizations. It bonds the experiences and values of its members: non profit organizations that through trade, the growth of consumers awareness, education, advocacy and information are committed to realize social and economic justice, sustainable development, respect for the people and the environment.
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Fair Trade is a trading partnership, based on dialogue, transparency and respect, that seeks greater equity in international trade. It contributes to sustainable development by offering better trading conditions to, and securing the rights of, marginalized producers and workers – especially in the South. Fair Trade organizations have a clear commitment to Fair Trade as the principal core of their mission. They, backed by consumers, are engaged actively in supporting producers, awareness raising and in campaigning for changes in the rules and practice of conventional international trade. They can be recognised by the WFTO logo. Fair Trade is more than just trading: it proves that greater justice in world trade is possible. It highlights the need for change in the rules and practice of conventional trade and shows how a successful business can also put people first.
LiberoMondo
via Savigliano, 15 – 12062 Roreto di Cherasco (CN) Italy Tel. +39 0172 499169 – Fax +39 0172 499074 www.liberomondo.org Contact info@liberomondo.org