THE FAIR TRADE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE OF BETHLEHEM UNIVERSITY

“Fair trade is not just about setting up a relation with social shoppers to sell more. Fair trade is also an alternative development model that helps small producers to get organised, to build their future and to invest in their own development and the development of their community”.

Jamil Michael HJAZIN, Fair Trade Development Centre of Bethlehem University

The Palestinian economy consists for about 99% of very small enter-prises, of less than 10 employees, that are mainly operating in agriculture (olives, fruits and vegetables) and crafts. Under the Israeli occupation these businesses have difficulties accessing markets where they could sell their products.

These obstacles are of course related to the regional geopolitical situation, but also organisational and financial elements of a more internal nature play a part. Indeed, as economists of the Bethlehem University on the West Bank explain, many Palestinian producers do not have the structures, the busi-ness competencies, nor the networks to enable them to establish direct contacts with possible international buyers.

A BUSINESS CENTRE DEDICATED TO FAIR TRADE

These findings are at the origin of the Fair Trade Development Cen-tre (FTDC), launched in 2006 by the Institute for Community Partnership of Bethlehem University.

As a specialised resource centre, the Fair Trade Development Centre aims at promoting fair trade, supporting and enabling Palestinian business groups who want to join the World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO, for-merly IFAT) and providing training, consultancy, etc. to entrepreneurs in these areas where the needs are ma-jor (management, strategic planning, marketing, etc.).

The Palestinian Fair Trade Devel-opment Centre is a member of the WFTO. It presents itself as a real support centre for businesses. For instance, it provides a perform-ing framework for setting up col-lective actions, pooling resources and launching innovative projects.

In each of these areas, the Palestin-ian organisation has won renown on many occasions, in particular for its participation to a project to obtain certification for Palestine’s fairtrade olive oil.

THE STEPS PROJECT OF THE PALESTINIAN FAIR TRADE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

Since 2009, the Fair Trade Devel-opment Centre of Bethlehem has steered an ambitious project, called STEPS - Strengthening Palestin-ian Farmers and Small-Producers. STEPS aims at providing global sup-port to a group of ten cooperatives and producer groups that represent about 500 workers on the West Bank.

The first part of this programme is dedicated to training agricultural technicians in organic and sustaina-ble agricultural practices, to financ-ing new production infrastructure and to organising introductory work-shops in innovation management.

PALESTINIANTERRITORYBethlehem

KEY FIGURESBTC contribution : 208,000 euros

Project duration : 3 years

Beneficiaries : 15 producer groups (bringing together about 600 workers)

Questions that are more specifically related to certification methods are dealt with in a second part of the programme with, for instance, awareness-raising sessions for producers about the concepts and benefits of fair trade. These producers also receive the support of FTDC experts to implement the neces-sary procedures in the benefiting groups and cooperatives to obtain Fair Trade certification.

The last part of the programme aims at increasing the presence of these or-ganisations on international markets. Training sessions (in management, business management, marketing and business English) are organised for commercial teams, which also benefit from support and advice of marketing and interna-tional trade consultants. Finally, the groups involved in the project benefit from support in developing their communication tools and in preparing their par-ticipation to conferences of the World Fair Trade Organisation and commercial fairtrade fairs.

General support is achieved with the help of international experts of the sector and clearly aims at establishing a first group of exemplary businesses that can benefit on the short term from the growth in international fair trade markets.

BECAUSE OF ITS AMBITION AND THE AVAILABLE RESOURCES, THE STEPS PROJECT OF THE FAIR TRADE DEVELOPMENT CENTRE

OF BETHLEHEM IS AT THE CORE OF THE EFFORTS OF THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITIES AND CIVIL SOCIETY TO FOSTER

A GENERATION OF BUSINESS PEOPLE THAT IS BOTH PERFORMING AND COMMITTED TO PEACEFUL TRADE AND

SUSTAINABLE DEVELOPMENT.

VERY CONCRETE AND ENCOURAGING RESULTS

The first project assessments con-ducted are encouraging.

Indeed, about 15 cooperatives and producer groups benefit from the support offered through the STEPS project, and the five training ses-sions that have been given (of 30 hours each) attracted huge attend-ance. Moreover, five operators of beneficiary cooperatives are about to obtain their Cooperative Manage-ment Diploma.

Now it is important to make sure that these training sessions and the support lead to sustainable owner-ship by the Palestinian producers, as Jamil Michael Hjazin, the head of the project, highlights. He is to make sure that, “the cooperatives adopt the principles and rules of fair trade in their daily practices, including gender equality and social and environmen-tal responsibilities”.

Find out more: http://ftdc.bethlehem.edu

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