Fair trade

For a long time now, Hamburg has contributed to sustainable development on a global scale. Projects and measures of development cooperation abroad just as development education and information are the most significant features of Hamburg’s development policy.

The support of projects abroad focuses on the areas of eliminating the causes of poverty, on fostering gender mainstreaming, improving health care as well as on measures for environment and resource protection. On the other hand, a further focus area is the  improvement of the municipal infrastructure in urban areas.

Of special significance are measures to improve the general living conditions in León (Nicaragua), twin city of Hamburg since 1989, and in Dar es Salaam (Tanzania), twin city of Hamburg since 2010, with which the development of a municipal climate partnership has been in place since 2011. In 2005, the Senate of Hamburg created the Foundation Asia-Bridge (Stiftung Asien-Brücke) as an independent promotional instrument for sustainable development projects in South and South East Asia. The municipality of Hamburg also supports directly non-governmental groups and initiatives in order to encourage the commitment of the civil society as well as to raise awareness on development aspects.

Measures for professional development are important complements of project funding. By providing research fellowships, Hamburg invites, above all, specialists from Nicaragua, Tanzania and India to Hamburg to take part in qualification programs.

Hamburg appreciates the work of its active citizens in the field of development policy and awareness-raising and cooperates with numerous non-governmental organizations and initiatives. Especially the support of the Hamburg One-World Network (Eine-Welt-Netzwerk Hamburg e. V.) is a vivid example of the close cooperation with actors of the civil society. Since 2006, the Hamburg Senate participates in the Network Fair Hamburg (Hamburg mal fair), a cooperation network of several local actors in the field of development educational
and information work that aims to promote Fair Trade. Since 2008, Hamburg’s public procurement entities demand that tenders include a declaration of compliance with the ILO core labor standards in the production process of goods that are delivered to Hamburg. In 2011, Hamburg was awarded the title Fair Trade City. Hamburg contributes to the “One-World”-Promoters Program (Fachpromotorenprogram) with three appointments, one related to Fair Trade, another to Migration, Diaspora and Development and the other to Global Learning.

In the orientation of its development activities the Senate consults the appointed Hamburger Council for Sustainable Development Policy (Hamburger Rat für nachhaltige Entwicklungspolitik).

Hamburg’s development policy extends to further areas in which it has special resources and expertise such as North-South research at the German Institute for Global Area Studies (GIGA), cultural dialogue with countries in the Global South, promotion of South-North trade as well as research and education in the field of tropical medicine.

German Forum on Environment and Development

The DEAB is composed of over 100 Third World Stores, Third World Groups and other organizations related to development policy in Baden-Wuerttemberg. It is the parent organization for action groups involved in development policy and it focuses on topics like debt remission, fair trade and development aid. The many DEAB representatives acting within diverse committees work constantly to foster basic human rights in developing countries. The DEAB is the oldest and largest German network related to development policy. Every organization or group in Baden-Wuerttemberg which is engaged in development policy and which promotes justice worldwide can become a member of the DEAB.

The SüdZeit is a DEAB magazine that sets new trends related to development policy within and outside of Baden-Wuerttemberg. This magazine is published quarterly and contains reports, portraits and detailed overviews related to development policy activities in Baden-Wuerttemberg. Part of the service section of the SüdZeit is available at www.deab.de, the regularly updated website of the DEAB.

The DEAB group advisors for fair trade in Mannheim, Bodensee-Oberschwaben and Stuttgart support volunteers who work in "third world" shops or are involved in our action groups. Each of these groups can contact our advising services in case of problems or questions concerning issues like moving to a new location, sales levels, group activities or possible cooperation with other groups in its region.

Furthermore, the DEAB can provide a "fair trade" stand for professional use at consumer fairs. It is also engaged in an international campaign for debt remission (www.erlassjahr.de). The DEAB is a founding member of the Germany-wide "attac" network.
The DEAB fights for a vision of worldwide justice that encourages everyone to live and act responsibly in business and political life so that people everywhere can live a life of dignity. The DEAB also provides information about social ills in our globalized world, shows how we are partly responsible for those problems, and promotes change for the better.

All Weltladen shops in Germany are members of the Weltladen parent organization which has its headquarters in Mainz. It coordinates joint efforts as well as publicity campaigns and provides continuing education for employees and current information on Weltladen shops. The Weltladen parent organization sees itself as an organisation dedicated to serve its members.

Its most important goals are:

• to promote the idea of fair trade and to bring the Weltladen shops to the attention of the public and policy-makers.
• to give the public a clear and coherent idea of Weltladen shops and their philosophy.
• to establish Weltladen shops as specialized shops of fair trade and to systematically improve and support their work.
• to further develop the work of the Weltladen shops under today´s changing conditions.

Accordingly, one main focus lies in the organisation of political activities, like our "Weltladen Days", which traditionally take place in May. The Weltladen parent organization promotes fair play in world trade through activities that attract public attention. Another principal concern of its work is to become known to a broader public. Currently the Weltladen parent organization is cooperating closely with youths on the subject of global learning. The Weltladen parent organization is a member of the Forum for Fair Trade, a union of the most important players in fair trade in Germany.

The Landeszentrale für Umweltaufklärung Rheinland-Pfalz is an institution founded by the federal state of Rhineland-Palatinate. It reports directly to the Minister of the Environment and is based in the ministry responsible for the environment and forestry in Mainz. The national centre was founded by a cabinet decision on 1 February 1990. Its objective and task are to inform the population about environmental concerns and to motivate them to learn an environmentally sustainable lifestyle. The crux of the matter is the following: We have already been living beyond our means for a long time. We live at the cost of following generations. And, still, we refuse all too easily to believe that terms like ‘climate catastrophe’ and ‘ozone hole’ are real threats. We continue to live as if the supplies of natural resources and energy sources were inexhaustible, as if water, soil and the atmosphere are able to indefinitely absorb toxic substances. However, an acceleration of this development is foreseeable. About 20 percent of the global population use approximately 80 percent of the resources for themselves and are responsible for the corresponding share of the environmental damage. When the remaining 80 percent of the global population follow (why shouldn’t they?), the collapse of the system ‘earth’ will not be long in coming. We have no choice but to introduce sustainable development that brings economic and social interests worldwide in accordance with each other. It does not help much, though, to point a finger at ‘the others’, the industry or the government. It is up to all of us. The first step towards change is a change of (environmental) thinking, which is what the LZU demands. And everyone has to participate.