Environmental Engineering Reference
In-Depth Information
requirements as FLO requires estates to provide female workers with equal opportunities
and access to fair trade bene
ts. Moving beyond an ILO labor protection strategy to a
more empowerment-based strategy, fair trade standards require estates to develop capac-
ity-training programs for women, sexual harassment policies, and to progress toward pro-
portional gender representation in company leadership. The joint fair trade body is also
required to be gender representative, ensuring that women's concerns are heard and
women's organizational rights are advanced. The second key set of fair trade standards
address gender concerns related to worker health and safety, and amplify ILO maternal
health conventions. By fostering non-discriminatory practices, bolstering female engage-
ment and requiring female leadership, these fair trade standards lay the basis for trans-
forming the situation of historically disadvantaged female agricultural workers in Africa.
Finally, fair trade standards require enterprises to provide temporary workers with
equivalent bene
fi
t large numbers
of African women given their predominance in the temporary workforce in many export
crops. Standards protecting temporary workers may be particularly important since non-
permanent female workers are typically less aware of their rights, more vulnerable to dis-
crimination and sexual harassment, and more likely to su
fi
ts and employment conditions. These regulations bene
fi
ff
er from poor health and safety
conditions (Barrientos et al., 2003; Dolan et al., 2003).
The cut-
ower industry in Kenya provides a good illustration of fair trade's potential
positive impacts on women workers. Conventional
fl
ower enterprises in Kenya are noto-
rious for their poor employment conditions, health and safety standards, and treatment
of female workers (Dolan, 2007). Partly in response to rising concerns over these condi-
tions, fair trade has expanded rapidly in the cut-
fl
ed African
enterprises (see Table 17.4). Preliminary evidence suggests that fair trade engagement pro-
vides a number of bene
fl
ower sector, with 13 certi
fi
ower
workers, and is fueling gender equity more broadly. In addition to more general employ-
ment gains, female workers in the fair trade
fi
ts for large numbers of temporary and permanent female
fl
t from important improve-
ments in terms of maternal rights, safe housing and transportation services, and access to
childcare (FLO-I, 2007e; Fairtrade Foundation, n.d.). Fair trade standards are likely to
fuel positive impacts for women workers in other sectors of African large-scale agricul-
ture as well. Yet despite these important gains, fair trade labor standards cannot be
expected any time soon to erase deeply entrenched gender inequalities in Africa or else-
where in the world.
fl
ower sector bene
fi
Conclusions
This chapter outlines the contours of fair trade's recent rapid growth as it expands across
Africa. While fair trade has historically grown on the basis of smallholder production of
key tropical commodities, its current expansion, as we demonstrate, involves an array of
new items produced predominantly by large hired-labor enterprises. Fair trade's expan-
sion in Africa holds substantial promise given the region's historically severe trade disad-
vantage, ecological fragility and social development needs. As we demonstrate, fair trade
enhances environmental sustainability in the region through the support for organic
agriculture and standards that stem ecological degradation. What makes fair trade
di
nancial
security and resources necessary to engage in meaningful environmental stewardship.
On the social front, we
ff
erent from other ecological initiatives is that it provides communities with the
fi
fi
nd that fair trade's support for producer and organizational
