Sunil Chitrakar
Chief Executive Officer
Mahaguthi Craft With Conscience
Nepal
What motivates you to become a Board member of WFTO Asia?
I have been proactively engaging in WFTO and FT movement since 2002 working in various committees and working groups at national, regional and global level; organized WFTO summit 2009; Asia Summit 2018; and actively engaged in FT guarantee system discussion and debate since 2003. These experiences and learning have motivated to contribute at policy discourse on FT and future of WFTO as a WFTO Asia rep.
FT movement is going though challenging times; the relevance of FT in changing context, business continuity and sustainability, market access and emergence of new actors in the market poses greater challenges specially for small producer organizations. I take this challenge and use my learning, experience and networking to build competencies of country networks to revitalize FT movement and to
promote FT.
Market access, resilient business model, advocacy at the South, building resilient Country and Regional Networks are some of the priorities, where I will be dedicating my time and energy.
The biggest motivation to be Asia rep is to take the voice from the region to global arena for the change and for the better FT movement.
What special skills/qualifications you will bring to the WFTO Asia Board and/or for the Fair Trade movement?
Project proposal development, establishing learning center, enterprise development, training, facilitation, strategic planning are some of my core competencies.
Already FTG Nepal and ECOTA are collaborating with joint projects and would like to extend this collaboration with other country networks.
Capacity building, I can use my professional skills on business plan, strategic plan, and other aspects of business development and I have already committed to contribute to CoE as one of the resource person.
At National level, I have already contributing with my expertise in project design, execution and capacity building of the members and the communities and I like to contribute to regional level.
I have already been teaching and mentoring entrepreneurship at national and international level, I can develop Fair Trade and Social Entrepreneurship Incubation model to train youths in the region.
Collaborate with other networks to make WFTO more vibrant networks.
Pool between academia and FT movement with research and capacity building.
What do you think are the priorities for WFTO Asia and WFTO for the next 5 years and how to address them?
The WFTO global and WFTO Asia should focus on following priority areas:
As per the WFTO constitutional requirement, WFTO global board should have a staggering term, which has not been executed due to various reasons. This has created the challenges of continuity and sustainability of WFTO global board. Hence, I am committing to serve the board for next 2 years and voluntarily step down for next WFTO Asia Rep. It will help the present board have some institutional memories and in will fulfill the staggering conditions.
Membership retention and Growth – WFTO Asia and global should focus on maintaining and expanding the membership to strengthen the FT movement and the network by membership engagement; targeted membership promotion via the country networks. The CN should be given a role of membership retention and promotion.
Market access and promoting visibility – engage in market study with external experts to identify market opportunities, disseminate market intelligence to the members and explore the market opportunities. Initiate marketing campaign at international and national level to build domestic market visibility. Engage and build partnership with market actors and platforms to provide market access to the members. Collective FT stands at international trade fairs. Advocate for public procurement at domestic market.
Strengthening Country Networks – CN are close to the members and play a significant role in providing services to the members. Hence WFTO Asia and global must focus on strengthening CN to facilitate members and improve membership services. It also helps to expand members base and decentralize membership and monitoring services.
Capacity building on GS implementation – GS is one of the most important aspect of WFTO membership. Currently many members especially smaller members are struggling to comply with the GS, hence CN’s capacity should be build to provide GS services to the members. Also, without compromising the commitment and value of the GS, WFTO should explore the domestic label for those small enterprises who have high commitment to the FT but don’t want to engage at international level. CN should offer a solution for them. Besides, WFTO global, region and the country networks must be providing capacity building services to the members. It will add value to the WFTO membership.
Advocacy – domestic FT becoming very important issue as market opportunities in the global south is expanding and FT enterprises need to work collectively to exploit this opportunities. Hence, CN and region must actively engage on advocacy issues, it not just for market promotion, but also establish FT as a sustainable business model. Stronger advocacy also needed to develop conducive policy framework in the global south.
Value Adding to WFTO product label – WFTO global along with the region and CN must act collectively to enhance the value and recognition of the WFTO product label among consumers and businesses. Encourage members to use the product labels specially FT buyers and lobby to FLO to accept WFTO GS as compatible as FLO system. Consumer campaign should be initiated at national, regional and global level.
Research and knowledge product development – engage with academia and other social activist to conduct research and development in FT. Develop case studies of impact of FT. Contribute in developing academic courses on FT so FT becomes mainstreaming. Periodic publication of FT issues for different audiences.
Networking and promotion – Extend networking and collaboration with different likeminded movements such as social entrepreneurship movement, social solidarity movement, sustainability movement etc. however, WFTO must maintain its clear positioning. There need to be coordination and coherence in advocacy strategies and programmes at global, regional and country level, however, there need to have country specific advocacy strategies.
Next generation of FT – The Next Gen Fair Trade initiative has started. This need to prioritize to bring youths to the FT movement. FT need innovation, FT needs new dynamics and new players. Hence, this Next Gen FT should be prioritized at national, regional and global level. FT should reach out to universities and colleges. FT should be part of MBA curriculum and start-up ecosystem. Encourage youth engagement programmes, FT Youth leadership programmes, Social media campaign, competition should be initiated. Fair Trade Innovation lab/ hub in different countries would be a good model to promote FT entrepreneurial ecosystem.