European Fair Trade Association
The European Fair Trade Association (EFTA) is a Dutch association established informally in 1987. It gained formal status in 1990. It regroups 11 fair trade importers in 9 European countries: Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom. EFTA members include Ctm altromercato, Gepa3 Fair Handelshaus and Traidcraft. EFTA's aim is to support its member organizations in their work and encourage cooperation and coordination. Fair trade importing organizations buy food and handicrafts from disadvantaged producers in developing countries and aim to improve market access and strengthen producer organizations. EFTA members generally follow Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International (FLO) Standards, to which additional standards may be added with the aim of providing special support to particular target groups (women, ethnic minorities, politically persecuted, etc.). In Europe, they sell their products through worldshops, local gro ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Handicrafts
A handicraft is a traditional main sector of craft making and applies to a wide range of creative and design activities that are related to making things with one's hands and skill, including work with textiles, moldable and rigid materials, paper, plant fibers, clay, etc. One of the oldest handicraft is Dhokra; this is a sort of metal casting that has been used in India for over 5,000 years and is still used. In Sistan and Baluchestan Province, Iranian Baluchistan, women still make red ware hand-made pottery with dotted ornaments, much similar to the 4,000-year-old pottery tradition of Kalpurgan, an archaeological site near the village. Usually, the term is applied to traditional techniques of creating items (whether for personal use or as products) that are both practical and aesthetic. Handicraft industries are those that produce things with hands to meet the needs of the people in their locality without using machines. Collective terms for handicrafts include artisanry, ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fair Trade Organizations
A fair (archaic: faire or fayre) is a gathering of people for a variety of entertainment or commercial activities. Fairs are typically temporary with scheduled times lasting from an afternoon to several weeks. Fairs showcase a wide range of goods, products, and services, and often include competitions, exhibitions, and educational activities. Fairs can be thematic, focusing on specific industries or interests. Types Variations of fairs include: * Art fairs, including art exhibitions and arts festivals * Book Fairs in communities and schools provide an opportunity for readers, writers, publishers to come together and celebrate literature. * County fair (US) or county show (UK), a public agricultural show exhibiting the equipment, animals, sports and recreation associated with agriculture and animal husbandry. * Festival, an event ordinarily coordinated with a theme e.g. music, art, season, tradition, history, ethnicity, religion, or a national holiday. * Health fair, an event d ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Invitation To Tender
An invitation to tender (ITT, also known as a call for bids or a request for tenders) is a formal, structured procedure for generating competing offers from different potential suppliers or contractors looking to obtain an award of business activity in works, supply, or service contracts, often from companies who have been previously assessed for suitability by means of a supplier questionnaire (SQ) or pre-qualification questionnaire (PQQ). Unlike a request for proposal (RFP), which is used when a company sources for business proposals, ITTs are used when a government or company does not require the submission of an original business proposal and is looking solely to award a contract based on the best tender submitted. As a result, whereas ITTs are often decided based on the best price offered, decisions on RFPs may also involve other considerations such as technology and innovation. Both are forms of reverse auction. At the same time, variants may be requested in an ITT, whic ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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European Union
The European Union (EU) is a supranational union, supranational political union, political and economic union of Member state of the European Union, member states that are Geography of the European Union, located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated population of over 449million as of 2024. The EU is often described as a ''sui generis'' political entity combining characteristics of both a federation and a confederation. Containing 5.5% of the world population in 2023, EU member states generated a nominal gross domestic product (GDP) of around €17.935 trillion in 2024, accounting for approximately one sixth of global economic output. Its cornerstone, the European Union Customs Union, Customs Union, paved the way to establishing European Single Market, an internal single market based on standardised European Union law, legal framework and legislation that applies in all member states in those matters, and only those matters, where the states ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Public Procurement
Government procurement or public procurement is the purchase of goods, works (construction) or services by the state, such as by a government agency or a state-owned enterprise. In 2019, public procurement accounted for approximately 12% of GDP in OECD countries. In 2021 the World Bank Group estimated that public procurement made up about 15% of global GDP. Therefore, government procurement accounts for a substantial part of the global economy. Public procurement is based on the idea that governments should direct their society while giving the private sector the freedom to decide the best practices to produce the desired goods and services. One benefit of public procurement is its ability to cultivate innovation and economic growth. The public sector picks the most capable nonprofit or for-profit organizations available to issue the desired good or service to the taxpayers. This produces competition within the private sector to gain these contracts that then reward the organi ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Bolzano
Bolzano ( ; ; or ) is the capital city of South Tyrol (officially the province of Bolzano), Northern Italy. With a population of 108,245, Bolzano is also by far the largest city in South Tyrol and the third largest in historical Tyrol. The greater metro area has about 250,000 inhabitants and is one of the urban centres within the Alps. Bolzano is the seat of the Free University of Bozen-Bolzano, where lectures and seminars are held in English, German, and Italian. The city is also home to the Italian Army's Alpini High Command ( COMALP) and some of its combat and support units. In the 2020 version of the annual ranking of quality of life in Italian cities, Bolzano was ranked jointly first for quality of life alongside Bologna. Along with other Alpine towns in South Tyrol, Bolzano engages in the Alpine Town of the Year Association for the implementation of the Alpine Convention. The Convention aims to promote and achieve sustainable development in the Alpine Arc. Conseque ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Culemborg
Culemborg () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the centre of the Netherlands, in the province of Gelderland. The city had a population of 29,386 on 1 January 2022 and is situated just south of the Lek River, Lek river. Direct train lines run from the Culemborg railway station, railway station towards the cities of Utrecht (city), Utrecht and 's-Hertogenbosch, Den Bosch, via the Culemborg railway bridge, near railway bridge. Etymology The oldest example of the name is ''Culenburgh'' from 1281. Throughout the centuries several spellings have been used: ''Kulenborch'' (1305), ''Culenborgh'' (1353), ''Colemborch'' (1363), ''Culemborch'' (1472). The former part of the name (which today would be ''kuil'') refers to a hole or pit, while the later refers to the castle that was built there around 1270. History Culemborg, formerly also spelled Kuilenburg or Kuylenburgh, received City rights in the Netherlands, city rights in 1318. Despite its Dutch charac ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Trade Justice
Trade justice is a campaign by non-governmental organisations, plus efforts by other actors, to change the rules and practices of world trade in order to promote fairness. These organizations include consumer groups, trade unions, faith groups, aid agencies and environmental groups. The organizations campaigning for trade justice posit this concept in opposition to free trade. Supporters of free trade, typically those in economics, business, lobbying, and the mainstream press, trust in the "invisible hand" of the market to provide on its own for the needs of societies around the world. Fundamental to their beliefs is the value of individual liberty, believed to be the least infringed upon when the market is used to replace most of the centralized government's responsibilities of allocating resources. They tend to support neoliberal policies of privatization, deregulation, and tax cuts, and on the international trade level, policies that loosen restrictions on corporations’ a ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Worldshops
Worldshops, world shops or Fair Trade Shops are specialized retail outlets offering and promoting Fair Trade products. Worldshops also typically organize various educational Fair Trade activities and play an active role in trade justice and other North-South political campaigns. Worldshops are often not-for-profit organizations and run by locally based volunteer networks. Although the movement emerged in Europe and a vast majority of worldshops are still based on the continent, worldshops can also be found today in North America, Australia, Israel and New Zealand. History The start of the movement is usually attributed to the first worldshop in Europe, which was founded by Oxfam in 1959. The Oxfam shop sold Chinese bric-a-brac that had been sourced from Chinese refugees that had escaped the Communist revolution to Hong Kong. However, some sources credit the first fair trade shop that had been opened in the US in 1958, selling Puerto Rican needlework. The shops were not calle ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International
Fairtrade International, or Fairtrade Labelling Organizations International E.V. is a nonprofit product-oriented multistakeholder group aimed at promoting the lives of farmers and workers through fair trade. Fairtrade's work is guided by a global strategy focused on ensuring that all farmers earn a living income, and agricultural workers earn a living wage. Fairtrade works with farmers and workers of more than 300 commodities. The main products promoted under the Fairtrade label are coffee, cocoa, banana, flowers, tea, and sugar. Fairtrade is an association of three Producer Networks, nineteen National Fairtrade Organisations (formerly: Fairtrade Labelling Organisations) and eight Fairtrade Marketing Organisations that promote and market the Fairtrade Certification Mark in their countries Producer Networks exist in Latin America, The Caribbeans, Africa, Middle East, Asia and the Pacific. National Fairtrade Organisations exist in 16 European countries as well as in Canada ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |
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Developing Countries
A developing country is a sovereign state with a less-developed Secondary sector of the economy, industrial base and a lower Human Development Index (HDI) relative to developed countries. However, this definition is not universally agreed upon. There is also no clear agreement on which countries fit this category. The terms low-and middle-income country (LMIC) and newly emerging economy (NEE) are often used interchangeably but they refer only to the economy of the countries. The World Bank classifies the world's economies into four groups, based on gross national income per capita: high-, upper-middle-, lower-middle-, and low-income countries. Least developed countries, landlocked developing countries, and Small Island Developing States, small island developing states are all sub-groupings of developing countries. Countries on the other end of the spectrum are usually referred to as World Bank high-income economy, high-income countries or Developed country, developed countries. ... [...More Info...]       [...Related Items...]     OR:     [Wikipedia]   [Google]   [Baidu]   |