DEVELOPMENT REVIEW

2015

Traidcraft around the worldWhere to find our different areas of work across the globe

“We have full faith in the work Traidcraft is doing. We know we can make a better future for our children.”Hanif Begum, Bangladesh“I am planning to say

goodbye to poverty… I want

to have money for a good

house, for my children’s

education and good health.”

Lukia Michael, Tanzania

Overseas ProgrammesImproving livelihoods, building skills and raising incomes in South Asia

and East AfricaPage

6

Producer SupportHelping our suppliers to become self-sufficient, sustainable and profitable social enterprises that strengthen their communities.

Page

14

CatalystTesting new project areas and ideas through research and field work,

helping us to design and launch the best possible projects.

Page

18

Policy & CampaignsPromoting Traidcraft’s values of justice and fairness with

decision makers in governments and businesses.

Page

20

WELCOME2015 has been quite a year for our development work. We started by launching the Fair Necessities Appeal in January and it turned into our biggest appeal to date! We were blown away by your support.

And now because of that success we have the brilliant challenge of expanding our work and reaching even more farmers, workers and artisans in developing countries. As always we’re pushing as hard as we can to achieve maximum impact.

In the 2015 Development Review you’ll see stories of success, events we’ve learned from and a strong hint about the challenges ahead. I hope you enjoy reading and recognise the huge part you play in fighting poverty through trade.

We couldn’t do it without you.

Andy Biggs, Chief Executive

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Our mission – to fight poverty through trade, practising and promoting approaches to trade that help poor people in developing countries transform their lives

Our vision – a world freed

from the scandal of poverty

where trade is just and people

and communities can flourish

Front cover: Saidi Kisoma Bora, a beekepeer who has undergone training as part of our work in Tanzania (see page 10)

The Fair Necessities effect…

Flourishing in Vulnerable Environments (FIVE)

Central Kenya This project will help

farmers to work together

and gain new skills to

combat climate change.

Jute: Empowering Women Ensuring Livelihoods (JEWEL)

Bangladesh JEWEL will empower extremely poor women working in Bangladesh’s jute sector.

Sustainable Farms, Sustainable Futures

India This project is all about

reducing poverty

and improving living

conditions for cotton

farmers in Odisha, India.

EqualiTEA Bangladesh

The next stage of our EqualiTEA programme is launching to help even more farmers earn a better income by growing tea.

Naturally after such a successful appeal, we’re looking ahead to what this means for the world’s poorest. We’re delighted to announce four new projects that the money raised from Fair Necessities will help to support…

Find out more about our new projects on page 12

It was amazing to see your incredible support for our Fair Necessities Appeal – which focused on helping smallholder farmers to grow more, earn more and eat more. We’re still celebrating the success of our record-breaking campaign which will help hundreds of thousands of the world’s poorest people to work their way out of poverty.

Donations to our Fair Necessities Appeal totalled

And the great news is that donations will be matched pound for pound by the government as part of the UK Aid Match scheme. It’s a staggering amount that means we can help many thousands more farmers and artisans all across the developing world.

Fair Necessities breaks all the records!

Help families grow more, earn more and eat more

over £615,000!

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FARMS THAT FIGHT POVERTY We’ve been working with farmers in

Bangladesh for many years. We’re

helping them to build successful,

sustainable farms that feed families

and provide money for education and

health care.

Take a look at these results (right)

from a project that’s just finished.

It shows us not only that 8,130

households are better off, but also

that our model for empowering

farmers is working. It’s creating

tangible, amazing impact – and that’s

great news for future projects!

6,000 Farmers we aimed to help

8,130 Farmers we actually helped

All farmers’ sales have increased by

at least 20%They all decreased their production costs by

at least 10%

Project participants’ incomes

DOUBLED in just 3 years!

No More Child Labour……that’s what we’re working towards! Over the past few years, we’ve developed and tested a model for fighting child labour in India’s home based craft sector. It’s a huge and complex issue but by using an innovative five-pronged approach, supporting free learning centres and developing a toolkit to help businesses fight child labour – the project has achieved real progress.

And looking at the stories of people like Mamta and her sons, it’s clear how important this progress is to the families affected…

“The only support we get is our children being able to study at the learning centre. My sons Yorges and Akash started school there last year. Before that both of them were only working - we didn’t have enough to eat so we couldn’t think of sending them to school. One of my friends told me about the learning centre. I went to see the teacher and she motivated me to send my sons to school. Now our children are learning for free and this is giving us the opportunity to change our lives for the better.”

We’ve engaged whole communities, worked with local organisations (including Tara projects, Traidcraft’s biggest supplier of crafts) and developed great resources. Because of this we believe the project will continue to help families educate their children long after it is finished.

Overseas Programmes The Impact

Overall, every £1 spent on the project has led to over £5 of benefit for farmers!Page 7Page 6

At least 90% of the farmers can

now articulate their rights and

responsibilities.

1020 farmers have been trained in

non-tea farming initiatives to earn

extra income

700 tea farmer committee members

were trained in leadership and

governance

The project was a successful pilot that has

paved the way for further projects.

Fair Cup ChecklistTraidcraft’s Fair Cup project increased awareness of farmers’ rights and improved the livelihoods of 26,000 Kenyan tea farmers. Here are just a few of the goals that the project achieved…

Measuring the immeasurableWe are serious about improving overall wellbeing for farmers and artisans in our projects but things like self-worth, relationships and mental health are hard to measure.

But we developed a solution. Working with wellbeing experts from Bath University, we developed a survey through which project participants could evaluate their own wellbeing in two sessions – one before the project starts and one after it has finished.

This generates a rating from 1-5 (5 being the best) for each wellbeing category. We can look at the results and see if a project has led to all round improvements in people’s lives.

These are the average scores from a recent project in Bangladesh…

Values & MeaningBEFORE 3.30AFTER 3.99

Physical & Mental Health

BEFORE 2.82AFTER 3.41

Confidence & Self Worth

BEFORE 3.56AFTER 4.18

OVERALL WELLBEING

BEFORE 3.2AFTER 4.0

Agency & Participation

BEFORE 3.70AFTER 4.16

Economic ResourcesBEFORE 3.02AFTER 4.02

Social Connection

BEFORE 2.95AFTER 4.00

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Hadija’s story Hadija is a beekeeper in Tanzania who has benefited from our BEET project. Here is her story... “I was married here but my husband died four years ago. He was diabetic and there wasn’t good treatment.

Life was hard for my family – I struggled to find enough food, buying school uniforms, paying for school fees, paying medical bills. There was never enough and we always struggled.

I started with my first beehive in 2008 – now I have five of my own hives.

The training I did has helped me increase the amount of honey I am producing. I now know how to prepare honey well, and to advertise myself in the nearby villages. Because of this I am now producing more honey and am managing to save money.

Now my life is moving forward - I am not worried anymore. I now hope for the future that my children will be able to study to whatever level they want and that we will all have a proper house to live in. “

Bee EmpoweredThe Beekeepers Economic Empowerment, Tanzania (BEET) project aims to increase incomes for poor communities in Rufiji and Tabora, Tanzania, by improving their beekeeping skills and knowledge. Now past its half way point, we have started to see some progress.

The increased income from beekeeping has been transformational for many of the people we talked to in our mid-term review, particularly those in Rufiji. Stories of school fees being paid, increases in meals consumed a day, and a new

ability to start saving money were very common.

We found that women occupy almost half the leadership positions available in local groups and three of the four top positions in the district association.

In Rufiji, the empowerment among women is perhaps the greatest success story of the project so far. Gender awareness training has changed household dynamics - with many men taking greater responsibility for household duties and childcare.

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Jute: Empowering Women, Ensuring Livelihoods (JEWEL) JEWEL will empower 4,000 extremely poor women working in Bangladesh’s jute sector and benefit the lives of around 20,000 people.

On their own, small-scale workers and producers have little impact on the structures that keep them poor – but together they can support each other, access services, and begin to fight for long-term change.

This project will help jute workers to come together and benefit from training on negotiation and advocacy skills, as well as on practical business skills.

NEWPROJECTS

EqualiTEA The next stage of our EqualiTEA programme is launching to help 3,000 farmers earn a better income and transform their lives by growing tea. Around 7,500 people will benefit.

The people we’re supporting are in real poverty - over 60% are illiterate, 63% are in debt and there are high levels of malnutrition (about 43%). Families spend around 50% of their income on food.

In these tough conditions, growing tea represents a sustainable route out of poverty. With only a small plot of land and the right support from Traidcraft, farmers can earn a decent living.

Sustainable Farms, Sustainable Futures

This project is all about reducing poverty and improving living conditions for 4,000 cotton farmers and their families (20,000 people in total) in Odisha, India.

We’re targeting districts experiencing some of the highest levels of poverty in India. The farmers are from disadvantaged tribal and low-caste communities and we’re working to support them as they improve their food security and increase their incomes.

The project also has a strong focus on women’s empowerment and increasing the recognition of the critical, agricultural work that women do.

Flourishing in Vulnerable Environments (FIVE) This project will help around 6,000 smallholder farmers work together and gain new skills to combat climate change. It will improve livelihoods for around 30,000 people.

We predict that increased crop production, improved food security and an increased ability to respond effectively to uncertain weather conditions will help farmers achieve a 50% increase in income.

Kenya 6,000

smallholder farmers

India 4,000 cotton farmers

Bangladesh4,000 Jute Workers

Bangladesh3,000 tea farmers

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Supporting Social EnterprisesWe believe that good businesses transform

communities. They give local people the opportunity

to earn a steady income and provide for their families.

That’s why we put so much effort into helping the

people that make and grow Traidcraft products to

become profitable and sustainable social enterprises

in their own right. We know that in supporting these

organisations, we can have a long-term impact for

entire communities in developing countries.

We’ve sold their honey…

…helped them to plant fruit trees

…gave them advice and training

…supported them to diversify into coffee

production

…helped them recover from crop disease

We provide tailored,

long-term support to our

producers to help them

achieve far-reaching

impact. A great example

of this is our work with

CIPAC – a group of coffee

and honey farmers in

Guatemala…

HOW IT WORKS

This consistent supply of business support has helped CIPAC become the organisation it is today – one that helps hundreds of farmers and their families to transform their lives and escape from poverty.

Producer Support

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This has been a busy year for our producer support programme.

CIPAC, Guatemala – We helped coffee farmers to protect their crop against coffee rust, a fungal infection.

Get Paper Industries, Nepal – We provided marketing support to help them sell a new range of felt products and extra support after the earthquake to help repair their homes.

Coobadi and Coopagaro, Cote d ’lvoire – we provided training to help cocoa farmers improve and strengthen their cooperatives.

Allpa, Peru – We continued to help them improve health and safety for their workers.

Kisac, Kenya – We gave support and training to help this group of stone carvers improve their product development and marketing activities.

Apicoop, Chile – We supported them to replant blueberry bushes.

Here is a snapshot of what has happened.

All of this work means that more families can afford the essentials - things like nutritious food, healthcare and education.Page 17Page 16

The Catalyst programme underpins Traidcraft’s innovation strategy. It enables us to identify and research sectors and interventions through which we can develop large-scale projects that achieve sustained impact on poverty.

Huge projects like FIVE in Kenya (see page 12) started life as small-

scale, Catalyst-funded research projects. So looking at the recent

Catalyst projects can be a really good indication of the big things to

come for Traidcraft…

CatalystCash

Research& Scoping Big

Project -

Loads ofImpact

which has helped Traidcraft unlock over

£2.3 million worth of new project funding. This will benefit thousands of farmers and artisans.

£113,000 of Catalyst funding

has been spent on research and scoping studies

African Fruit Juice West Africa is an ideal region for juice production – it’s close to Europe, there are many large fruit-growing farmer communities, and there is a reasonable range of potential processing-partner businesses.

Catalyst funding has recently been used to research the potential for developing a new fair trade juice supply chain, identifying all that needs to be done to achieve this effectively and efficiently to the benefit of all concerned, especially the farmers.

Tribal farmers Traidcraft’s India team recently launched a scoping study and a resulting development workshop for a potential new project with tribal farmers in Rajasthan.

The aim is to help smallholder farmers diversify their food and income sources to make them more resilient to climate change. We’re now developing a full project proposal to submit to a major funder.

Fairtrade Bamboo In 2014, Catalyst money funded a scoping study to explore the potential for developing a fair trade bamboo supply chain from China. Traidcraft commissioned a study of the Chinese bamboo sector and the potential market interest in fair trade bamboo. A field visit to smallholder bamboo-growers in rural China was also arranged and these two activities will help Traidcraft to start designing a fully functional fair trade supply chain for bamboo.

3 for the futureHow it worksCatalystSupporting innovation

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Justice: We Mean Business

In politics it is often said that a week is a long time, but in campaigning sometimes a decade is not long enough. So when campaigning for politicians to make change, a year is a good time-span to look back and reflect.

Traidcraft launched the Justice campaign in September 2014,

calling for people who’ve been harmed by British companies operating in developing countries to be able to get justice.

British companies are getting away with things in developing countries which just wouldn’t be allowed here. They need to be held to account, and victims need justice.

Through the year, we’ve highlighted several examples, including the North Mara gold mine, owned by a UK company, where a number of local people have been shot and killed or seriously injured by security guards. The company denies responsibility.

With the help of Traidcraft supporters and campaigners, we have started to get the message across. Here are some of the highlights:

• We launched with a bang! We published a poll showing 78% of the public believe that British companies should be held to account in the UK for any harm they cause in other countries.

• As many as 30,000 campaigners contacted the leaders of political parties to ask them what their party would do about this issue.

• Over 2000 campaigners asked their parliamentary candidates to watch our short campaign video – and over 1000 people viewed it! That means that many of our new MPs have already heard about our campaign.

Campaign highlights of the year• We produced different materials to

help you and other supporters of the campaign. We know our prayer and action cards have gone down really well.

• In July, we led a delegation of campaigners to visit the three government departments involved in reviewing the government’s plans on business and human rights. To remind them that we wanted justice for victims at the heart of that review, we left them with some helium-filled heart-shaped balloons. It definitely made an impact!

This year, Traidcraft campaigners and supporters have made huge progress in getting the message across to our political leaders – thank you!

You can find out more about the Justice campaign at traidcraft.co.uk/campaigns or by calling 020 3752 5718.

Stand up for JUSTICE

Policy & Campaigns

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You may have heard about the TTIP (Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership) trade deal between the US and the EU. One of the most controversial issues is the investor-to-state dispute (ISDS) mechanism which allows foreign investors to sue governments through private arbitration tribunals – in other words outside national courts.

Through the work of our Policy Unit over the past few years, Traidcraft has been making the case for abandoning ISDS in investment agreements. Here’s why:

• ISDS protects international investors while limiting the ability of host countries to regulate this investment. This makes it much harder for governments to address economic, social and environmental concerns and to safeguard human rights.

Financial SummaryChallenging Investment Deals

• With the scales tipped strongly in their favour, foreign investors are protected – but have few responsibilities or obligations to the host economy.

• This issue is particularly difficult for developing countries. Defending claims made under the ISDS can run into millions of dollars – and if the claim is lost, compensation can cost billions. This puts pressure on governments not to do anything which could risk a claim – even if it is in the public interest.

Traidcraft is working together with other organisations in Europe and around the world to make sure that this system is abandoned in future trade agreements.

To find out more, visit www.traidcraft.co.uk/investment-report

Traidcraft Exchange financial numbers (£000’s)2015 2014

Donations 1,364 1,197

Legacies 127 303

Grant drawdowns/other income 1,882 1,928

Total Income 3,373 3,428

Fundraising and governance expenditure 618 656

Programme expenditure 2,657 2,752

Total expenditure 3,275 3,408

Net (Outgoings)/Resources 98 20

Pension and exchange rate movements (138) 11

Net (Deficit)/Surplus for year (40) 31

Unrestricted reserves 731 793

Income was at a very similar level to 2014, with the high level of prior year legacy income replaced by a phenomenal response to our ‘Fair Necessities’ public fundraising appeal, which ran from January 2015 until just after the year end. Despite a small drop in project activity and expenditure, our development projects are working with over 678,000 beneficiaries - well above our 500,000 target and 26% up on prior year. This year we have focused on improving the quality and effectiveness of our partnerships and project management. As a result, most of our projects are progressing well and remain on track to deliver positive outcomes. Our reserves are also in a healthy position to support our charitable activity.

The fundraising environment for development remains challenging, but we are confident of our ability to diversify our funding sources and to secure future project support. During the year we began to develop different models of engagement, including working alongside impact investment consortia.

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We worked on 37 projects in 22 countries...

Which helped over 678,000 farmers and artisans...

It’s thanks to over

36,000 amazing donors and campaigners like you that we’ve been able to achieve so much in the past year...

Traidcraft, Kingsway, Gateshead, Tyne & Wear, NE11 0NE

www.traidcraft.org.ukTraidcraft Exchange, registered charity no. 1048752

Picture credits: Kate Holt, GMB Akash, Rajendra Shaw, Richard Else, Alistair Leadbetter, Wiz

Baines, Shop for Change Fair Trade, Daniel Apepo, Apicoop, Stephen Morris & Roderick Stuart,

meunievd/Shutterstock.

Thank you so much for all of your support