vote your city fair 131008
TRANSCRIPT
Fairtrade towns campaigning in Finland
CASE: Vote Your City Fair!
Sonja Vartiala, Pro Fair Trade Finland
Background
Fairtrade town campaigning started in Finland in the year 2005
First Fairtrade towns are Utajärvi and Tampere, Pori is coming soon
A lot of volunteers involved in campaigning Campaign launched in 11 cities Over hundred volunteers working on the field
Municipal elections in Finland
Held on 26.10.2008 415 municipalities in Finland
Over 40 000 candidates Municipal elections are held to elect the councillors of
the municipalities. Councillors are important decision makers when it
comes to (ethical) public procurement
Vote Your City Fair -campaign
Campaign is made together with Service Centre for Development Cooperation (KEPA) and Association for Promoting Fairtrade in Finland
Goals:
Get ethical procurement as one of the election themes Inform voters about their candidates attitudes Increase political activity of young people interested in ethical
consuming
Actions
Campaign website for voters and candidates 7000 flyers with Fairtrade coffee samples
Flyers also for political parties Bird-dogging
How did we organise everything? Volunteer trainings in 8 towns
Part-time campaign coordinator for two months (120 h)
Materials for volunteers
posters
flyers
campaign guide Easy website tools
Electronic petition letter
Blog for candidates
banners for websites Motivation
Knowlidge from the poor working conditions
Competitions between towns and individual volunteers
Cooperation with Meira
Meira is one of the largest Finnish coffee companies Their Fairtrade brand Reilu is the most popular Fairtrade coffee
in Finland Meira: 7000 Fairtrade coffee samples and coverage for
campaign's office costs
Win-win situation: For Repu: Positive impact on people message is easier to get thru For Meira: Nationwide marketing campaign with little costs
Yet to come Information work and cooperation with media
Three ”waves”:
1) Speaking notes on ethical procurement for local journalists
2) Local campaign press releases3) Nationwide press release based on our new study
Study: ”84% of Finns think that their councillor should promote ethical public procurement”
Thank You event for the volunteers in November Volunteers and new councillors will be invited Event is held together with the launch of a new
FinnWatch study on ethical public procurement
More information
www.repu.fi www.reilukaupunki.fi www.globbarit.fi
Sonja Vartiala
FT-towns coordinator
+ 358-50 349 52 30