Fairtrade is a movement for change that works directly with businesses, consumers and campaigners to make trade deliver for farmers and workers.
Fairtrade achieves this by rallying a global community of millions – farmers and workers, supply chain partners, brands, retailers, shoppers, schools, campaigners, government – to pay fair prices and uphold fair production standards and practices.
Fair prices provide a lifeline for vulnerable farmers and workers at times of need. They also provide long-term investment in production, community and environmental projects to create a fairer, better world.
Fair standards and practices promote sustainable farming to protect biodiversity and the environment; deliver training for women so they can participate and lead; secure workers’ rights; and build climate resilience.
We are best known as the independent, not-for-profit body behind the FAIRTRADE Mark, a product label assuring consumers that their purchase helps disadvantaged farmers and workers in low and middle income countries secure a better deal. Over the past thirty years, the FAIRTRADE Mark has become the best known and most trusted ethical mark among UK consumers. It ensures fairer terms of trade between farmers and buyers, helps to protect workers’ rights, and provides the framework to empower producers to build thriving farms and organisations.
Beyond certification, the Fairtrade Foundation is deepening its impact by delivering specialist programmes and expertise to support communities with additional training and worker support, whether that’s empowering women coffee farmers or responding to crises such as Covid-19.
It’s an exciting time to join the Fairtrade Foundation. We are coming to the end of our current strategic period (2021-2025). Our primary focus remains achieving decent and sustainable livelihoods for producers, building a movement in support of Fairtrade and driving the innovation we need to keep pace with our fast-changing environment.
We are particularly focused on our Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) supported Shared ImPACT initiative, a means through which buyers of key agricultural commodities can work together to source on Fairtrade terms. To date, the sustainability agenda has been driven by proprietary voluntarism, where individual companies drive improvements within their own supply chains. To go to scale, we need companies to work together so that entire sectors can be shifted, and markets transformed. This makes Shared ImPACT groundbreaking for producers and businesses alike. Arguably, more important still, is the precedent it sets. Our hope is that the future will be one of greater collaboration, even among competitors, so that fairer trading becomes the norm. This sector-leading initiative and broader drive to encourage pre-competitive collaboration is the platform we need to leverage as we move into our next strategy. The incoming Chief Executive will have the exciting opportunity to shape and steer the next strategic period for the Fairtrade Foundation, whilst also being a key influence on the design of the global Fairtrade strategy.
Our Current Global Strategy
Our Global Strategy 2021–2025 is based on three key tenets: Decent livelihoods are a human right; Social justice drives sustainability; and Radical collaboration powers deep impact.
Fairtrade farmers and workers are the heart of our global strategy. Our primary focus remains on achieving decent and sustainable livelihoods. To do this, we will be at the vanguard of living incomes and wages, focusing on growing volumes of products sold on Fairtrade terms and delivering ambitious and innovative impact with our partners to build producer resilience in our fast-changing world.
Our Vision
Fairtrade Foundation’s vision is a world in which all producers can enjoy secure and sustainable livelihoods, fulfil their potential and decide on their future.
Our Mission
Our mission is to connect disadvantaged producers and consumers, promote fairer trading conditions and empower producers to combat poverty, strengthen their position and take more control over their lives.
Our Values
We want to be creative and innovative as we try to provide answers to the issues of sustainable development for marginalised producers and the inequalities of the international trade system.
We want to be strong in what we say, the action we take and how we lead as we offer alternatives to the current system. It’s about offering inspiring solutions, being optimistic about what can be achieved and unlocking potential.
And we want our staff to share those values and be the voice of Fairtrade and the people we work with. We believe that everyone who works with us, no matter what their role or which country they are in, has a part to play in working towards our vision.
Fairtrade’s global values are: ‘Accountability’, ‘Integrity’, ‘Respect’ and ‘Partnership’.
Our Commitment to Diversity & Inclusion
The Fairtrade Foundation is committed to eliminating discrimination and encouraging diversity amongst its workforce. The Foundation aims to have a workforce that is representative of all sections of society and for all employees to feel respected and able to give of their best. We support the creation of an environment in which individual differences and the contributions of all staff are recognised and valued. The Foundation opposes all forms of unlawful and unfair discrimination and will not discriminate on any grounds as defined by the Equality Act.
We are committed to increasing diversity and inclusion within our organisation. This means reflecting critically on issues of diversity and inclusion within all that we do, identifying and taking appropriate actions to reduce inequality, and welcoming challenge.
We welcome applications from anyone regardless of disability, ethnicity, heritage, gender, sexuality, religion, socio-economic background or other difference.
We are committed to inclusive working practices, and during the application process we commit to:
- Paying for care and childcare whilst you’re attending an interview.
- Paying for your travel costs to the office and back for interviews if they are held in person.
- Making any reasonable adjustments – for example ensuring we have sign language interpreters organised in advance if you’d like them.
- Providing this document in a Word document format readily available to download. Offering a first stage interview to disabled applicants who meet the minimum criteria for the role.
If there is anything else you’re concerned about or think we could provide, please let us know.