Biografía de Frank Lloyd Wright a través de la evolución de su arquitectura

According to East Dunbartonshire Council’s website, there has been civil society activism promoting fair trade in the area since the 1980s (East Dunbartonshire Council No date). This activism has been spearheaded by Campsie Parish Church which has been central in the official East Dunbartonshire Fairtrade Steering Group (East Dunbartonshire Council 2005). While this is a civil society organisation, there have been strong links into the Local Authority from the time it was started by an ex-member of the local council¹⁶². When the group succeeded in becoming one of Scotland’s first Fairtrade Zones in October 2007, a representative from the group noted that they had “been greatly aided by the support of East Dunbartonshire Council, in particular the services of the Sustainable Development Officer [SDO] and the Purchasing Officer for the Council’s catering services have made it possible for so much to be achieved” (Scottish Fair Trade Forum no date-b WS).

Overall, the Local Authority in East Dunbartonshire has gone a significant way to meet the requirements of the Fairtrade Foundation’s scheme. The council has passed a resolution to support fair trade and has also purchased a wide range of fair trade goods for use by various public institutions. These purchases have included one of particular interest which, as noted above is considered by the Fairtrade Foundation’s, Fairtrade Town team, as a particularly outstanding example of Local Authority procurement (see above). The product in question is “fairly traded” ¹⁶³ Kilombero rice, which is

161 Anonymous Interviewee.

162 Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009.

163 According to a key representative at JTS, their Kilombero rice is described as “fairly traded” in order to emphasise that it does not carry FLO certification. Interview with John Riches 19/03/2009. See next chapter for an explanation of why the rice was considered to be “fairly trade”. Interestingly, this is

125 produced by the Karonga Smallholder Farmers Association (KSFA), a sub- group of the National Smallholder Farmers’ Association of Malawi (NASFAM) ¹⁶⁴ which sells to a dedicated fair trade importers organisation called Just Trading Scotland (see Figure 3). As such this initiative is considered to have allowed the Local Authority to contribute to both the national policy in support of fair trade and also the specific development objective to assist the country of Malawi (as discussed above)¹⁶⁵.

Figure 3: Kilombero Rice Supply Chain

The initial import of Kilombero rice into Scotland arose from the promotion of the rice by NASFAM at Trade Connections – a central Scottish Government funded Malawian trade fair, held at the Scottish Exhibition and Conference Centre (SECC) in Glasgow in November 2007 – which was organised by Imani Development – an international development NGO with ten offices across three continents and in nine countries (Imani Development 2011) ¹⁶⁶. The management of NASFAM were particularly keen to find an importer for the Kilombero rice as they identified it as a potentially high value export product which could contribute to the development needs of Malawi in general, as well as to the wellbeing of the producer community who grow the rice¹⁶⁷. However, NASFAM had encountered problems in obtaining a mainstream commercial partner, since most organisations tend to perceive producers, processors and exporters in Malawi, as having problems in meeting the required quality and service standards¹⁶⁸. As it happened, a longstanding and dedicated fair trade organisation, The Balmore Coach House (located in East Dunbartonshire and well known for its activities among local fair trade activists, many of whom had volunteered there), was simultaneously seeking to widen their product range. It was from a meeting at the Trade Connections that a relationship with NASFAM

the same term employed by long standing fair trade organisations after they withdrew from Transfair certification in protest of minimum price setting procedures (Jaffee 2010, p. 280).

164 See Chapter Five for a discussion of NASFAM’s structure.

165 Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009.

166 Interview with Senior IMANI Representative 22/06/2009. Interview with John Riches 19/03/2009.

167 Interview with Senior IMANI Representative 22/06/2009. Interview with Kingsley Makiyoni 5/11/2009. Interview with Joshua Varela 5/11/2009.

168 Interview with Senior IMANI Representative 22/06/2009.

126 developed and a new organisation, Just Trading Scotland (JTS) was setup to import and distribute the rice¹⁶⁹.

Before a trade relationship could develop, however, it was necessary for JTS to locate a sufficient market in order to justify the amount of rice that would need to be imported. Specifically, it was not possible to consolidate less than 18 tons of rice in a container of mix- goods, although, as the individual now responsible for the daily management of JTS noted, at the time “we weren’t sure we could sell 18 tons of rice”¹⁷⁰.

As it happened, a member of East Dunbartonshire’s Fairtrade Steering Group had heard a prominent member of the Balmore Coach House speak about their involvement with fair trade and particularly the desire to import Kilombero rice¹⁷¹. At the same time, the Local Authority had the ambition to develop their educational programme around the issues of fair trade as part of the citizenship curriculum¹⁷². Indeed, in the previous year, the Authority had used FLO certified pasta in schools during Fairtrade Fortnight¹⁷³. However, the SDO thought that, given the nature of the product and the way it was used, there was little opportunity to highlight the difference between fair trade and “non- fair trade” ingredients to the children¹⁷⁴. For this reason, it was decided that the council should partner with JTS to develop a more holistic educational package, to be delivered during Fairtrade Fortnight, and which would contain: materials on the conditions of Malawian producers; information about the concept of fair trade; and a practical example in the form of “fairly traded” rice accompanied by material explaining its nature and the benefits that could potentially accrue.

A representative of the council explained that “this is where the [steering] group pays dividends…It took the group to deliver this…[as] it was the educational spokesman

169 Interview with Senior IMANI Representative 22/06/2009. Interview with John Riches 19/03/2009.

170 Interview with John Riches 19/03/2009.

171 Interview with Silvia Grey 16/06/2009. Interview with John Riches 26/04/2011.

172 Interview with John Riches 19/03/2009. Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009.

173 Interview with John Riches 19/03/2009. Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009. As was noted in Chapter Two (footnote 40), Fairtrade Fortnight is an annual campaign organised by the Fairtrade Foundation.

174 Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009.

127 that would push the educational side, the citizenship, but as a catering supplier it fitted my needs as well”¹⁷⁵. Specifically, one of the problems was that many fair trade products appropriate for communicating educational issues are confectionary products (and thus have space to embed information in the packaging), although these have been restricted under new government guidelines on health and nutrition in schools¹⁷⁶. The broader package developed by the Fairtrade Steering Group on the other hand, met both the Council’s healthy eating requirements and the objective to integrate education on global citizenship into the catering experience.

Despite the identification of mutual advantages, the procurement of rice also had to be compatible with UK Government and European Procurement regulations. Indeed, East Dunbartonshire’s SDO commented that any purchasing is naturally “bound by the council’s procurement rules” and furthermore, that they “generally buy through a buying consortium” which contracts suppliers via a Framework Agreement. Given the unique nature of the fair trade educational initiative, the internal view was that no procurement regulations or principles were broken as 1) the nature of the overall product meant that it was not technically a substitution for anything previously agreed with the current suppliers, and 2) the value of the contract did not require the application of the full EU Procurement Directives¹⁷⁷. Furthermore, as a representative from the Local Authority explained, as long as “we could match the price or close to the price”¹⁷⁸ of the existing contracted suppliers for rice, there would be no detriment to the Local Authority’s financial standing. As it happened, the price of the Kilombero rice from Malawi was actually cheaper than FLO certified rice available through the Framework Agreement, and thus allowed a margin for any additional cost of the education project¹⁷⁹. In summary then,

“The Council was able to purchase the rice competitively, highlighting their support of the project financially. The rice project was a justifiable proposal, complementing existing Council contracts, and adding value through feeding

175 Indeed, the informant feels that their “core concept has always been to get as many sectors as possible from the local community to get involved in the way that they can be”. Interview with Fairtrade Foundation Representative 30/04/2010.

176 Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009.

177 As discussed in more detail in Chapter Six.

178 Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009.

179 Interview with Grace Irvine 16/06/2009. Interview with John Riches 19/03/2009.

128 back into the local economy and adding educatio nal value to local schools”

(Scottish Fair Trade Forum no date-a, p. 1).

Some Conclusions

This chapter has presented findings about the International Development focus of the Scottish Government, and particularly the policy to achieve FTN status. As part of this investigation, the history of the FTN scheme was examined in order to understand how the meaning of fair trade has been interpreted by the programme. Analysis revealed that the development of this initiative was highly complex. Interestingly, the process involved a significant negotiation and reconciliation of a desire to embrace a more holistic interpretation of the fair trade concept, against the practical need to render the criterion measurable. As a result, and despite a lack of involvement by the Fairtrade Foundation, the FTN programme is heavily based on Fairtrade Town accreditation. The consequence of this is that despite initial intentions, the requirements of FTN programme adopted by the Scottish Government are primarily concerned with promoting the consumption of FLO certified goods.

Despite this concentration of the FTN criteria, representatives of the Scottish Government still maintain that government procurement is about more than FLO certified goods. The reasons for embedding the FTN programme in wider discourses of ethical procurement were suggested to derive from the limitations imposed by European Procurement Regulations and their interpretation by the Scottish Procurement Directorate. Whatever the reason for this contradictory discourse however, debate about what constitutes fair trade in the context of public procurement has remained at the Local Authority level.

Indeed, examining the involvement of Local Authorities in the Fairtrade Foundation’s scheme, it is apparent that many of them strongly mirror the discourse of this governance, and have made political commitments to procure FLO certified goods.

However, this pattern is not without nuanced difference across Authorities, and in particular, East Dunbartonshire has engaged with a particularly innovative initiative to procure rice from a dedicated fair trade importer – based on the social standing of the

129 organisation. As such, this example offers an opportunity to respond to the call made in fair trade academic literature for research that enhances knowledge of social economy actors and the active role of producers (Tallontire 2009, p. 1009). It is for this reason that the second part of the empirical investigation turned to the role of other stakeholders in negotiating what it means to be exporting fair trade goods; and it is to the context of Malawi that the following chapter now turns.

131

Chapter Five: Who Shouts the Loudest? Negotiating