This website guide is meant to provide clear and simple advice for public authorities wishing to purchase Fair Trade products. The guide includes the following:

• An introduction to Fair Trade and why public authorities should buy fair
• Advice on how to buy Fair Trade products, including minimising legal uncertainties
• Actual purchasing criteria that can be used directly in public tenders
• Suggestions for awareness raising and other complementary activities

The website also includes a series of good practice case studies, together with a detailed legal report (pdf) on Fair Trade in procurement, a summary of some national Fair Trade initiatives (pdf), a Powerpoint presentation (ppt) to help you convince others within the organisation, and the text of the significant recent European Parliament Resolution on supporting Fair Trade.

A collection of reports has also been prepared on how local governments in the developing world can help to support the promotion of Fair Trade locally.

Download the complete Buy Fair Guide (pdf)

The Buy Fair project

This Guide has been produced through the ICLEI-led Buy Fair project, with the expert assistance of the partners in the Fair Procura project: the European Fair Trade Association (EFTA), CTM Altromercato (Italy), Fair Trade Original (Netherlands), IDEAS (Spain), and Oxfam Wereldwinkels (Belgium).

The project, which ended in October 2006, was funded by the Dutch Ministry of Housing, Spatial Planning and the Environment (VROM)