Key Principles in Tendering

Ensuring transparency from the beginning

Regardless of the approach taken to procuring Fair Trade products, it is critical to ensure that this objective is made clear at the very beginning of the tendering process. As mentioned above, this should ideally start with a policy commitment to purchase Fair Trade products, though this is not essential.

•  Ensure "Fair Trade" is included in the subject matter (i.e. the title) of the tender - ifthis is not included it would be legally difficult to include Fair Trade requirements at later tendering stages. Some specific wording for the subject matter can be found in the followingpages.

•  Publish the call for tender widely - The more widely you publicise your actions, the more transparent they are. It is advisable to publish your tender to as wide an audience as possible,with a clear reference to your Fair Trade commitments.

Definition and verification of Fair Trade products

To further enhance transparency it is vital to provide a clear definition of Fair Trade and how compliance can be verified in your tender documents. Although no universally recognised definition yet exists, currently the best approach is to use the definition laid down in the European Parliament Resolution on Fair Trade and Development (A6-0207/2006).

When choosing a definition it is equally important to be able to clearly verify compliance with this. Products carrying the FLO label or supplied by Fair Trade organisations (under the IFAT scheme), can be considered to comply with the European Parliament resolution,
but procurers must also give the option for alternative proof to be offered by independent third parties.

In the future the Fair Trade quality management system initiative should enable an even clearer definition to be used. This initiative is aimed at harmonising existing certification systems (IFAT and FLO) towards a joint generic Fair Trade standard that will likely be available in 2007. This intends to recognise the basic standards for Fair Trade and to be an open system accepting other certification organisation that meets its basic standards.