Chains for Change
Max Havelaar Lecture 2009
Trade is an important means to achieve poverty reduction and empowerment. The slogan ‘Trade. Not aid’ regards millions of disadvantaged and marginalized small producers in developing countries who are able to fight poverty on their own, if only the market would allow them. Fair access to the trade system under better trade conditions would help them to overcome the barriers to development. This concept is worldwide acknowledged as Fairtrade. Fairtrade is the alternative approach to the conventional trade system and addresses the injustice and discrimination against the poorest and weakest producers. Fairtrade means fair prices that cover the costs of sustainable production, an additional Fairtrade premium, longer term trade relationships, and decent working conditions. Fairtrade enables farmers and small producers to improve their position on the international market and allows them to develop themselves in a sustainable way.
Fairtrade is a classic example of sustainable supply chain management and after its introduction in the Netherlands in 1988 many other initiatives originated. Sustainable supply chain management has proved to be an effective means for companies to contribute to global sustainability. However, it has not been easy. Comparing the various supply chain management initiatives, many questions arise. Which one has been the most successful? What are the current trends? What are the opportunities for the future? Where does the responsibility of global multinational companies end? What roles need to be assigned to NGO’s, governments and science?
At the Max Havelaar Lecture ‘Chains for Change’, various speakers from a wide range of perspectives provided us with their vision and ambitions on how supply chain management can contribute to global sustainability and empowerment.
Table of Contents
About the Rotterdam School of Management, Erasmus University
About the Partnerships Resource Centre
About the Max Havelaar Foundation
About the Max Havelaar lecture
Introductions by Louk de la Rive Box, Peter d’ Angremond, Cornelius Lynch and Koert Jansen
Position paper
Chains for Change by Rob van Tulder
Max Havelaar Lecture
Global Value Chains and sustainable development by Gary Gereffi
The Corporate Perspective by Hans van Bochove
The Civil Society Perspective by Willemijn Lammers
The Government Perspective by Bert Koenders
Conclusion by Louk de la Rive Box
Personalia
About the Max Havelaar Lecture
The Max Havelaar lecture stimulates the thinking on poverty issues in a balanced manner, without making use of the usual simplifications either in support or against the involvement of firms in development. The Max Havelaar Foundation is proof of this approach: it is aiming at a continuous improvement in its strategy towards labelling products – increasingly in a variety of partnerships with NGOs, corporations and governments.
The Max Havelaar Lecture is a recurring annual event. Each year, a leading scholar in the field is invited to hold the key lecture which will be made available to a wider audience around the world. The lecture takes about 45 minutes and will have an academic standing. It is held at the Erasmus University Rotterdam, partly as a legacy to Jan Tinbergen the former Nobel Prize Laureate in economics and leading thinker on sustainable development. The lecture is open to the public and provides an occasion where policy makers and the scientific community can meet. The first Max Havelaar lecture was held in October 2007.
More information
The full book Chains for Change (pdf)
Homepage of the Max Havelaar Lecture
The Partnerships Resource Centre
