Position: President
Organization: Development Alternatives

Given WEDF’s theme this year, one question had to be asked before any other: Do consumers have conscience? I posed this question to forum speaker Dr Ashok Khosla, from Development Alternatives, a New Delhi-based non-governmental organisation, which promotes environmentally friendly technologies.

Position: Founder
Organization: Equitrade

The knowledge transference that developing countries are pleading for is slowly happening in small pockets around the world. Leading the charge is a man whose quiet demeanour belies his focused determination, British entrepreneur and founder of Equitrade, Neil Kelsall.

Position: Head of Quality Assurance and Sustainability
Organization: COOP Switzerland

An expert from a leading Swiss supermarket chain is also predicting big changes. Sybil Anwander, the head of quality assurance and sustainability at COOP Switzerland, says a major rationalization of the existing sustainable labelling schemes will take place and this will make purchasing decisions easier for both consumers and retailers.

Position: Founder
Organization: Zulugrass Jewellery

The power of trade to lift people out of poverty is the main driving factor for one of WEDF’s most inspirational speakers, Katy Leakey. She runs a successful jewellery business called Zulugrass, which makes beads from the strong, hollow reeds of grass that grow wild across the plains of Kenya where the business is based.

Position: Chairman
Organization: Titikaveka Growers’ Assoc.

When Dr Khosla talks about ordinary individuals doing extraordinary things, he could be referring to Cook Islands fisherman and farmer, Teava Iro, who travelled almost 17,000km to speak as a panelist in the session, ‘Financing the Environmental Dividends: Who Does What’.

Position: Minister for Trade
Government: Grenada

Someone very interested in Teava Iro’s impassioned plea for a return to nature was Nazim V. Burke, Minister for Finance and Foreign Trade of the tiny West Indian island country of Grenada. In the last decade, Mr Burke has seen his country’s foreign trade collapse due to fluctuations in international trade regimes and the crop devastation caused by two natural disasters.

Position: Minister of State
Government: United Kingdom

Much more upbeat about how fair trade ventures will survive the current financial crisis, was keynote speaker and Minister of State in Britain, Gareth Thomas, who is proud of his government’s policies to ‘pump-prime’ the fair trade market. He believes fair trade will ride the bumpy financial waves with little long-term damage.

Position: Policy Officer
Organization: International Policy Network

The enfant terrible at WEDF, enjoying the notoriety of being a fair trade sceptic, was Marc Sidwell. As a policy officer with the London-based International Policy Network, he has spent a lot of time crunching the numbers to see beyond the often feel-good messages surrounding Fair Trade discussions. His assessments ruffled a few feathers at the forum.

Position: Executive Director
Organization: International Trade Centre

The Executive Director’s World Export Development Forum Conclusions