Covid-19 did not prevent the Ethical Trade Forums from being held on July 14 and 16, although in this occasion the participants were not able to meet face to face but through a digital platform.
With a registration of 151 people, during the two days of the forums 136 connections were made by telephone and Internet (some of them shared by several people) to the internet platform, so the number of attendees is very similar to the regional forums that are usually held in June each year.
The morning session was very dynamic, as representatives of all the Working Groups participated, presenting their current situation and future activities.
Conexión Social presented the two recently created working groups; “Dialogue between worker and company representatives” and “Grievance Mechanisms”, which have already begun to take shape and were finally launched during the meetings on Thursday 16th, and also Fresca Group gave its interesting presentation on the New Normality.
The second block of the forums hosted eleven workshops; six workshops on Tuesday and five on Thursday. Some of these were repeated so that attendees had the option of choosing which session to attend. Two of these workshops focused on the launch of the new working groups indicated.
Although it was not a face-to-face event, being highly interactive and participatory was the main objective. Some interactive polls were conducted throughout the event, including a test delivered by an external company that contacted attendees who wanted to participate by phone to conduct a live survey.
Work was also done on the launch of the A2 Almeria Working Group pilot project with the aim of developing a survey for the sector and using this tool to interview migrant workers on farms.
In the Forum evaluation survey, those attending have given a very positive assessment of the event as a whole, but what is more important is that many of them are being encouraged to participate in the working groups, both the new ones and the ones already set up, and this is a good indicator that this initiative is truly collaborative.
Here is the event report: