On June 11, 12 and 14, three new meetings of the companies in the sector were held, on the occasion of the Ethical Trade Forums for suppliers held in Elche (Murcia Forum), Almería and Huelva.
Three days that were facilitated by the Conexion Social Team, being mainly focused on the strategic planning of the Forum and the outcomes and planning of the three Working Groups that are developing a series of guides and tools.
During each event, several dynamics were carried out to highlight the most sensitive issues to be addressed by the working groups. The participation and involvement of the attendees was very high, and this was reflected in the creation of four new working groups that will be added to the existing ones, so the following work streams are now in place:
MURCIA: Monitoring Tool for Labor providers / Communication of Best Practices
ALMERÍA: Small producers guide / Survey for workers in the field
HUELVA: Guide on Housing / Anti-harassment protocol/ Tool to improve communication and expectations between producers and clients
Also, as usual in these meetings, presentations were made of business cases and good practices by some attendees:
– Elche: Leonor Fishman of LDH (La Doria) presented the future Italian Ethical Trade Forum, as an initiative sponsored by ETI.
– Almería: Jesús Pablo Cañizares of the Coprohnijar Cooperative presented its good practices in collaboration with the NGO CEPAIM, in a local action plan to provide housing and labor integration to migrant workers.
– Huelva: Beatriz Pimentel from Hall Hunter in Portugal presented the business case of her company, detailing the challenges assumed in terms of multiculturalism and the best practices implemented to solve these challenges, also actively collaborating in local initiatives.
Helena Pérez moderated a workshop in each forum: Stop Start Continue Change Model aimed to learn about the good practices that are applied in companies nowadays, detect the actions that should be eliminated and recognize actions that can be implemented to help a change in behavior in companies.
After lunch, the following part of the day, facilitated by Sergio Barbera, was the review of the current mission of the Forum and drafting of a Strategic Plan proposal for the coming years. This generated a deep debate from which interesting conclusions were drawn.
Through the responses to a survey carried out in real time online to attendees, a generalized approach was offered to different topics such as the evolution of companies throughout the forums, the vision they have of the need of the Stronger Together Initiative and the impact of the PRESLI Plan in Huelva.
The general evaluation of the forums both on the development of the day and its content was very satisfactory in all three cases. With total attendance of 151 delegates (44 Elche, 52 Almería and 55 Huelva), representing 135 producer and importer companies of the Sector.
Now, we are all looking forward to the International events that will take place in October.
See you soon!