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Consumers can find out more about the newly procured shoes at the user workshop in Stuttgart. Photo: © FEMNETConsumers can find out more about the newly procured shoes at the user workshop in Stuttgart. Photo: © FEMNETSuccess stories in Cologne, Stuttgart, Mannheim, Veitsbronn (Bavaria) & Markkleeburg (Saxony): With the ongoing consulting and training offers, FEMNET 2018 succeeded in broadening the topic of eco-fair awarding. Large and smaller municipalities and districts built up expertise and demonstrated with successful pilot projects that public procurement can be made eco-fair. In 2019, ongoing discussions will continue. The experiences and learning effects will be made available to FEMNET in a detailed publication at the end of the year.

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What do we need to ensure that fair public procurement of textiles is implemented across the board in local governments? There are currently pilot practical projects, guidance documents, instructions, Council decisions in various municipalities – the Compass sustainability currently shows 877 examples from 67 municipalities for 12 different product groups. But we are still far from a standard effective inclusion of social and environmental responsibility criteria in the production of the textile products procured. This challenge was met on 26 and 27 October 2018 by the 20 participants of the Intensive training on how to achieve fair public procurement of textiles. Many of the participants had previously attended intensive training courses on FEMNET modules 1-4 for their multiplier work on the topic. However, procurers and other employees from local governments also took part in the initial training.

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Exhausted girls in a spinning mill in Tamil Nadu who sleep during the day because they worked at night. Photo: © FEMNETExhausted girls in a spinning mill in Tamil Nadu who sleep during the day because they worked at night. Photo: © FEMNETBonn. On July 1, 2018, the Partnership Initiative (BI) Tamil Nadu started as part of the Textile Alliance, a first progress report is now available.

The BI has three components:
dialogue;
b) training of young women in factories,
c) Training of inspectors.

FEMNET’s Partner SAVE The training is carried out in around 300 spinning mills. More than 80 trainers from 40 NGOs were trained for this purpose.

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Our workshop in the Fairtrade-Town Saarbrücken. Photo: © FEMNETOur workshop in the Fairtrade-Town Saarbrücken. Photo: © FEMNETFrom North Frisian drizzle to the sunny Saar, from vineyards on the Main to the Mecklenburg Baltic Sea: In 2018, we held strategy workshops on fair public procurement of workwear in five Fairtrade Towns across Germany. As diverse as the locations are, they all share the goal of using workwear and textiles produced in the city administration under decent working conditions and without harming the environment.

Fairtrade towns offer great potential to promote fair public procurement of clothing and textiles. Because fair coffee and another fair product are served in the city administration, the topic of fair trade is present in the city administration. Because a steering group is established, civil society, retail, city politics and city administration are already networked locally around fair trade. Based on these existing structures, FEMNET offered strategy workshops on the topic of fair public procurement for fair trade town control groups for the first time in 2018.

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Press conference and panel discussion of civil society in the Textile Alliance: It's time! Stop the empty promises.

2018 11 06 TB Symposium Press conference 01Berlin. A key issue is the reward for living. Trade unionists in Bangladesh are on hunger strike due to insufficient minimum wages. In Cambodia and Indonesia, but also in Turkey, there are strikes and protests because wages are not paid. As a result, trade unionists are pressured or dismissed.

The Alliance for Sustainable Textiles wants to change this and has set itself the goal of achieving social, ecological and economic improvements along the entire textile supply chain.

From 2019, all companies of the Textile Alliance are to anchor measures for the payment of living wages in their suppliers as a binding alliance goal. Alliance initiatives in Cambodia, among others, are in preparation. The joint effort could have a leverage effect. For this, however, a broad participation of the industry is needed. “Existence-enhancing wages are a human right. So far, the clothing companies have only paid lip service. It is finally time for promises to become a reality", says Tim Zahn, coordinator of civil society in the Textile Alliance.

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Gender-based violence against women is one of the most widespread human rights violations in the world. According to estimates, more than 30% of all women have already experienced them. Two activists from India report on approaches to how women in the clothing industry can defend themselves and how we can support them in doing so.

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Green buttonThe Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development is planning to introduce a state-owned metaseal for the textile supply chain ("Green Button") and therefore invited to a round table in September 2018 to discuss the implementation concept of this metaseal. The Clean Clothes Campaign took part in this discussion and is now sharing its views in writing with this opinion:

The Green Button (GK) is supposed to be a state metaseal, which initially only refers to the stage of assembly. If they want to use the GK, companies must prove that:

  1. they comply with their corporate due diligence obligations, accepting as evidence the recognition of a roadmap within the framework of the Textile Alliance.
  2. the products covered by the GC comply with the minimum social, environmental and credibility requirements for a product label rated ‘good’ and ‘very good’ on the comparison platform ‘seal clarity’.

Despite criticism of the fundamental weakness of product seals, the campaign for clean clothing welcomes the combination of company and product-related criteria in the awarding of the GK. However, we have massive requests for the previously planned design of this combination, which concern the claim level, the reach, the control, the communicable ability and thus also the credibility of the planned metaseal.

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Cover: How Sustainability Goes OnlineBonn. Today, the report ‘This is how sustainability works!’ is published. The report documents 17 flagship initiatives and projects on how we can organise ourselves more socially just and ecologically clean in Germany and around the world. FEMNET presents initiatives of the cities of Bonn, Cologne and Stuttgart for a fair public purchase of workwear.

The report ‘This is how sustainability works! Germany and the Global Sustainability Agenda 2018’ breaks down the Sustainable Development Goals in a tangible and concrete way. The editors want to shake up politics and show in which range sustainability is already being implemented in practice.

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by Gisela Burckhardt

The Steering Committee of the Textile Alliance in Cologne 2018. 3rd from Gisela Burckhardt. Photo: © Alliance for Sustainable TextilesThe Steering Committee of the Textile Alliance in Cologne 2018. 3rd from Gisela Burckhardt. Photo: © Alliance for Sustainable Textiles Each member of the Textile Alliance had to draw up an action plan (Roadmap) and publish it for the first time this year how it intends to contribute to improving social and environmental conditions in the supply chain in 2018 (FEMNET-Action plan and Progress report as PDF files). The roadmaps are reviewed by external, independent service providers and published on the website of the Textile Alliance. Currently, the Textile Alliance has around 130 members, 79 of whom are companies that, despite some withdrawals, account for almost half of clothing sales in Germany. Brands and retailers had to plan measures for ten binding targets, six additional targets were recommended, and they were also able to set voluntary targets.

The roadmaps provide information on which three main production countries companies source goods from and which three main sales markets they have.

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