Principles of fair trade discussed

LAHORE
A non-government organisation in collaboration with World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) organised a one-day workshop on how to inquire fair trade organisations and principles.
World Fair Trade Organisation Executive Director Christine and Ms Elise Hawley from WFTO Asia facilitated the session with relevant organisations and individuals who are in support of fair trade practices in Pakistan.
The NGO's Executive Director Ume Laila Azhar welcomed WFTO representatives and all other participants to the session. Sharing the objectives of the meeting, she said “we are really pleased to host this meeting and invite partners to get holistic overview of fair trade practices in Pakistan. We are really interested in knowing the perspective of WFTO regarding their future interventions in Pakistan”. She added that “since HNP is working for the women in the informal sector and specifically home-based micro-level entrepreneurs, we see great potential for women-led organisations to be part of the fair trade practices." Ms Christine explained the key principles of Fair Trade. She said Fair Trade is a strategy for poverty alleviation and sustainable development. Its purpose is to create opportunities for producers who have been economically disadvantaged or marginalised by the conventional trading system, she added. She said they strongly believed that social enterprise was an emerging force in Pakistan and must be promoted at all costs. She gave a brief overview of 10 Fair Trade principles through participatory and interactive session and stressed the importance of adopting them by trade organisations.
It was also mentioned that 14th May is the World Fair Trade Day (WFTD), 2016 would be celebrated as WFTD 2016 with the theme “Human chain of agents for Change.”
In the end of the meeting, participants shared their recommendations to include unionisation or right to association in 10 Fair trade principles. It was also agreed that WTFO should focus on GSP plus and adopt fair trade practices in 27 core conventions, all trading or entrepreneur organisations in Pakistan must adopt fair trade practices through different innovative ways, we need to learn from developed models of trade practices across the globe, inclusion of informal women workers is essential in all fair trade practices. It is also recommended that 10 fair trade principles will be translated into regional languages and share with relevant organisations.
synopses approved: Punjab University’s Advanced Studies and Research Board (AS&RB) approved 25 PhD synopses and 20 evaluation reports at a meting held on Monday.
The meeting chaired by Vice-Chancellor Prof Dr Mujahid Kamran also approved 25 panels of examiners, 12 extension cases and 10 miscellaneous cases.
Meanwhile, Punjab University (PU) Examinations Department declared the results of BS in Computer Science 2nd year, second annual examination 2014, BSc (Engg.) Chemical Engineering, first semester examinations 2015, M.Ed (General & Science), supplementary 2014, annual 2015 and MSc IT Part-II, second annual 2014. PU has awarded a PhD degree to Shahzina Siddiqui d/o Niaz Muhammad Siddiqui in the subject of Education after the approval of her thesis titled “A Study of Relationship between School Climate and Students’ Achievement of Government and Private Secondary Schools of Punjab Province”.