The sleekly modern 120-room Ibis Hotel in Asuncion, Paraguay, is but a short drive from some ofthe fields and farmlands where so many Paraguayans – and their children – toil. While thecountry is a leading producer of soybeans, stevia, corn and organic sugar, many of its farmersbarely eke out a subsistence living.

Visitors staying at the Ibis, enjoying the cosmopolitan attractions of Paraguay's capital city Asuncion,could easily ignore the realities of a world where the International Labour Organization (ILO)estimates that nearly 168 million children are engaged in work that strips them of their dignity, stuntstheir development and disrupts their educations.

"The risk of child labor in the global supply chain is both apparent and complex," says School ofBusiness Professor Nicole Bryan, director of Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives.

Bryan, herself, has been a regular visitor to the Ibis Hotel – and to Paraguay – to help School ofBusiness partner, Fairtrade International, learn about best practices that prevent child labor – whileempowering local producers to minimize their dependence on it.

Spring 2015

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In FairnessChildhood

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The School of Business works with Fairtrade International to eliminate child laborBy Amy Wagner

Children in Panama City, Panama, where professor Nicole Bryan attended her first Fairtrade International labor training session. Photosby Shawn Escoffery

Putting children first worldwide

Founded in 1988 to promote fair trade, Fairtrade International is today part of a $5.7 billion-a-yearmovement benefiting more than 1.35 million of the world's farmers and workers. "Fairtrade helpssmall farmers and consumers gain control," Bryan explains. "The demand for ethically sourced

products is real."

The University has been involved with Fairtrade since 2012, when Bryan met Anita Sheth, FairtradeInternational senior advisor on social compliance and development, at a conference about humantrafficking.

Sheth has twice visited the University, including a trip in July 2014 to join Bryan and Robert D.McCormick Center for Child Advocacy and Policy Director Jason Dickinson in a panel discussion on"The Role of Evidence-Based Approaches to Human Rights and Child Protection in Global SupplyChains." On her visits, Sheth says, she was impressed by the University's interest and commitment inaddressing the global poverty challenge through ethical trade.

Collaborative initiatives like those with Fairtrade International can help fill the theory-practice gapbetween work done in the field and classroom learning. "The opportunity for Montclair State is big,"says Bryan. "At a time when governments and businesses can't do it alone, universities and not-for-profits are able to contribute to the development of ethical, responsible trade practices that areconsistent with the protection of human rights, workers' rights and the development andempowerment of small producer communities."

scenes from Panama City. Photos by Shawn Escoffery

Empowering farmers and youth

While Bryan has visited Paraguay three times since February 2014, when she and Sheth met withsugarcane farmers and producers during Fairtrade-hosted child labor discussions and focus groups,she observed her first Fairtrade International training session in Panama City in October 2013, whichincluded training in labor laws and in creating safe and fair conditions for children in agriculturalcommunities.

Last May, Bryan returned to Paraguay to help start the initial training and assist the producers inunderstanding how they might work to eliminate child labor. "We engaged in dialogue about youthinclusion in civic participation and how to come up with real solutions," she says. "The opportunity tomeet with producers and learn about their experiences in their own voices is huge. So often the voicesof small farmers are silenced in traditional trade. In Fairtrade, their voices count."

Results and longer-term expectations were the focus of Bryan's subsequent trip in February 2015.According to Sheth, information gleaned from interviews on lessons learned with producers andyoung people from the pilot community will be shared throughout Fairtrade. "This information will beinvaluable in continuing to build awareness and knowledge of the impact of ethical trade on the nextgeneration of producers, traders and consumers."

"This process is all about empowering people," Bryan insists. "We are truly partnering with theFairtrade Paraguayan sugar producers, who share 50 percent of the decision making about how toimplement change and remediate child labor. We are learning together."

One way the University has helped to facilitate these changes is by working on Fairtrade's trainingmanual. "We have been working with a keen group of Montclair State students and professors toconvert Fairtrade's training manual on 'Youth Inclusive Community Based Monitoring andRemediation on Child Labour' into reader-friendly formats that will reach hundreds of Fairtradeproducer organizations throughout our global system," Sheth says.

A campus-wide collaboration

The training manual is a key step in the ongoing process of empowering producers like those inParaguay. The project involved students and faculty from across the University community, withstudent volunteers translating the manual from English into Spanish and French.

Ivory Coast native Pierre Agbadou, who expects to earn his master's degree in French in May 2015,incorporated his experience translating the manual from English to French into his thesis. "The 90-page manual is a very humane document that explains the ins and outs of Fairtrade – what its purposeis and who and what it fights for," he says. "It puts its focus on the producers and the children."

scenes from Panama City. Photos by Shawn Escoffery

A worker in Paraguay. Photo by Nicole Bryan

French graduate student, Seraphine Nzue-Agbadou '13, also worked on parts of the Frenchtranslation. "For me, the biggest benefit has been becoming familiar with Fairtrade and what it standsfor: children's and farmers' rights, education and protection – causes worth fighting for," she says.

Rosemary Soto '14, a native of Peru, served as the point person and project manager for the manual'sSpanish translation. "She really brought things together on the project with her knowledge ofjurisprudence and international law," says Bryan.

"My experience with Fairtrade International has been both educational and life changing," says Soto."Oftentimes students think they don't have the necessary experience or knowledge to impact change.But this experience has taught me otherwise."

According to Lois Oppenheim, professor and chair of the Department of Modern Languages andLiteratures, students have learned a lot from the Fairtrade manual project. "It allows them to see howmultinational agreements are set up and to learn about the interplay between the different interestsof labor, the environment and big business. It is a remarkable opportunity for our students."

Bryan notes that for the past three semesters, students in School of Communication and MediaProfessor Philip Bakelaar's capstone Organizational Consulting course also have been engaged in theFairtrade manual project.

"There is truly a University-wide engagement in the Fairtrade initiative," Bryan says.

Bakelaar notes: "We worked on visual communication strategies for supplementing the manual.Students developed a series of visuals to help farmers understand and remember importantinformation relevant to their participation in the Fairtrade program and child labor laws."

"The initiative was very rewarding for the students as they felt a connection to a global issue and sawclearly how their studies could equip them to make significant contributions to positive social change,"Bakelaar says.

Aspects of the Fairtrade initiative have also been integrated into both undergraduate and MBAcourses covering ethics and international business topics taught by Bryan and others in the School ofBusiness.

"It is encouraging to know that there is a company that stands for the rights of children in third worldcountries who are often forgotten, abused and neglected by relatives who are supposed to protectand care for them," Nzue-Agbadou says. "Any company that fights for the rights, protection and well-being of children is worth acknowledging."

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