Using Fair-trade to Advance Sustainable Procurement among Small-Scale Farmers in Ghana: Challenges and Prospects
- September 30, 2020
- Posted by: RSIS Team
- Categories: IJRSI, Management
International Journal of Research and Scientific Innovation (IJRSI) | Volume VII, Issue IX, September 2020 | ISSN 2321–2705
Ograh Tonny, And Joshua Ayarkwa
Department of Construction Management and Technology, Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, Kumasi, Ghana
Abstract: In integrating environmental and social issues in public procurement, labels are essential instruments because of the knowledge they convey on environmental and social credentials of products, work or services in a standardized way. Indeed, labels such as Fairtrade certification schemes are regarded as facilitators of social and environmental public procurement. Therefore, this study used a qualitative approach to illustrate the prospects and barriers hampering efforts in promoting Fairtrade among small-scale farmers in the mainstream Sustainable Public Procurement in Ghana.
Keywords: Sustainability, Sustainable Procurement, Fairtrade, Small-scale farmers, Agricultural sustainability.
INTRODUCTION
The principle of Sustainable Public Procurement has caught a global attention within the recent decades, though sustainable procurement as a whole has been used in disguise by different governments in promoting social and environmental goals even before the coinage of the term sustainable development. According to Caranta (2010), Sustainable Public Procurement (SPP) has become a term of art, combining the disciplines of sustainability, procurement, law and business. The idea of Sustainable Public Procurement could become a practical solution to the sustainable development challenge (Kauffman and Arico, 2014). Sustainable public procurement is the process whereby public entities meet their needs for goods, services, works and utilities in a manner that attains value for money on a whole life cycle basis in terms of generating not only to the benefits organization, but also to the economy and society whilst considerably decreasing negative effects on the environment (UNEP, 2017). This is a process whereby public authorities seek to procure goods, services and works with a reduced environmental impact throughout its life cycle when compared to goods, services and works with the same primary function that would otherwise be procured.
