There were three themes that emerged from the discussion:

• The complexity of ethical decision making when the demands of overseas markets conflict with the demands of domestic markets.
• Pro-poor business and how retailers’ attempts to manage supply chain ethics through setting demanding labour and environmental standards can inadvertently drive small-scale producers out of global supply chains.
• The challenges of learning from, and effectively governing, global supply chains.

Of particular interest were the papers given by Michael Blowfield and Bill Vorley. Martin Cooke’s presentation on a new agenda for the ETI was both fascinating and important.

Michael Blowfield’s paper discussed the circumstances under which businesses can play a positive role in development. He suggested that businesses are increasingly seen as agents of development, but the consequences of businesses playing this role were unknown. Bill Vorley reported on the Regoverning Markets project analysing growing concentration in the processing and retail sectors of national and regional agri-food systems and its impacts for rural livelihoods in developing countries. He argued that small-scale agriculture, which supports the livelihoods of the majority of rural poor, is poorly prepared for these changes.

Martin Cooke outlined a new agenda for the ETI and a fresh strategy for 2009-2011. The six new priorities for the ETI will be:

1. Better governance of the workforce (through promoting collective bargaining, as well as promoting better HR policies in the workplace).
2. Working towards a living wage
3. Integrating Purchasing Practices
4. Tackling discrimination in the workplace
5. Focussing improvements on the most vulnerable workers
6. Improving audit practice.

The conference was a great opportunity to step back from the day to day activity of advising businesses on their ethical trade strategies, to investigate the broader trends which influence our work. Impactt looks forward to seeing further outputs from this conference.