The Young Fair Trade Advocates (YFTAs) represent a diverse group of young individuals aged 18 to 30 within the European Union, united by the common goal of fostering a global, fair, and ecological transition.
We believe young people are key actors to rethink our system and accelerate the paradigm shift towards more sustainable trading and consumption patterns.
The Young Fair Trade Advocates (YFTAs) are a diverse group of young EU individuals aged 18 to 30. Our mission is to advocate for a global, fair, and ecologically sustainable transition. Over the past two years, we have been actively engaging with politicians, fostering dialogues with representatives from the Global South, and drafting policy papers with the goal of reforming the current socio-economic system, which poses risks to the lives of billions of people.
The YFTAs program originated in 2021. During the first year of the program the YFTAs attended the academy and learned everything Fair Trade & Sustainability. You can watch the recordings here. In the following year, we worked on EU trade agreements, meeting and trying to amplify the voices of those impacted by trade agreements, the voices of our partners in third countries who are are not heard loud enough on the EU decision-making table. Through international dialogues, we created a report that we presented to policymakers during high-level meetings. On the third year of the project, we focused on Sustainable Food Systems and the importance of keeping this file on the EU agenda.
