Solidaridad was granted PSO Award

Solidaridad, the founder of MADE-BY and a leading Dutch and international NGO that has been an innovator and driving force in fair trade and environmental issues, was awarded the 2010 PSO Innovation Award in November in The Hague, Netherlands, MADE-BY reports. PSO is an association of sixty Dutch development organisations that seeks to achieve capacity development in civil society organisations in developing countries. The aim of the PSO award is to recognise the best business practices that foster innovation within their organisation and individual programs. Eight different organisations, all recipients of the PSO Innovation Fund, were selected to compete for this year’s Innovation Award. All candidates were required to present their organisation, work and individual projects to be judged according to innovation, sustainability and impact. (Picture by Bernadette Larcher, MADE-BY: PSO Innovation Award - Solidaridad’s director Mr. Nico Roozen and PSO’s director Ms. Margo Kooijman)
 

Solidaridad was praised for its open culture and innovative approach to problems, especially with regard to the development of a ‘Collective Learning Method’, which is tailored to the actual needs of industry practitioners. This new method was developed by Solidaridad because of challenges it previously faced in the implementation of conventional professional training aimed at Indian textile manufacturers to improve social and ecological conditions within local communities. By replacing traditional training methods, Solidaridad found a better way to enable textile producers in developing countries to ‘learn by sharing’. Local producers proved to respond extremely well to this new approach, which resulted in clear social and environmental improvements in the local factories. According to Janet Mensink, Head of the Cotton & Textiles Programme at Solidaridad, "it is not only an innovative program at project level, but it also affects the organisation as a whole by showing how innovation can be integrated at all levels of the organisation." At present, 50 factories are taking part in this program, and Solidaridad is now starting to implement it in other regions worldwide. In fact, the learning method has turned out to be so successful and effective that multinational companies such as H&M have now advised their suppliers to implement it.

MADE-BY was founded in 2004 by Solidaridad in the Netherlands in response to rising consumer concern in Europe over social and environmental issues in the fashion industry. Since its launch, MADE-BY has had a significant and growing impact on the sustainable fashion industry in Europe, globally operating in partnership with Solidaridad and currently with offices in the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. Solidaridad has more than two decades of experience in creating fair and sustainable supply chains from the producer to the consumer. The organisation believes that fair and sustainable trade reduces poverty and helps to preserve the environment. Solidaridad has been inspired by the vision that sustainable production in agriculture and industry, combined with fair trade, can make a significant contribution to combating poverty and preserving the environment in the context of a globalising economy.
 

www.solidaridad.nl; www.solidaridadnetwork.org