On September 8, 2003, then Development Minister Heidemarie Wiezcorek-Zeul (SPD) held a joint press conference at the World Trade Conference in Cancún with representatives of the four African cotton countries of Benin, Burkina Faso, Mali and Chad. Together they decried the US government’s policy of subsidizing cotton production for large US farmers. This artificially increases the supply of cotton on the world market and reduces the income of small African farmers.
As a result, several European countries founded on the initiative of the Federal Development Ministry (BMZ) the so-called Cotton Club to support the negotiating team of the four African countries at the World Trade Organization (WTO). Although it was not possible to abolish the US cotton subsidies, Washington still had to pay compensation to the countries in Africa and Brazil after years of negotiations.
At the same time, this was the starting signal for development policy initiatives in Germany, in which several ministries were involved for more than twenty years. Their goal was to make first cotton production in Africa, then international textile production and finally the global division of labor at least a little more environmentally and socially compatible. These initiatives show that a well thought-out strategy for an entire sector can achieve much more than small-scale project work, the so-called projectitis. At the provisional end of this strategy is the Supply Chain Due Diligence Act, which came into force in January.
Pilot tests on certified cotton worked
Among the initiatives launched twenty years ago is Cotton made in Africa (CmiA). At the invitation of the BMZ, representatives of the Otto Group, who had the idea of a brand for sustainable cotton from Africa, and representatives of the German Investment and Development Corporation (DEG) as well as the Society for Technical Cooperation (today GIZ) a pilot project in Benin, Burkina Faso and Zambia: Cotton from there could receive the “CmiA” certification if certain minimum ecological and social standards were met. On the other hand, retailers in Europe paid a license fee if they wanted to sell textiles made with CmiA cotton.
The pilot tests showed that the CmiA standards worked well in smallholder cultivation, so that the project started in 2009 with funds from the Gates Foundation gradually expanded to one million cotton farmers in eleven African countries. Today, CmiA represents 40 percent of African cotton production. Traders and cotton producers unanimously report that the image of African cotton on the world markets has been significantly improved. To make this possible, the BMZ and private foundations invested a total of 57 million euros between 2005 and 2016. Today it finances itself Aid by Trade Stiftungwhich owns the CmiA brand, largely itself.
It is difficult to establish sustainability standards
However, it took 15 years for CmiA cotton to establish itself on the mass market. Precisely because it is so difficult to establish sustainability standards, the BMZ, together with the Federal Ministry of Labor (BMAS), took the initiative more than ten years ago to introduce them into public procurement. Milestones were the establishment of a Competence center for sustainable procurement at the Federal Ministry of the Interior (BMI) in 2013 and the one released last year Guidelines from BMZ and the Federal Environment Agency for sustainable textile procurement. By 2030, the federal government should only buy sustainable textiles.
The supply chain law called for by environmental, human rights and development organizations and promoted by the Federal Development Ministry and the Federal Ministry of Labor also belongs to this series of initiatives. Even before it came into force this year, the law has caused the demand from retailers for CmiA cotton and comparable products to have increased enormously. Because with these seals, the retail companies can be sure that the legally required standards are complied with for a relatively small license fee, without costing them an extra charge.
The aim is to improve work safety and environmental protection standards
In response to the collapse of the Rana Plaza textile factory in Bangladesh in 2013, in which more than 1,100 people died, Development Minister Gerd Müller (CSU) founded this in 2014 Textile Alliance, an initiative involving retail companies, development organizations such as GIZ and DEG, and non-governmental organizations. The aim is to work with these stakeholders to implement better labor and environmental protection standards in the value chain for textiles. Because it was initially very tough, pioneers of the initiative, including the companies Tchibo and Aldi, joined forces on the initiative of the BMZ to found the “Green Button” brand in 2019. It guarantees compliance with fairly ambitious standards. The companies involved must commit to striving for living wages in their supply chain or to only buy sustainable cotton.
To support these initiatives, GIZ is promoting the capacities of state authorities in Bangladesh, for example, which are responsible for monitoring occupational safety and building and fire protection. She is helping to introduce accident insurance and, together with partners from Bangladesh, she has trained 180,000 workers in occupational safety. GIZ has also helped to ensure that large areas of toxic industrial sewage sludge are disposed of in an environmentally friendly way in cement production.
Occupational safety has improved in Bangladesh
As a result of these and private-sector efforts, occupational safety and fire protection in the textile industry in Bangladesh have improved significantly – even if the country is still far from paying living wages. After all, 15 larger textile companies have joined the “Green Button” and committed themselves to complying with its standards.
The story that began with the appearance of Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul and representatives of four African cotton producers in front of the press in Cancún is certainly not over 20 years later with the supply chain law. It shows what is feasible when politics, business and civil society start at different points, but ultimately pull together in order to achieve development and environmental policy goals. The next goal is that the production of sustainable cotton brings living wages and the use of chemical pesticides in cotton cultivation is stopped.