Challenges of COVID-19 for Fair Trade enterprises in attaining Sustainable Development Goals 2030

• DOI: https://doi.org/10.13169/jfairtrade.3.1.0044
• Pages: 44-53
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Date: 01 September 2021
• Author: Jeetendra Dangol,Sunil Chitrakar
• Subject Matter: COVID-19,enterprises,Fair Trade,sustainable development goals

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Challenges of COVID-19 for Fair Trade enterprises in attaining

Sustainable Development Goals 2030

Jeetendra Dangol and Sunil Chitrakar

Jeetendra Dangol (ORCID 0000-0002-5863-8977) is Associate Professor at the Faculty of Management,

Tribhuvan University (TU). He earned his PhD from TU where he has been teaching over two decades

at graduate level and currently supervising PhD and Mhil research projects. He had served as Deputy

Director of School of Management and currently heading Research Department at Public Youth Campus,

TU. More than 30 articles on accounting and finance have been published in refereed journals. Prior to his

academic journey he had worked in administration and finance for Centre for Rural Technology. Lately he

has been engaged in teaching and research in social entrepreneurship.

Sunil Chitrakar (ORCID 0000-0002-4808-793X) is CEO of Mahaguthi Craft With Conscience and Visiting

Faculty, Nepal Open University. He earned his PhD in Market and Entrepreneurship from Tribhuvan

University. He was faculty member at School of Management, TU for five years and has been teaching

over 20 years in affiliated colleges. He has been running a Fair Trade (FT) enterprise and actively engaged

in national and international networks of FT. Currently he holds positions of Vice Chair at Fair Trade

Group Nepal, Regional Representative at World Fair Trade Organization and Vice President at Federation

of Handicraft Association of Nepal.

Abstract

This paper aims to explore challenges of COVID-19 in achieving sustainable development

goal (SDG) 1 ‘no poverty’ by Fair Trade (FT) enterprises. The authors used focus group

discussion (FGD) with seven members of World Fair Trade Organisation (WFTO) – Asia, from

six different countries: Thailand, Bangladesh, Nepal, India, the Philippines, and Indonesia.

Findings suggest that COVID-19 has posed bigger challenges to FT enterprises in achieving

the SDGs since the pandemic has created challenges not only to the economic aspect but

also to the health, education, safety and security of the communities. Due to COVID-19,

the progress in attaining SDGs has slowed down, as global unemployment surged, global

markets collapsed with a catastrophic economic downturn, which could eventually push

more people to the pit of poverty. Stronger collaboration among the stakeholders is needed

to achieve the SDGs.

Keywords: COVID-19; enterprises; Fair Trade; sustainable development goals

Background of the Study

According to the United Nations, poverty is the main global challenge, which had declined to 10 per cent in

2015 from 36 per cent in 1990, However, the World Bank has estimated that the COVID-19 could push 71 million

people into extreme poverty in 2020 (World Bank, 2020). Likewise, UNDP estimates that human development

will decline, that COVID-19 has increased the poverty rate for women and will widen the gap between men and

women who live in poverty (UNDP, 2020). In 2018, workers living in extreme poverty reached 8 per cent, while

in the present context 10 per cent of the world population (700 million people) is living in extreme poverty.

Poverty reduction, creating jobs, protecting vulnerable communities and protecting workers have become