FRANCE: Fair trade now boosted by central authorities

Under scrutiny for a long time, the fair trade sector is now considered by the State department in charge of social innovation ? DIIESES ? as a tool for encouraging entrepreneurship among young people especially. The second edition of a national competition, called EKILIBRE, finishing at the end of the month, and offering to fair trade starters some (few) monies, could be seen as a positive signal for the sector. Although there will only two winners, receiving 5 000 euros each, at the end of the day, the head of DIIESES, Frédéric Tiberghien, states nevertherless officially that he wants to give more visibility to the innovative projects coming from the social economy as a whole. The regional Chambers of social economy, set up in the last 5 years on a non profit basis, are involved in the communication process of this operation aimed at making known the fair trade movement to management schools staff and to students. www.associations.gouv.fr